2011/2012 winter deadout email survey.

[bluegrass]

As many of you know from my previous poll I am putting together a graph for deadouts and the sources they came from. Because of the limitations of the polling feature of the forum I have decided to convert it to an email survey. The directions are at the top of the survey. The results will be posted on blogger in May.
If you wish to participate please copy and paste the survey into an email and send your results back to me. Save your copy so you can make changes as needed.
Thanks: Brad

2011/2012 winter Deadout Poll.
Instructions: Please answer questions as accurately as possible. Only mark Addendum if you previously submitted the poll and need to make changes. Only mark the changes that need to be made, leave all other areas blank.
Use the Nuc categories for all purchased Nucs and the Splits category for all Nucs you produced yourself by splitting your own hives. Leave any areas that are not applicable to you blank or mark N/A. Please mark the month that you STARTED each Colony, if started in multiple months please list in the comments section at the bottom. Email to cantcutter@gmail.com
Addendum ____
1. Total number of hives going into this winter? ____
2. Number over wintered last season? _____ Deadouts last season? ____

3. Number started in 2011? ____

4. Started from packages? ____. Deadout this season? ____ Month? ____

5. Locally Purchased NUC? ____. Deadout this season? ____ Month? ___

6. Supplier Purchased NUC? ____. Deadout this season? ____ Month? ____

7. Captured swarm? ____. Deadout this season? ____ Month? _____

8. Personal Split? ____ Deadout this season? _____. Month? ______

9. Number of years’ Experience in Beekeeping? ____
Comments:

[sqkcrk]

Interesting idea. Have you thought about asking people to keep track of colonies from date of purchase forward rather than from the present? It could generate the same or similar information. I don't know.

[bluegrass]

Interesting idea. Have you thought about asking people to keep track of colonies from date of purchase forward rather than from the present? It could generate the same or similar information. I don't know.

I am surveying the date they started them, but only on first year hives. I don't want to clog it up with too much information... My hope is that we can see % of losses per category at a glance without having to read too much extra information...

[sqkcrk]

okay, just a thought.

[bluegrass]

What would your suggestion be for revision? If I polled from the start of each colony it would be dependent on everybody knowing if their colonies superseded their queens, I am not sure everybody follows their hives close enough to know if it is still the original queen.

[BMAC]

maybe some other info as well like mite treatment if any. Did they check for mites or disease? If they follow their colonies demise close enough to understand the issues that might have caused it to go down hill.

It might be a very interesting read afterwards.

[bluegrass]

Everybody please feel free to add any of the info that Sqk and BMAC have added to the comments at the bottom when you send in the survey. If I get enough data I will include it in the results. If you know cause of death or suspected cause of death I would like that info as well... And if you have bee lab results I definitely want them as well

[sqkcrk]

I don't know BG, but it seemed as though you were asking for info concerning when one got their colony and in what form and from who, so, I just thought one could do that from the beginning of the colony, when one got it, and then to follow it through to the next season. But, I think you have given this much thought and developed a satisfactory survey which will get you the info you are looking for. It will be interesting to see what you have to report at some date in the future. I hope you get a good sample set.

[BMAC]

Better yet I hope BG posts the sample set for all to learn.

[bluegrass]

I want to correspond losses with years of experience... But is it worth doing? I think that with years of experience often come increase numbers of hives and therefore increased numbers of losses. Maybe I should do it as a % of hives vs years of experience.

So the next question is should I go year for year for 50 years or break it up into 2-5 year segments?

[Adrian Quiney WI]

Bluegrass, for the purposed of your data I am wondering when you consider winter to be over? Do you define it as Dandelion bloom, by a calendar date, or what? Thanks.

[kycountry]

If your interested, I can make an online survey and can output the data in any form or fashon you want.. I will build it and host it just to be able to help collect the data. If we do it that way, anyone can see the data the way they want it broken down too..

[bluegrass]

Bluegrass, for the purposed of your data I am wondering when you consider winter to be over? Do you define it as Dandelion bloom, by a calendar date, or what? Thanks.

It is dependent on the beekeeper I think. I know right now that my hives will make it though, but I have inspected them and know what they are capable of and what they are not.


I put the addendum in so that people can submit their info anytime and revise it if they experience changes. I will send out an email in april to remind everybody to make corrections if any.

[bluegrass]

If your interested, I can make an online survey and can output the data in any form or fashon you want.. I will build it and host it just to be able to help collect the data. If we do it that way, anyone can see the data the way they want it broken down too..

I tried survey monkey, but could not get it to do what I wanted without paying.. Can you set it up so we can see how it will look?

[kycountry]

I tried survey monkey, but could not get it to do what I wanted without paying.. Can you set it up so we can see how it will look?

I can change it to look anyway you want.. I'll hand code it and can change anything about it. Send me a pm on how you want it set up and I can get you something to look at tonight... or if you want, I can send my phone # to you and we can talk about it over the phone.

[bluegrass]

I want to bump this thread. I currently have 64 participating hives... I want a lot more. Please see first post.

[grozzie2]

I just sent our results.

Another tidbit that would be interesting, is location, ie, what kind of winter are the bees exposed to ? From our perspective, local winters are mild, just 6 months of rain with a couple weeks of snow. Folks on the prairies have a real winter to deal with, and folks down in california / florida, dont get any winter at all.

[bluegrass]

Nice write up Grozzie. Very detailed. Thanks for your reply.

[bluegrass]

I wanted to get this started again.

For 2012 I had 14 people send me information for a total of 111 first year hives. Of the 111 hives 82 of those made it through their first winter which is a 73% survival rate. That is for all hives combined.

Here are the % per type
Nucs 21 total and 71% survived.
Packages 25 total and 60% survived.
Splits 50 total and 80% survived.
Swarms 15 total with 80% survival.

Thanks to everybody who participated. I hope to keep this as an ongoing thing and hope to compile several years worth of data.

If you want to participate please see the Post #1. Thanks again: Brad

[bluegrass]

Spring is here, lets get this going again.