Winter Loses Updated

[TwT]

just wondering how everyone is doing so for, I just check my 6 hives and they all going strong, bringing in pollin, 1 hive I have was a late removal and only have 6 frames drawn out, 2 of those frames was from the removal, (should have put them in a nuc, but a single deep is working fine) they was a little lite on stores so I took 2 frame of honey from 2 other hives and put in that small hive. but everyone seems to be doing well, so right now im 6 out of 6 still alive, just wonder how everyone else is doing since the last "Winter Lose" post? with this warm weather and a few month's of winter left, we all need to watch the honey stores.

[George Fergusson]

I just checked on mine and found 4 more deadouts. Three of them had really small clusters and I think a cold snap got them- we had weather close to 60 one day, down to 10 the next day. I noticed these 3 didn't have a lot of flying activity compared to the others.

The 4th hive had a good number of bees in it, more than the other 3 hives combined. Again I think a cold snap got them- they were spread out.

In ALL four cases I attribute the overall poor health of the hives to Varroa. There were plenty of mites on the bottom boards. I saw bees with shrunken abdomens, a couple with shriveled wings. I saw NO brood in any of the hives.

This brings my deadout count to 5 of 21 going into winter.

[Dave W]

George Fergusson . . .

How was your 5 deadouts treated last year?
Any mite counts?

[George Fergusson]

They (along with all the other hives) got 3 OA vapor treatments in mid to late August, by which time they were already showing signs of PMS. They all got an OA dribble treatment in early November. I'm not at home so I don't have the drop counts handy, but these were among those with drop counts >90 in 24 hours.

They had all been hurriedly uncapping honey at the end, they finished eating it, and apparently were unable to break cluster long enough to move to fresh stores which were in most cases, only inches away. So they starved, but not for lack of honey in the hive, just lack of honey where they happened to find themselves when the temperature dropped.

[Brent Bean]

;) It was 51 degrees today cloudy but calm, so far all 13 hives I went into winter with are still showing good activity. It has been a mild January, there is no pollen or nectar and don’t expect to see any until March, In late February I will start watching for any hives that might need help with food. Last fall I treated with formic acid in Mite-Away II.

[ZEEBEE]

Hi all,

Two out of my six hives have been robbed out. One is totally dead, the other with a small fist size cluster of bees/queen(should I try putting them in a nuc?). I don't think they'll make it until spring. Oh well.....

My other are four a just fine. The TBH has survived its first winter. Cool..........

[George Fergusson]

For what it's worth, I said last fall I expected to lose 1/2 my hives this winter. An old wise beekeeper told me that to winter bees successfully, you need 3 things: Good food, a good queen, and healthy bees. I think my queens are good, the food is good and there's enough of it, but my bees... they are not healthy. Too many varroa for too long.

I also wonder if I've got tracheal mites- especially with the hive that died that appeared to have enough bees to keep going. I saw some bees with what may have been K-wings. Time to dust off the old microscope and review the thread on TM.

I had 26 hives last summer. By late fall due to combines it was down to 21. It's now down to 16. There are 4-5 more hives that seem a bit weak. Time will tell.

[tony350i]

what size cells are your bees on George

[peggjam]

"Two out of my six hives have been robbed out. One is totally dead, the other with a small fist size cluster of bees/queen(should I try putting them in a nuc?). I don't think they'll make it until spring. Oh well....."

If the weather permits, it would not be a bad idea to try to put them in a nuc. But it needs to be above 50-60 degrees to do it sucessfully. If you can move all the frames they are clustered on at the same time, it can be slightly cooler (I did this only once in 2or 3 tries, it usually ended up badly), or you can move them into your nuc screen the entrance and move them into a warm place for awhile to let them recluster.


Put pollen patties on 16 hives outside, all looked good, and they are cleaning up the dry sugar I put in for them two weeks ago. I don't think I will lose anymore of the ones outside if the weather holds and they continue to get the feed I put on for them. The ones inside are still doing well, although they don't seem to eat very much. I plan on moving them outside for a cleansing flight the next time it warms up.

[Joseph Clemens]

12 hives, 4 nucs, and 1 late season swarm, all bringing in a little pollen every day, and hopefully some nectar too. All seem strong, I plan to do a quick inspection tomorrow to be sure, it's supposed to go up to 69F and then 80F by next week. It hasn't rained in more than 100 days and there is still no rain in the foreseeable future.

[tecumseh]

looking like spring is fast approaching here and a bit of rain helped. the girls are bring in nice quantities of pollen. I have combined a couple of weak hives (queen right) with hives that were either queenless or had queens that were drone layers. my numbers are: of 80 total hive going into the fall I now have 72 hives. If losses do not continue beyond this level then I will have doubled my hive numbers over last years count (which was one of two objectives I made for myself last year).

I have began to add back hive bodies to the hives that are demonstrating exceptional growth and 'that' feels real good....

[GDH]

I lost 1 of 4 (a split that wasn't too strong in Dec) due to one or more skuns (paw prints on landing board). This might be a good reason to have enterences higher on the hive....live an learn.

[Michael Bush]

Skunks were the main reason I went to all top entrances. It solved all my skunk, possum and mice problems.

[wfarler]

After losing 9 out of 10 hives coming through the winter of 04/05 I was pleased Saturday to find all three hives I went into winter with doing nicely. Had to feed in early January due to the warm temps, drought and lack of a fall honey flow but all are doing well and now collecting pollen.

I did an OA vapor and 24 hour counts were 1,11,15. This is the first treatment I have ever used in 4 seasons of beekeeping. These are B Weaver Italian queens, last years failures were as much attributable to excess splitting attempted regression and slow buildup - those were Koenig queens who I had previously had good luck with but they were a bit nasty in '04 so I switched.

With this kind of wintering success I'll finally get to start my hive count back up! April queens on the way, I think I'll call weaver and change my order for SMR queens back to Italians.

It could be that it's not the bees but the beekeeper is finally starting to figure this out.

[MikeGillmore]

>I did an OA vapor and 24 hour counts were 1,11,15. This is the first treatment I have ever used in 4 seasons of beekeeping.<

wfarler,
Keep an eye on the sticky board... you may notice an big increase in the mite count over the next several days. If so, you may want to think about repeating the treatment a couple of times in the next 2 weeks to kill any mites that are emerging with the new workers. Just went through this myself.

[Aspera]

Micheal,

Did you try using the tack boards by the lower entrances, or does this not work for skunks?

[fillmiller]

I believe my 1 hive has weathered the winter so far. I thought they were going to die out since they got such a late start. These are the ones that took over an empty hive I had and forced me to become a beekeeper. I'm happy they chose me. Heh,heh

[Michael Bush]

>Did you try using the tack boards by the lower entrances, or does this not work for skunks?

Nope. The top entrances were easier than tack strips and solved many more problems. Like snow blocking the entrances and tall grass blocking the entrances, and mice besides skunks and 'possums.

[Aspera]

Can the bees still "bring out yer dead" or do you have to do some housekeeping for them?

[Chef Isaac]

So far, 4 dead hives out of 10. I main reason was the late move in OCtober put a lot of stree on the bees. I also do not think they were properly prepared for the winter since they were down in souther Oregon.

[chillardbee]

I came into the winter with 100 colonies and lost 3 already and might loose 2 more yet. I had to move one of my yards and it is hard on them at this time of year but i had no choice, the fella wanted me to move them. I should have 95 really good colonies coming into the spring (lets hear it for young queens)my weakest has about 6 frames of bees in a single and my strongest is a full 2 boxs. I think we're going to have an exceptional year this year.

[DCH]

>Can the bees still "bring out yer dead" or do you have to do some housekeeping for them?<

Of the two colonies at home, one had its entrance reducer mysteriously removed. This one was nicely devoid of dead-uns in the entrance. The second still had its reducer in place - all clogged with dead bees. I removed it and scraped a couple of handfuls of dead bees off the SBB with a stick. Kinda worried me a bit with all the dead bees but a quick cracking of the lid showed quite a few health young girls all the way up into the additonal super I left on this year.

I put the reducers back and closed off the SBB's. I had left them open up to this point...just in case the large number of dead were due to a freeze.

Saw girls bringing back small amounts of pollen to both hives, which surprised me. I'm wondering what they're finding up here in N.E. Ohio this time of year.

So far, so good though...

[ January 31, 2006, 02:44 PM: Message edited by: DCH ]

[Brent Bean]

Chef:

Didn’t you tell us awhile ago that you were moving some of your bees to an area that was very wet?

[Chef Isaac]

Brent:

Yup, all of them now are in an organic farmers field. Most of the area in both towns are flooded but they owner hooked me up with some high ground so as of like last month, they are still above water.

[Deano]

checked my 18 hives all looking good but one. this was 2 late swarms iput together at the last min. starved the way it looks. hsd suger on inter cover quess they could not get to it

[George Fergusson]

Well I just discovered 2 more deadouts, bringing the total to 7 of 21 so far this winter.

Happy Valentines Day smile.gif

[Janice Lane]

Checked one of my hives, the stronger of the two and it is doing well. Mite count is around 3 per day at the moment. It had 4 frames of brood and plenty of honey...doesn't look like they used much of it all. They are bringing in pollen so it's just a matter of time before the population explodes.

Little more worried about the second hive. It was weaker going in to winter and it has a 19 per day mite count...yuck. I plan on opening it up tomorrow and treating it with oxalic acid soon

[Ross]

12 of 12 in good shape. 3+ frames of brood in every hive. Lots of pollen coming in.
http://www.myoldtools.com/Bees/pollen.jpg

[George Fergusson]

All of the ones I've lost suffered heavy mite infestation late summer and fall and had weak populations. I didn't have high hopes for them. There are 3-4 more that I don't expect to make it, but I might be surprised. I'd like to think the worst of winter is over here.......

[Dave D.]

During our exceptionally warm January I checked our 18 hives and found 1 dead. Appeared to have cleaned up the stores in the top corner of the brood box and sat there and starved to death. There was a medium full of honey right over them. There were a few dead mites on the strofoam insert under my screen bottom board. These bees were one of 2 disappointing packages I purchased last year w/Russian hybrid queens. They probably had the best forage availability of any of my bees and made next to nothing. I left just about everything they made on the hives for winter stores and the weight seemed ok, especially with the mild winter we have had. Some of the hives seemed light and I have been doing some feeding.

[George Fergusson]

A local beekeeper whose advice I value told me that there's 3 things required to successfully winter bees in Maine: A good queen, good food, and healthy bees. My deadouts had 2 of the 3 requirements, just not very healthy bees.

I assume this advice applies to other places than just Maine.

[busybguy]

My seven "home hives" as of last saturday were still alive. We are still in winter conditions for at least another six to eight weeks here in New Brunswick, Canada. March is the critical month here as the Queen has started her brood but we still can't unwrap in order to feed(if needed)because of chilling the brood.

[kamerrill]

>A good queen, good food, and healthy bees<
I agree with that for sure.

All 34 hives are alive and strong so far. They were all out flying today as it was about 50. As usual, my observation hive is looking a little 'thin' but it should make it ok.

The carni hive that I have on a scale is incredibly frugal with food. It's only lost 7 pounds since mid-November - 134lbs-127lbs.

[Kris^]

6 for 6 still going. But one (a fall split) seems weak. I'll find out for sure how they're doing Friday when I go in. It's supposed to be in the mid-60s then.

[JohnBeeMan]

I just gone home from a month on the road. I found two out of six dead. Others appear to be doing fine with plenty of stores left in all but 1 that is getting a little lite.

The two deadouts had stores but the dead clusters was in an area of little or no food.

[bleakley]

We had an extremely mild winter here. All colonies ssurvived and are robust at the beginning of buildup. Most of the colonies used none or very little of the stores in the upper deep.

[Gregg]

Sent 442 live hives to CA last Fall. Most good, but some weak ones of course. Wound up with 400 after pulling off duds/combining/equalizing in January.

[kc in wv]

I checked 6 of my 7 yesterday and found one queenless. The bee's are dying off fast acording to the numbers on the snow out front. I am trying to locate an early queen somewhere just to get them thru till April. Does anyone have any ideas on where I can get a queen this time of the year?

[Rod Weakley]

Kona Queens. The website is www.konaqueen.com. (http://www.konaqueen.com.) they are in Hawaii.

[ February 16, 2006, 12:15 PM: Message edited by: rwjedi ]