Recouping last winters losses

[Tremyfro]

Last winter I lost some colonies. I must say that I was very disappointed as the previous winter the colonies had come through ok.
So now begins the preparation for the forthcoming winter and this time, hopefully, better prepared.
I lost one colony, which had been really strong going into winter. Plus 2 new colonies grown from nucs.
Early spring ....one colony was very weak and proved to be nosemic.We treated this by spraying with Hivemakers recipe in a thin syrup and they made a wonderful recovery.
Although, I had fed all my colonies with syrup laced with Hivemakers recipe the previous Autumn...I now wonder why it didn't protect my colonies.
I made been able to make good my losses and will go into this winter with 4 large colonies, a new colony and 2 small nucs.
How have you all got on this summer? Getting over winter losses and preparing for the coming winter?

 

[madasafish]

Last winter I lost some colonies. I must say that I was very disappointed as the previous winter the colonies had come through ok.
So now begins the preparation for the forthcoming winter and this time, hopefully, better prepared.
I lost one colony, which had been really strong going into winter. Plus 2 new colonies grown from nucs.
Early spring ....one colony was very weak and proved to be nosemic.We treated this by spraying with Hivemakers recipe in a thin syrup and they made a wonderful recovery.
Although, I had fed all my colonies with syrup laced with Hivemakers recipe the previous Autumn...I now wonder why it didn't protect my colonies.
I made been able to make good my losses and will go into this winter with 4 large colonies, a new colony and 2 small nucs.
How have you all got on this summer? Getting over winter losses and preparing for the coming winter?

Doubled number of hives/nucs this year to 12 - all internal swarms /splits. No collected swarms.
Feeding all like mad using 6kgs sugar a day thymolised per HM.
All with cosies and minimum 100mm top insulation and supers underneath brood boxes.
Requeened weak hives..one transferred to a nuc so may lose that.

 

[Tremyfro]

Are all your hive TBH? Or do you have a mixture?
I had decided last year that 6 hives was about right for me...went into the winter with 8 ..but some of them nucs....I think.
This year I have some swarm control splits but they have taken a long time to grow...mainly poor foraging opportunities I think. The last few weeks has helped a lot. I'm feeding the 2 nucs and the new colony ATM. After the vaping is finished...then I will give the main winter feeds to whichever need it.
It is difficult to judge a Beehaus without going into it but a quick look at stores before feeding should suffice. At the last inspection ...some weeks ago now....there was a lot of stores in all the Beehaus.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Out of five I lost 2 1/2 last winter. I say 1/2 because there were enough bees in the three nearly dead hives to unite with the best queen out of them for her to start laying and the bees to make supersedure cells. I then re-queened with a queen from Ricky Wilson and they are now a stonking great colony. The two that survived are equally so. I made 2 nucs for LASI queens one of which has just been united with an overwintered nuc I had as a gift in April and the other had a swarm added to them after the queen had laid up some frames. So these are fairly Ok. It remains to be seen how they do next year........ Ho hum!
I had another nuc from a famous member here and they are going into winter nicely. So that's three strong colonies. Two not as strong but good, headed by LASI queens and my good hive of Carmarthenshire bees.

 

[Tremyfro]

At least your LASI colonies are still with you...mine scarpered and are probably terrorising the wild bee population hereabouts. My bees are glad they took their pernickety habits with them.
It sounds like you had a good summer for making bees.
The biggest worry now is getting them through the next winter...

 

[Erichalfbee]

Good year for beeS Fingers crossed for both of us. Varroa is low this year. Vaping finished but I might give them a dose mid December.
I see our friend in Solihull is splitting off queens that are being superseded to make her numbers up

 

[madasafish]

Are all your hive TBH? Or do you have a mixture?
.

8 x Jumbo Langs
1 x TBH
3x Jumbo lang 5 frame nucs (spares/spring sale/winter losses)

Edit I suspect 8 Langs may be too many (for my back)