Beesource Beekeeping Forums banner

Treatment-Free, Winter 2012-2013, How's it going?

49K views 164 replies 54 participants last post by  Oldtimer 
#1 ·
For you treatment-free beekeepers out there, how is your winter progressing? Is the weather better or worse than usual? Lost hives? Feeding? Mishaps?

Winter here is going swimmingly. I wouldn't say it is as mild as last winter, but pretty close thus far. A couple more dips into the teens, but not the usual drops down in the single digits for the last two winters. No ice storms. No snow of note. But also no dandelions blooming all winter like we had last year either.

On the mishaps front, while I was gone over Christmas, our trampoline blew across the yard and knocked over two of my hives. They are back together, both seem to have eaten much of their stores while they were strewn about the yard.

No deadouts thus far.

Preparing for spring, trimmed three of my deep queen castle's down to mediums. I need to expand my collection of mediums significantly. I have no loose boxes but plenty of frames. Looks like it is time to build some more.

Already having people contact me about purchasing nucs. I'm glad they are getting an earlier start on it this year. Looking forward to refining my technique on raising queens and nucs. One thing to avoid this year, last year, I collected brood from outyard hives and brought it back to my main yard. It seems like most of the bees flying around ended up in one nuc. Need to figure out how to avoid that. Perhaps rotating nucs for a few days to spread the bees around. Perhaps not delivering all those frames of brood to the same batch of mating nucs.

Tell me how you all are faring.
 
See less See more
#103 ·
Winter here in North Carolina's piedmont has been steady. In January to early February we were extremely warm for many consecutive days. I figured the bees would be more active and run out of stores more quickly so I fed candy, which they gobbled up. I had 6 treatment-free colonies, 3 of then nucs, going in. All are well except for one former nuc that had grown to be my heaviest hive for a deep and a half going in. I watched it dwindle and did nothing, hoping for the best. Last time I went in there were a handful of dead bees at the top, and tons of food available. No eggs or brood to be seen. I realized I most likely killed the queen on my last fall inspection, probably rolling her between frames or squishing her underneath. No queen body was found, and only a very few bees on the bottom board. Do you think I'm correct in my diagnosis of a mishap? I now realize the importance of acting when you must, for a box of bees is a box of bees, not a box of hope nor a box of failure.

Then the weather turned steadily cold, actually being the winter it's supposed to be here (which was a surprise to many who'd gotten used to the warmer springs of recent years). I emergency fed one colony that had gotten weak, after discovering my previous mishap. I contacted a master beekeeper on thin vs. heavy syrup, and he said it was a gamble either way. I went with thin, thinking it'd stimulate brood. It worked! It's been gaining strength and almost is up to snuff now. I'm impressed with it's stubborness to hang on. It's one of my Russian hives, so I'll split that to keep those good genetics this spring, if it's strong enough. My feral hive which went into winter with 3 frames of bees, on double-stacked 5-frame nucs, is amazing and one of my most active hives. I'm a believer now in the smaller, taller boxes.

I hoped for 75% survival rate out of my 6, and have gotten an 83% survival rate (so far, unless I do something bone-headed). I've also gotten an order for 1 nuc and inquiries on 3 more, which will be my first nucs ever sold. All in all a fabulous winter!
 
#108 ·
Well I'm kinda opposite to you guys, it's fall here, going into winter.

Just checked all the treatment free hives today, not looking good some of them have a lot of mites, and even dead brood. So I'm thinking it's likely I'll lose some or all of them this winter. But I won't know till I try so will have to leave them to their fate & see what happens. The TF nucs are a mixed bag, there is at least one with a major mite problem but some of them are as good as gold.

So I'll leave them too it, hopefully enough will survive that I can re-stock the dead ones. We'll see.
 
#109 ·
>Just checked all the treatment free hives today, not looking good some of them have a lot of mites,

But your small cell hives are mite free, right?
 
#116 ·
I started beekeeping a bit late last year with 2 packages, all into 8 frame mediums on PF-125 frames. A record drought made it rough going so I fed heavily from mason jars through the top. At the end of the year one hive had only filled out 1 medium and 6 frames of a second, while the other hive had filled out 2 mediums and over half another. In early Jan we had an unusually warm streak so I made 20# candy boards and put them on both hives. Last Friday i checked them and found first hive exploding with bees so i added another medium. My girls are very dark mutts so I'm scared of heavy Russian swarm traits. The second hive still had a lot of uncapped/undrawn frames and not as explosive of a population so I left it alone for now. Since both hives are still going I guess I didn't screw anything major up. 2/2 so far....
 
#117 ·
I must amend my report to include one loss this season as winter is not over for a few days.

Over the last two days I inspected my home yard and my south yard and I found one dead out in the south yard. If I had to wager a guess, I'd guess that they starved out this spring which is only their fault because I did not harvest from them last year. They were not good performers and they produced excessive propolis, so I won't miss them. An inspection of the bottom board yielded the largest number of beetles that I have ever seen in my hives, half a dozen living and two dozen dead. No larvae or signs of beetle damage.

This brings my loss total to 4.3 % this winter, continuing on my years long downward trend.

As for the rest of them, they all have capped brood, and most are doing quite well. Some have been set back by not having enough stores, most of which were due to being yearling hives. I am making mental notes as to which will become queen mothers and cell builders.
 
#121 ·
I lost 1 of 17.
I'm starting 4th year of beekeeping, aniversary of first hive on 3/25. My first three hives were treated for mites and I didn't treat with miticides. I treated antibiotics once early on, so most of my hives are treatment free.
 
#123 ·
My worst fears are realized: I am down to one full colony and one nuc - down from a high of about 30 in 2012. Went into winter with 24 or so. Again, my fault. My work schedule didn't let me work them and get them up to weight where they needed to be. Mites didn't help. A close inspection of one deadout found mites on many of them. some had multiple mites. The mites had dug up underneath the plates of the abdomen of the bees. Well, I have two to work with for now until (hopefully) some swarm calls come in. -js
 
#145 ·
UPDATE: I did the survey yesterday and checked my log book. I actually had only 18 living colonies on 1 OCT 2012. so, the other 12 perished prior to that date. Still, down to one full colony and one very small nuc. Weather had turned very cold here over last couple of days and it actually snowed/slushed yesterday and many things were in bloom. Not looking good for this year. -js
 
#126 ·
Sorry to hear about that Dixiebooks, devastating, and probably a pretty emotional thing.

I would like to ask a question though, if I may. In your post, it sounds like you found mites in the abdominal plates of dead bees, is that what you were saying?

Just curious, I thought a mite if living, would abandon a dead bee. That was just an assumption though, keen to learn.
 
#129 ·
Is it possible to confirm with 100% certainty? In my case, I think starvation was the primary factor. Mites were secondary. If a good portion of the bees are head-first in the cells and there is no honey or syrup present, I conclude starvation, regardless of the presence of mites. But am I absolutely certain of this? No. Perhaps as I gain more experience, I will be. -js
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top