Are you ready for the Odfrank overwintering challenge?

[Charlie B]

A little BeeGone in the entrance should take care of that!

[CaBees]

I had 4 hives and still have 4 hives so 0% loss and I do not feed or treat.... I win!

What do I win?

[KQ6AR]

so if a guy with 5000 hives only lost 500 he would be the looser? In my opinion a 10% loss is very good.

Dan, Dan, Dan, using your formula a person with one hive that makes it through the Winter has 0% loss and beats Olly. That's not right!

CaBees: don't know if you won but you beat me, Charley, & OD

[odfrank]

I had 4 hives and still have 4 hives so 0% loss and I do not feed or treat.... I win!What do I win?

"We'll go by number of hives lost beginning October 1, 2012 thru March 1, 2013."

You lost big time. Your hives lived.

[BayHighlandBees]

od,
how od your losses compare to the last couple of years? I know you had some pretty bad numbers a couple of years ago.

[BayHighlandBees]

the one nice benefit to losing all my hives is that I don't have to worry about any of OD's traps near my place. And yet while OD was up in SF, I noticed some of his 'highland girls' conducting home tours of my deadouts!

[pascal]

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well I go feed patties last week-end and it's my worst year for long time, lost all my 8 nucs, 20 doubles on 78 and 5 singles on 18. That's give me a 32% loss. I can't believe I will win the challenge in the opposite way .

varroa has been terrible last year and we have a little drough at the end of the summer. I should have remove the honey boxes by mid August and feed and treat immediatly, but I loose time hoping in a late bloom. Varroa take advantage of the weakness of the hives and give me a good lesson this year.

Chance for me, many of the remaining double have ten frames of bees, I will recover for my lost in the spring.

Pascal Fournier, hemmingford, Qc.

[BeeGhost]

Turns out I lost my weak hive while they were in the almonds. Looks like I am raising wax moths in that hive.........do they make honey?LOL Freezing all the comb as I type.

So I am down to 5 hives, but the good thing is they are doing VERY well!! Looks like I'll need to collect some swarms this year to get up to the hive count I want!

Went to make up a queenless nuc today to raise some queens but the wind was howling, so no go for me.

[odfrank]

od, how od your losses compare to the last couple of years? I know you had some pretty bad numbers a couple of years ago.

As there was no competition in previous years I do not have accurate data. I would guess about the same. Yards near 101 suffered the most, both in San Mateo and East Palo Alto.

[Charlie B]

As there was no competition in previous years I do not have accurate data. I would guess about the same. Yards near 101 suffered the most, both in San Mateo and East Palo Alto.

Where in East Palo Alto?

[BeeGhost]

Where is East Palo Alto?

That's the place where all the Stanford kids get their weed and other pharmaceuticals!

[odfrank]

"That's the place where all the Stanford kids get their weed and other pharmaceuticals! "
One reason I hang out there too. Plus the good honey flow.

"Where is East Palo Alto?"
Charlie, as you move in on my sites as fast as you find out where they are, I will let you figure this one out all by yourself. I would love to watch you fight off the locals on your first visit, though. You "boys" from SF might have a hard time in EPA.

[BeeGhost]

Ollie, what does the honey taste like that comes from 40 oz bottles of Old English and Colt .45?

[Charlie B]

Ollie, what does the honey taste like that comes from 40 oz bottles of Old English and Colt .45?

[Eyeshooter]

Of my 11 hives and 7 nucs, I lost one hive to mites and 3 hives due to beekeeper's error of not strapping or weighing down the outer covers enough during a blizzard. The wind blew our windbreak into the hives shifting three of the tops enough to allow the elements into the hive. Too bad as they were all strong hives at the time. They were the last of the polystyrene hives I had. Never again...All 7 nucs made it. Apiaries are no treat with the exception of feeding 2:1 syrup in the fall to the colonies that need it.
John