small hive beetle problem in phila pa

[ehotham]

Will the small hive beetles I have in my hives die off in winter or will they survive? Will packages from the south keep bringing the beetle back in spring?

Also between the bad summer , varroa mites, and small hives beetles, what losses should I expect from my 4 hives?
(Someone said 50%)

Thanks

[honeyman46408]

They will survive with the bees. :(

I have had SHBs comeing out of the back of my truck when I get home from picking up packages :(

% of survival of hives over the winter is a guessing game :(

[brac]

[QUOTE=ehotham;477891], what losses should I expect from my 4 hives?
QUOTE]

While your at it what are next weeks powerball numbers?

[sqkcrk]

I doubt that you will have winterloss due to SHB. Varroa mites? Yes. But not SHB. SHB does not kill a colony. They take advantage of a weakened colony. A colony that is weakened by disease and due to other pests. One way to look at SHB is that it is a disease(or pest) of the equipment, not a disease(or pest) of the bees, like varroa is. SHB is similar, in a way, to wax moth.

[StevenG]

IF your bees are some of the various kinds of survivor stock,
IF your bees have more than adequate pollen and honey reserves,
IF you have reduced the entrance and done other weather and season appropriate management practices,
IF you had a good queen entering the fall to produce the bees needed to overwinter,

THEN you should not lose any colonies.
And if you do lose colonies over the winter, it is very important to do a thorough post-mortem on the hive when the loss is discovered, so you can learn from the event.
(I may have missed another IF or two... :scratch:)

Personally, and maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I don't plan to lose colonies over the winter. Last year i lost 30% (1 of 3), the two that survived were "survivor stock" and the one that died was plain Italian. I saw, but ignored, symptoms last fall. Should have seen it coming. Now I'm going into this winter with 14 hives, three different stocks, and fully expect to have all 14 next spring. Time will tell.
Regards,
Steven