High winter losses

[Beersmith]

I'm inexperienced but pleased to report two out of two safely through, and looking good.

 

[rampino]

My first year, but I went into winter with three colonies, and I still have three.
However the largest colony became the smallest and I’ve had to re-house it in a nuc box. The smallest colony which started from two handfuls of half-drowned bees from a swarm is now going great guns. There were so many bees in the box that I put on a super on Sunday.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Inspecting over weekend, I have become aware of high winter losses between 5 beekeepers, with either dead or queenless colonies at around 2 out of 3 here in West Sussex. Is this representative?

Have you come to a diagnosis as to why the colonies failed/died?

 

[MerryBee]

I lost 6 out of 25 which was heart breaking.... last year it was 1 out of 17.

Sorry to hear that Neil. All 7 of mine have come through and are looking pretty strong.

 

[Fusion_power]

Heavy winter losses almost always indicate failure to prepare the colony in the fall. Healthy bees with a young queen plus plenty of stores in September will almost always make it.

All of my established colonies made it on this side of the mud puddle. I lost 2 queen rearing nucs that were used to produce late queens. One simply failed to mature a queen, the other had a queen but was not strong enough to survive a cold snap. I have one established colony that had heavy varroa infestation in early November. It is still alive, but will need a brood addition if I want it to make honey. I'll probably shake them out and put a split from a more resistant colony in the equipment.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Sorry to hear that Neil. All 7 of mine have come through and are looking pretty strong.

Yours always seem strong Merry... the one you gave me last year was almost breaking the box open!

2 of mine were isolation starvation, two just seem to have "lost" their queen and the other two were weak when first opened one showing signs of dysentery and just wasted away.

Others all building well now.

 

[pargyle]

Yours always seem strong Merry... the one you gave me last year was almost breaking the box open!

2 of mine were isolation starvation, two just seem to have "lost" their queen and the other two were weak when first opened one showing signs of dysentery and just wasted away.

Others all building well now.

Roger Patterson (who is also in Sussex) has been commenting for a good few years that queens in your area are failing prematurely and there are problems with premature queen failure more generally. He doesn't have any answers I'm afraid but his talk on the subject is well worth a listen (45 minutes or so) as, if nothing else, it's thought provoking and he has some good advice about what to look for. I know Roger can be an acquired taste (and he would be the first to admit that !) but .. he's a long term beekeeper who does think about things ..

There's another talk on the subject by Clarence Collison on Queen Quality as well which complements Roger's talk, again, quite thought provoking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wrW_04iJ_c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ9OxDsTu6M

Both recorded at the National Honey Show 2018.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Roger Patterson (who is also in Sussex) has been commenting for a good few years that queens in your area are failing prematurely and there are problems with premature queen failure more generally. He doesn't have any answers I'm afraid but his talk on the subject is well worth a listen (45 minutes or so) as, if nothing else, it's thought provoking and he has some good advice about what to look for. I know Roger can be an acquired taste (and he would be the first to admit that !) but .. he's a long term beekeeper who does think about things ..

There's another talk on the subject by Clarence Collison on Queen Quality as well which complements Roger's talk, again, quite thought provoking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wrW_04iJ_c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ9OxDsTu6M

Both recorded at the National Honey Show 2018.

Philip I know Roger, in fact I was social distancing in the teaching apiary spring cleaning the hives this morning.
There are many others who have are now seeming to concur with Roger. I found a lecture by a Canadian beekeeper called Devin Rawn who was talking about it quite a few years ago.

 

[Bryang]

All three of my hives have come thru..After all the bad weather we had, rain,rain and more rain..I thought one of them had failed because I haven't seen much activity at the entrance, looked inside today and loads of bees and 6 frames of brood. Really chuffed..

 

[Ian123]

Queen failure is nothing new and finding drone layers/failed queens in the spring has always happened. Has it increased since varroa, yes it probably has. The reasons well I am sure there are many but research and info has been around for years showing effects on drone and queen fertility from treatments and those varroa has attacked so it’s not rocket science. The simple answer is to make some late splits rear some queens and do what every proactive beek should do and take some nucs into Winter. Problem solved!!

 

[ShinySideUp]

I must be lucky or I'm doing something right. I am now entering my fourth summer as a beekeeper. First winter both colonies got through, second winter four colonies made it and this winter I have brought five through with no losses either. I put it down to Christams varroa trickle, a nadir of honey and a very sheltered position where wind is almost non-existent and the hives are all east facing to get any early morning sun to dispel quickly any frost that might be around. However, speaking of frost, where I live we hardly ever get any so I suppose I have to add 'mild winters' to the mix.

 

[chipper]

After checking all colonies ...Winter losses at about 10% in large stocks
Not so good with the over wintered Nucs with 10%lost and several weak stocks
For me an acceptable average...
Based on 30years experience
One apiary has 50%..inexplicably it has Nosema ..not present elsewhere...