6 out of 7 died this winter !!! HELP

[bee_keeper]

This year we had the most terrible winter. It started in the beginning of November and it is still like 20F. We had a day around 50F and we opened the hive up and 6 out of 7 died. There was one left. It did not look that good but I left a good amount of honey for them. There were about 2 hives that had mice nests but no mice. Did they run out of food? They was never a warm day during winter that was warm enough to open them up. Always below freezing. They really stunk. We took them apart and we are going to clean them all up. What is a good way to clean up hives? How can we breed queens with 1 hive?

[honeyshack]

several questions
1. the dead bees, were they in the cells with the butt sticking out?
2. the frames, any with honey left
3. what was the smell like ie moldy, fruity/fishy, rotting dead smell, fermented honey smell
4. what was your fall varroa mite counts at?
6. what did you do to the hives to get them ready for winter, feed, treatments testing for nosema etc?
7. double or single hive bodies and how much feed did they have going into winter?
8 wintered inside or outside were they wrapped?
These questions will help to identify the problem

[ScadsOBees]

If it began in November, then your hives had issues not related to starving (unless you only left 10 or 20 lbs of honey). Did you discover them all dead in November, or is that just when it started, and you found the rest of them recently?

Can you describe the smell? Mouse pee? Fermenting honey? rotting meat? Mold?

Mice are bad, they will stress out a hive and it will die. You need to get mice guards on before the nights start freezing, early to mid october.

With one hive you can raise some queens (at the expense of honey) but most likely you'll just do a split (or two, three depending on how healthy that hive is and how agressive you are and how much you are willing to feed them). I'd guess that with 6 of 7 dead, number 7 probably isn't a real winner either.

If you want to get back to 6 or 7 hives, you are going to need to either buy some bees or take a couple of years to build back up.

Rick

[ScadsOBees]

Clean up?

If they smell like rotting meat...then a gallon of gas and a match will do nicely. (after an american foul brood test, of course!)

Other than that...clean out as many of the bees as possible, store them in an area with ventilation and if possible light, and put new bees on them. The bees can chew out the garbage and clean up the mold.

If you need to store them longer them longer than, say, May, then you'll need to keep them somewhere that the wax moths can't get them (freezer, some of that "evil' PDB, etc)

Rick

[bee_keeper]

1. Most of all the bees were dead outside the frames. A couple in
2. Yes. A little was left in them
3. dead smell
4. I dont know that
for winter they had the brood, and 1 super. Insulation on the top. Black wrapping around the hive and over (not covering entrance) They had some honey in the brood, and the super was about 1/2 full. Some beekeer we know put in these mite strips for winter. the bottoms boards were plain bottom boards not the screened, because of the bad winters we get

[honeyshack]

ok, outside the hive, or inside the hive, was there poop... Disentry?

Judgeing from what you said, not enough feed and maybe mite overload. if you had to guess the average weight of your hives what would it be per hive in November?

[beedeetee]

Some beekeer we know put in these mite strips for winter.

Are they still in???

[alpha6]

Just so I understand this. Your hives went into winter with some honey in a single deep and a half full super? Additionally, did you have a top entrance? If you had insulation on top and wrapped the hive you are creating a environment where there is going to be a good amount of moisture build up inside the hive.

I suspect your bees either starved to death or got wet and cold which killed them.

I send my bees into winter with two deeps full of honey about 150 lbs worth and throw patties on whenever the weather is warm enough to open the hive. Also if you are going to wrap your hives you really need a way to ventilate out the top.

Hope that helps.

[danno]

your disciption of this winter here in Michigan was right on. I left all my colonies with to much honey and was glad i did. All but one still has 20+ #'s left. The one that ate everything is masive and I have been feeding it fondant and patties for the best part of a month and they are doing great

[spencer]

I had the same problem you did last year. I had 5 hives going into winter and came out with 1 still alive. I used that one to make 5 splits over the year and it also ended up swarming (which I was able to catch). So for the year I ended up with 7 hives and 250 lbs of honey (although alot of it was leftover from the dead hives).
I checked my hives on Friday and 6 out of the 7 were alive, but very low on stores.

[bee_keeper]

Are they still in???

The hive that had them in were the ones he put in the year before. The one the is alive don't have any.

[winevines]

See Autopsy of a Hive by Ross Conrad in last month BeeSource

[Ian]

Cold doesnt kill bees. They can take alot. That is if they went into winter without any stresses.
My guess is v mites. and secondary stresses of nosema perhaps, but simple dysentry can result from a stressed hive,

[ScadsOBees]

Don't forget that the mice likely killed 2 hives. While the mice don't physically kill the bees, the stresses of the mice being active in the hive is enough that the cluster will stay too agitated and active and also try to move, and that will kill them.

Some honey in the brood box and half a super of honey isn't enough for them to survive, either. If that was the case, that is only between 30 and 50 lbs, depending on how well you are estimating.

Rick

[Kieck]

Were these hives new last year? How were they started?

Did you find many dead bees in the dead-outs? How about mites? Any sign of mites on the bottom boards?

Biggest concerns, in my opinion, are diseases that could be spread to other bees by reusing the equipment. Rule out the diseases, and then brush out dead bees as best as you can and put new bees into the hives. But rule out diseases first.

Raising queens for your other hives from that one that is left likely won't be much of a problem. The virgin queens can and will fly quite a ways to mate with other drones. Chances are, they would have mated with drones from other yards even if all seven hives had survived.

[Axtmann]

Spencer if they low on stores you must feed, feed, feed or they won’t’ survive. The critical time, March – April is coming and bees need approx 2kg food the week for there one and the brood.

Make a test with your fingers.

1) Lifting the hive with 2 fingers feed immediately don’t wait any day longer
2) Lifting with 4 fingers keep an eye on and feed with in a week
3) If you need the whole hand or two, to lift the hive, they are OK.

When I feed, I give them syrup 1:1. I let it boil for a moment, this prevent from building up mould in syrup for a long time. Don’t feed in a plastic feeder beside the frames. In the beginning it’s warm and bees like it, but as soon as the big amount of liquid is cold it’s a problem for the brood. It’s like you are in bed with an ice block beside you.

I always feed from the top and cover the bucket with an old towel.

[spencer]

Yeah, I went out the the yards a couple of days ago and sprinkled some sugar around the hole of the inner covers. It's still too cold up here to start feeding sugar water.