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Are you ready for the Odfrank overwintering challenge?

123K views 416 replies 68 participants last post by  BayHighlandBees 
#1 ·
We've had to listen to Jolly Ollie brag all year about all the swarms he's caught so let's see how well he does at keeping them alive all winter.

We'll go by number of hives lost beginning October 1, 2012 thru March 1, 2013. Check in with the number of hives you have as of October 1st. if you want to participate so get done with all your combines and such before then.

Ollie may be old, bald and cheap but he's as honest as they come so we'll go by the honor system like we did the swarm challenge. Last I heard, Ollie had 60 hives. Is that right Ollie?
 
#233 ·
Exact same story here, hit 50 I popped the tops, checked the dry sugar. Nucs each took a couple of lbs in the feeders (lost one of 4). All others seem to be alive (4 doubles and a single) and not needing it yet. I was surprised how hard the top of the sugar piles were. A lot of condensation I guess.
 
#235 ·
If I had to bring the NUC indoors (sorta, room stays about 45-50 degreees) to finish getting through the winter, does that count as a survival? A few days ago on a day when all the hives were flying except this nuc I popped into it and it looked for all the world to be a dead out, but just hoping I blew some warm breath down on them and they started slowly moving a leg or 2. I brought them into a warm bathroom to get them fully warmed up (also put some more sugar in there) and then moved them to the cool room. Today I quickly went in there to see if the queen was still alive and sure enough there she is. So if this NUC lives do I get to count it?
 
#237 ·
RWeakley, I didn't see a rule stated on how your beehive has to stay alive, as long as it is alive come the competition end date!
See the first ten posts. It is not much of a competition if it is no holds barred. The Keiths of the group likely have a big advantage over the treatment frees. There is natural beekeeping and there is factory farming beekeeping. If their success rate isn't a lot higher than mine I feel sorry for them.
 
#242 ·
HIVE DOWN,!!!!, Lost one of the 15, down to 14. This was a hive that started as a cut-out and was going into their second winter. Looking back and going through the hive, lots of possible factors that may have led to their demise. I noticed a lot of darker portions on top of the frames (appears to me to be water/moisture stains). There were at least 12 queen cells (most of them appeared old/safety net cells) on the frames (thirty in all). This hive was not checked regularly enough in the fall, so going into winter I did not have a good knowledge base of their health/status going into winter. Of course some mites in the oil tray but not excessive, and remaining brood not stringy. Long story short, not a dead bee in the hive, but lots of resources for the spring.:sc Bee Beehive Insect Yellow Membrane-winged insect
Bee Insect Beehive Membrane-winged insect Pollinator
Bee Beehive Honeybee Honeycomb Insect
Bee Honeybee Beehive Insect Honeycomb
ratch: How they began,,, Food Cuisine Bee Beehive Dish
Good news is that I made a split from them earlier in the year, so their genetics will live on. (which time will tell if this is a good thing or not) :D
 
#243 ·
Lost another hive within the last month, probably quite recently. It was a city hive next to the one I lost sometime in like November. This time there were a bunch of dead bees on the SBB, and a very small cluster of dead bees in between two frames. I didn't see the queen in the cluster but will investigate more when I bring the hive home. There were bees in the empty comb sticking butt out and the same symtoms as the last dead out, some emerging brood with tongues out and a few cells of capped brood. No eggs and no exposed larva this time. Cell cappings were not perforated or sunk in either. As for food.........a full 10 frame deep packed with honey.....................and ants. Also seen a couple dead SHB. Another thing I noticed is the fresh nectar that was brought in, some clear and a lot with a cloudy white substance. Anyone guess what the white substance is?? And with this hive loss, im down to 6 from 8, 25% loss so far...........Ollie im going to win the "most losses" competition if it keeps going this way!
A squirrel or mouse tried to chew through the top entrance.

Dead bees on SBB

Size of the small cluster of dead bees that were between the two frames.

White substance in cells of nectar?
 
#247 ·
Picked up the dead out today and looked through it. Obvious signs of Varroa death, deformed wings of dead bees on bottom board, white specks in the cells and so on, will pull some capped larva to see if mites are present on them. The white stuff is either fermentation or crystalizing nectar, no smell of chemicals. Searching through all the dead bees on the bottom board and didn't find the queen, she may have died earlier and got carried out, or her corpse dropped out when I lifted the boxes apart. Going to do oxalic acid vapor treatment on my country hives tomorrow, even though they looked like they were doing great!
 
#251 ·
Well i lost two hives to this last cold snap we are having 0- temps with wind but i know they may not make it trought to spring they had weak hums last time i checked and the hum check seems to work. Thats ok going in to this past spring my goals where to have 10 this coming spring and i'm still 2 ahead of my goals. I now have xtra frames with comb and hives to to play with and i sure did learn alot this past year.
 
#252 ·
I put an ear to the colonies today. I have lost one more over this cold snap. It was a three deep set up. To be honest it was not set up the best for winter. The stores were not as heavy in the top box as I would have liked and they never moved up. They starved out in the middle box around a patch of brood. Last winter I think they would have made it as it didn't really get cold long enough to keep them isolated. It was not a case of CCD, or AFB, or PMS, but rather a case of PPB (p*** poor beekeeping). I have 28/30 colonies that I planned to overwinter still alive.
Viewing of the deceased is contained in the first 3 pictures of the attached link. http://s1110.beta.photobucket.com/user/AdrianQuineyWI/library/
 
#253 ·
All hives still alive. Temps were in the 40's today after several days of teens and twenties. Carni's were out flying but the Italians didn't get out much. Checked the stores of the hives and most still had lots of honey. Italians were some what lighter then the rest. They had eaten about half of the 8 pound sugar cake that was placed on top of the frames earlier. Carni's hadn't gotten into the sugar cakes yet. Observations so far, Carnie's are more active in colder temps and Italians eat more stores. I am hoping to be able to determine which sized hives do better over winter, 5 frame nucs, full 8/10 frame supers, mediums, deeps, singles or doubles. It sounds like, so far, small nucs are doing better then larger hives.
 
#254 ·
I placed a stethoscope on the hives today and knocked, all six hives greeted me with the familiar zzzzZZZZZzzzz, I am still in the hunt.

The extremely cold weather over the last few weeks is letting up for this coming week, this should give the bees some flying time, then the temps will drop again by weeks end.
 
#255 ·
I am well on my way to winning this competition. Losses spotted so far at various yards:
40%, 60%, 100%, 0%, 0%, 0%, 30%, 42%

The 0% and 100% are both two hive sites within a mile of each other, both stocked with bait hives caught on site.
 
#256 ·
That's some pretty tough losses Ollie, looks like you may be right on course to winning the hard way. On a serious note though, I hope you are close enough to spring to turn these loses around and start rebuilding.
 
#257 ·
Wow Ollie, those are some tough losses. But, within a few months you will be back up to par with your trap line!!

Bill,
Congrats on having everything surviving so far!! I checked the hives today just to see the mite drop since Friday............holy smokes, amazing!!! I lifted one double deep off the hive pallet and counted 35 dead mites on the solid bottom board, lifted the second double deep off and counted a whopping 72 dead mites!! The third double deep had 27 dead mites!! Looks like the OAV treatment worked after all!! Going to treat again Thursday after work and then finish up with another treatment the following week. Wish I could have treated my two dead outs, I bet the bottom board would have been red!! Think I might transfer my nucs into single deeps Thursday also and treat them as well. The entrances are to small to treat with the OAV right now.

On a side note, LOTS of yellow pollen coming in right now!!
 
#259 ·
I didn't chime in at the start of the fall with what I had for hive counts but since I went out yesterday and looked all give you guys what I've got for numbers. You can either believe me or think I'm B.S'ing ya.

I started the spring with 36 hives which quickly turned to 39 due to a swarm and 2 splits I made. By the end of the summer I was down to 36 hives and ~20 nuc's. Went out and checked all of my hives last weekend and all but one of my nucs had died (I figured the rest weren't going to make it because I didn't really do much to help them make it through, they were made up to late in the year); however, all of my hives (except for 1 that was queenless, morbid curiosity on how they would fare forced me to leave them be) are still alive. So I have 1 nucleus still alive and 35 production still alive as of yesterday out of ~20 nucs, and 36. No idea how you guys are doing your maths but in my mind, that nuc will turn around and become a full size production colony as soon as mid march hits and the weather permits so I went into winter with 36 hives and I'm coming out of winter with 36 hives (hopefully). Last year was my first year raising queens and creating nucs so the nucs I'm chalking up 100% to a learning experience. I learned A LOT about the nuc management and queen breeding so hopefully this year they will fare quite a bit better.

That's all for now =D
 
#261 ·
BG, Thanks for the compliment, and the success of your treatments is great news I can see you going through next winter with no losses, keep up the good work :thumbsup:.

Moon, each nuc is counted as a hive, I am glad that you still have your production hives.
 
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