Colony Losses

[mbc]

I am curious how they know this, is it a lack of heat when lifting the roof, I hope they are not exposing the frames to cold. I take the view that if food is there and the hive sound of structure then we are in the lap of the gods until warmer days and flights commence or not.

We've had some nice afternoons where a lack of flying bees would make it obvious.
Those of mine I've peaked at have seemed fine despite roofs blown off or a collapsed stand.

 

[Sutty]

Nice mild day today, my bees are in my garden and all 9 hives and 4 nucs are busy this morning, a few bees bringing in small loads of yellow pollen. Lots of cleansing and orientation flights. A bad day to hang washing out!
So no winter losses yet.
I'm planning to unite some to reduce colony numbers so am likely to have spare queens available in the next couple of months, I may sell some full colonies too or nucs too.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

We had a lot of bad weather last season. I suspect there were a lot of poorly mated queens that turned dud in Autumn as a result leading to a lot of these reported losses. It wouldn't explain lost colonies with queens bought from abroad though

I had one supercedure that emerged end of August, got mated, started laying and then failed/missing so QCs in early October. If I'd already done my last inspection it would have been counted as a winter loss.

The new(ish) procedures for imported queens where they remove all the attendants must increase the chance of loss. ?

 

[Penninetrader]

The link below is to an article which if read through covers quite a few issues of trade wars colony losses and price of honey

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-beekeepers-tariffs-1.7458514

Having lived in this region for a number of years it did surprise me how many bee farmers exist there, they most certainly did not in those numbers when I was there. It is not the agricultural belt that is for sure, it is mostly forested and resources based economy, or was. One of Canada's largest bee farmers is in Peace river and that did surprise me. It is 35 years since I was there though.

 

[Moobee]

Overwintered nucs looking ok so far

 

[Into the lions den]

If they're very experienced then presumably not starvation or varroosis. Possibly Nosema? Have you had feedback from them on what they suspect?

Mixed reports...... could be multi factoral BUT most mention too many old bees and not enough young ones going into winter...with which I can partially concur. As nucs have nice young queens and with correct gentle stimulation will grow into autumn and thus be rich in young bees and then also looking relatively better..as some here are reporting...it all fits. The people I have been talking to are a mix of larger and medium scale beekeepers, also some smaller scale, inc treaters and treatment free, and those who use imported queens, local mixes, and Amm. All affected, many too proud to publicly admit it. It does seem to be mainly weather related from last summer.

Late summer is the most critical month for wintering...sets in place the size, health, and age of the population. Bees working hard late, and aging on flows like ivy, and plugging the nest at the same time, thus further restricting brood rearing, can all be in play here. Enhanced varroa loads..and seems to have been one of that type of years, will add to this. If its prematurely aged bees dropping off fast and early then the dying/dwindling still has a long way to go....March is the main month for losses up here. At end of Jan only around 10% of the actual winter related losses have taken place. Of course this has to exclude queenlessness and drone layers....they are set in place by autumn.

Our season up here effectively closed down around 10th August...so the usual late brood flush on the heather did not take place..so we expect quite a lot of smaller colonies that will take time to build in spring. We are OK up to now except in some groups where varroa took hold at a time we could not treat (honey flow). No chicken counting here until start of April at least...dwindlers can be petering out right into early May. Will be interesting to see what the populations are like come 'crossover day'.

 

[The Poot]

Overwintered nucs looking ok so far

Looking good

 

[Moobee]

Mixed reports...... could be multi factoral BUT most mention too many old bees and not enough young ones going into winter...with which I can partially concur. As nucs have nice young queens and with correct gentle stimulation will grow into autumn and thus be rich in young bees and then also looking relatively better..as some here are reporting...it all fits. The people I have been talking to are a mix of larger and medium scale beekeepers, also some smaller scale, inc treaters and treatment free, and those who use imported queens, local mixes, and Amm. All affected, many too proud to publicly admit it. It does seem to be mainly weather related from last summer.

Late summer is the most critical month for wintering...sets in place the size, health, and age of the population. Bees working hard late, and aging on flows like ivy, and plugging the nest at the same time, thus further restricting brood rearing, can all be in play here. Enhanced varroa loads..and seems to have been one of that type of years, will add to this. If its prematurely aged bees dropping off fast and early then the dying/dwindling still has a long way to go....March is the main month for losses up here. At end of Jan only around 10% of the actual winter related losses have taken place. Of course this has to exclude queenlessness and drone layers....they are set in place by autumn.

Our season up here effectively closed down around 10th August...so the usual late brood flush on the heather did not take place..so we expect quite a lot of smaller colonies that will take time to build in spring. We are OK up to now except in some groups where varroa took hold at a time we could not treat (honey flow). No chicken counting here until start of April at least...dwindlers can be petering out right into early May. Will be interesting to see what the populations are like come 'crossover day'.

Possible impact from a very mild autumn, forage still available, brood rearing running on longer than usual allowing mites to ‘rebuild’ after autumn treatment? I vaped in December and had massive drops!

 

[Andy]

Mixed reports...... could be multi factoral BUT most mention too many old bees and not enough young ones going into winter...with which I can partially concur. As nucs have nice young queens and with correct gentle stimulation will grow into autumn and thus be rich in young bees and then also looking relatively better..as some here are reporting...it all fits. The people I have been talking to are a mix of larger and medium scale beekeepers, also some smaller scale, inc treaters and treatment free, and those who use imported queens, local mixes, and Amm. All affected, many too proud to publicly admit it. It does seem to be mainly weather related from last summer.

Late summer is the most critical month for wintering...sets in place the size, health, and age of the population. Bees working hard late, and aging on flows like ivy, and plugging the nest at the same time, thus further restricting brood rearing, can all be in play here. Enhanced varroa loads..and seems to have been one of that type of years, will add to this. If its prematurely aged bees dropping off fast and early then the dying/dwindling still has a long way to go....March is the main month for losses up here. At end of Jan only around 10% of the actual winter related losses have taken place. Of course this has to exclude queenlessness and drone layers....they are set in place by autumn.

Our season up here effectively closed down around 10th August...so the usual late brood flush on the heather did not take place..so we expect quite a lot of smaller colonies that will take time to build in spring. We are OK up to now except in some groups where varroa took hold at a time we could not treat (honey flow). No chicken counting here until start of April at least...dwindlers can be petering out right into early May. Will be interesting to see what the populations are like come 'crossover day'.

Yeah, I couldn't get the syrup into them this year. They just weren't taking it down. I was pondering moving my remaining colonies into nucs to help them out if the weather is warmer. ie a 15º day ( however nothing forecast for ages). Or maybe chucking in insulation dummies to reduce the size of the space they have to heat. The colonies are definitely smaller than last year :<. The nucs seem to have more fliers today than the hives. I lost two, but one was an Oct mated queen that was dubious. I'm pretty sure her eggs were sterile (in the sense of not hatching). The other weren't looking great going into winter and also had a lid work free in the gales whilst I was out of the country so they suffered in freezing temperatures/rain for a few days before I found them.

 

[North End Bees]

Possible impact from a very mild autumn, forage still available, brood rearing running on longer than usual allowing mites to ‘rebuild’ after autumn treatment? I vaped in December and had massive drops!

Murray's saying their local problems are with brood rearing shutting down too early rather than running on too long.

 

[Topcat33]

Hi. My local association are reporting quite substantial losses from quite a few members. Some very experienced. I am just wondering how wide spread this is. How are your bees doing? Probably just 'one of those years' rather than something sinister going on.

Lost 2 out of 3 Lancashire area, first ever losses, in 11 years

 

[Penninetrader]

Lost 2 out of 3 Lancashire area, first ever losses, in 11 years

This is becoming quite concerning

 

[Sutty]

I seem to remember a similar thread last year

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Bad news gets amplified. Don't want to hex things but my lot look fine in the sunshine today.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I seem to remember a similar thread last year

And it ended up being a storm in a teacup - so let's not make the mistake of 'connecting' the two and imagining some non existent pattern