There is an hypothesis floating around that dieoffs this winter were greater when colonies had cropland (corn, soybeans) within their foraging area, and especially so when they were situated next to cropland. The hypothesis has been repeated several times and as many of us know, the more something is repeated the more likely it is that it will come to be known as true. The hypothesis may turn out to be correct or it might not, but without data to back it up, it is just a speculative opinion.
The next step would be to design an experiment to test the hypothesis, and it occurs to me that the experiment might have already been done. Would anyone be interested in providing answers to the following questions:
1) What was your dieoff percentage of colonies that you consider to have been well-managed and prepped for winter
2) As an estimate, what percentage of your forage area (let's say within 1 mile) is corn/beans? Google Earth or Maps could be of help in answering this question.
3) What is the estimated distance from the colonies to the nearest plot of corn/beans?
I know that in the absence of a formal experimental setup there are going the be several variables in play. That's OK for now. If, in the absence of controls, there would seem to be a correlation, the hypothesis would be modified and tested more formally and with a greater degree of precision.
Note: this is about corn and beans not lawns, cotton, wheat, canola or other. The hypothesis also doesn't have anything to do with differences in climate over the range covered by forum members over the winter, or different management styles. Just corn, beans, and proximity to those.
The next step would be to design an experiment to test the hypothesis, and it occurs to me that the experiment might have already been done. Would anyone be interested in providing answers to the following questions:
1) What was your dieoff percentage of colonies that you consider to have been well-managed and prepped for winter
2) As an estimate, what percentage of your forage area (let's say within 1 mile) is corn/beans? Google Earth or Maps could be of help in answering this question.
3) What is the estimated distance from the colonies to the nearest plot of corn/beans?
I know that in the absence of a formal experimental setup there are going the be several variables in play. That's OK for now. If, in the absence of controls, there would seem to be a correlation, the hypothesis would be modified and tested more formally and with a greater degree of precision.
Note: this is about corn and beans not lawns, cotton, wheat, canola or other. The hypothesis also doesn't have anything to do with differences in climate over the range covered by forum members over the winter, or different management styles. Just corn, beans, and proximity to those.