Winter losses 2012/13

[Polyanwood]

There may be limited value added by OMFs in Winter when the bees are making little or no brood then. Where colonies are smaller or there is snow on the ground or there it is an exposed site in Winter I tend to not leave floor open. Tricky balancing act though. Mould is definitely not great.

 

[user 6228]

In both cases poly hives far far lower incidence of the symptoms. Attributing this to the boxes being warmer in winter is, I feel, erroneous...

.

Agreed, A poly hive is not just for Christmas...
The reduction in environmental overheads (heating and cooling) to cope with losses and unwanted heat gain for the entire year must be enormous (think of the energy required to remove the water from nectar). The energy overheads convert into sugar and thus into the Bee lives expended fetching it.
It appears only the above average (i.e larger,more sheltered, more healthy etc...) colonies can survive the combination of a years poor conditions and higher environmental overheads.

 

[drn1ck]

I've lost one smaller hive thought id lost both but the stronger survived....im letting them scavenge the old frames which they are now getting stuck into.... first sign of life from the hive was april 14

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Bees in the Belfrey.

Well, I'm now ready to declare my status!

Previously it's seemed too early to be sure.


The hive in my own garden has survived and is really strong!


The hive on the roof of Manchester Cathedral was a late nuc which was still smallish at the end of the summer, and didn't set aside as many stores as I'd have liked.

Not been able to look at them for a fortnight until today, when I found............





........... there were loads of them flying and a very strong showing through the hole in the feeder board!

Still too cold to open up, though. I'm hoping Monday might be warmer.

I'm very relieved! In February I didn't give them much of a chance.

Clearly a case of the sun shining on the righteous.
(Or the devil looking after his own.)


Dusty.

 

[alanf]

Its not actually the winter that has been responsible, at least not on its own. Its far more the disastrous summer...

Problem in autumn was hive condition. Not enough young bees...They went into winter smallish but in the case of getting a spring like the year before a good many would have survived. Instead we get a winter that goes on and on and on...

MOST of the dead have just dwindled away to nothing...

That seems to be the case here too, at least anecdotally.

A couple of mine mated late and just never got going with strong brood laying. They dwindled despite having plenty of stored honey and pollen left right until the end and being divided down into part boxes. Poor mating? Or just not good enough weather late last summer to raise enough bees to see them through? No obvious sign of disease, that's what you are wary of and made me reluctant to unite beyond what I did. If I had united, maybe a couple of colonies might be stronger now. On the other hand those that dwindled had no sign of a queen at the end so it's entirely possible that if I bet on dud queens I might be even worse off.

Not all gloom, I do have some colonies showing some signs of enthusiasm about the spring now. The blackthorn is out and fruit blossom looks set to follow so given a few weeks of decent weather there's hope of recovery if not a bumper harvest.

 

[Luminos]

Well, I'm now ready to declare my status!

Previously it's seemed too early to be sure.


The hive in my own garden has survived and is really strong!


The hive on the roof of Manchester Cathedral was a late nuc which was still smallish at the end of the summer, and didn't set aside as many stores as I'd have liked.

Not been able to look at them for a fortnight until today, when I found............





........... there were loads of them flying and a very strong showing through the hole in the feeder board!

Still too cold to open up, though. I'm hoping Monday might be warmer.

I'm very relieved! In February I didn't give them much of a chance.

Clearly a case of the sun shining on the righteous.
(Or the devil looking after his own.)


Dusty.

Is the devil a beekeeper, then?
I think some of his bees may have found their way into my Hive 2...

 

[Tom Bick]

I have voted one loss although it has not happened yet, it is weak and I suspect queen failure as it throughout a late swarm last year and the new queen took an age to get going but when she got going was a laying well so??

It is also showing signs of Nosema and the only hive that received no Thymol syrup so?? And one of the few hives that I experimented for the first and hope the last time with Oxalic so??

All my other hives are doing just great and bears well for a good season at this stage (fingers crossed)

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have to add another which will bring my losses up to 50%
One poly is down to two seams of bees and capped brood over maybe quarter of a frame.
Didn't look for BIAS or queen just popped them into a poly nuc box in vain hope.
Masses of pollen going in so at least they are trying.

 

[justme]

I lost out of 11. Went early on, queen failure. Was going to requeen but supersedure queen started laying worker brood beginning of September. Must've then gone wrong?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Well I opened up last Monday so I could say all hives have survived winter, But the jury is still out on two - Although I didn't look for the queen, she was seen in four although one of the colones small and with no brood (may be an autumn superseded queen) The hive where I didn't see the queen has no brood but plenty of bees.So it depends on when i inspect next what i'll do with those two.
Sixth hive is at the association apiary so I haven't seen it but i have good reports.

 

[Firefly]

Finally a suitable day for inspection

One thriving; masses of bees; masses of brood; fresh nectar...and this is a queen that mated last summer. Phew

One struggled through; masses of dead bees on the OMF, but fresh brood and queen seen. This is way better than I feared. Jubilate (for now)

 

[scuttlefish]

Lost one out of four; hard to tell the cause because it had been robbed out but it was weak going into the winter so I'm not surprised it didn't come through.

The other three are on 3+ frames of sealed brood each and 6+ seams of bees each, with plenty of stores, so should be okay (not warm enough yet for a full inspection, just took out the middle brood box frame of each for a look at it & either side).

 

[dclewis]

All Q's reported present at first inspection but 1 not laying and still not laying 1 month later, so assume the worst and will combine.

 

[itma]

Well, I've now voted, after going through them on Sunday.
No losses. Good show of brood, one hive still decidedly light on stores.
Anything from here on will go down as a "spring loss".

 

[user 6228]

4 of out four with worker brood... ran out of time to do full gander on the last one but we saw capped worker and there is lots and lots of bees...
All of them now have supers.

 

[PBee]

First inspections finished to-day. 5% losses in total including non-viable colonies. Standard winter setup and treatments except solid poly floors on the majority.

 

[kevboab]

Well up here in not so sunny Scotland I have lost two out of five. One I thought was a dead cert to survive winter has dwindled to death and the other was an autumn mating gone wrong. The three survivors are bursting with bees and bias so early queen rearing wont be too far away.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Out of interest, have folks included drone laying queens as survivors or not - I realise now I should have specified at the beginning.

Don't think there's a right or wrong as there is no way of knowing at what stage the queen turned drone laying, and in many cases it will have been post winter (if we've reached that yet!)

For what its worth I reported 3 out of 3 surviving but subsequent investigation showed one DLQ.

 

[Into the lions den]

Out of interest, have folks included drone laying queens as survivors or not - I realise now I should have specified at the beginning.

Don't think there's a right or wrong as there is no way of knowing at what stage the queen turned drone laying, and in many cases it will have been post winter (if we've reached that yet!)

For what its worth I reported 3 out of 3 surviving but subsequent investigation showed one DLQ.

I count everything...if it was an autumn shake out or unite because it wouldn't make it its still a winter loss, just taken early, and still -1 in the hives column.......if its a QLS or DL...........its still a loss. Number of viable colonies last summer - number of viable colonies this spring = number of losses. At least in MY book.

 

[Shabro]

One out of seven lost, a cast that was in a nuc box, built up well prior to winter and then just died out.