Opened the hive and....

[HM Honey]

Hi HM Honey,
I like the term 'with bee' but I am sure you know baby boys are not much good in this game.

Actually Beeno, I found my baby boy with a rattle to be a really good distraction to the bes while doing inspections....obviously he gets really badly stung up but the swelling goes down after a week or two......

 

[IGPebble]

Beeno, it's obviously more luck than skill.... Us newbies arent experienced enough to claim its entirley down to skill.

I have put my success so far this winter down to

1) 30% lots of good advice from experienced beeks on here
2) 10% overdoing it with fondant and autumn feeding
3) 60% pure beginners luck

Luck is not a bad thing you know.....

I resent that, I kept an extremely close eye on my bees, their weight and food level and activity, they came through this winter because I thoroughly checked them for disease beforehand, treated them where necessary, then fed them adequate amounts and monitored their infilling closely.

Many beekeepers I know who are as fastidious as I am towards hive care have come through this winter with all of their good, queenright hives intact, whilst the more lax keepers lost about half their stock (one lost all 13 hives).

The only "bad luck" I see in overwintering is if your queen somehow becomes a drone layer or the bees decide to kill her off midwinter for god knows what reason, everything else can be put down to bad husbandry.

 

[VEG]

Is isolation starvation bad bee husbandry?

 

[enrico]

I resent that, I kept an extremely close eye on my bees, their weight and food level and activity, they came through this winter because I thoroughly checked them for disease beforehand, treated them where necessary, then fed them adequate amounts and monitored their infilling closely.

Many beekeepers I know who are as fastidious as I am towards hive care have come through this winter with all of their good, queenright hives intact, whilst the more lax keepers lost about half their stock (one lost all 13 hives).

The only "bad luck" I see in overwintering is if your queen somehow becomes a drone layer or the bees decide to kill her off midwinter for god knows what reason, everything else can be put down to bad husbandry.

Be a bit careful.....you can be as careful as anything but still lose hives. You are putting yourself on a pedestal which you might, through no faultless f your own, just fall off. After thirty years i still rely on Lady Luck, I rarely lose hives but when I do it hurts, I blame myself but I do all I can to prevent it......sometimes it just happens!
E

 

[MrPea]

Hi Mr. Pea,
What you are really saying is that your bees did not make it and you don't really know what you are doing.

A little harsh perhaps?? My bees didn't make it last year - I had one hive and it didn't make it...I know plenty of beeks whose hives didn't make it last year (and this year!), experienced or not. I had two hives at the end of last year and they've both made it through to this year much stronger...that's all I'm saying, it's a happy and positive thing...I don't understand your comment??

 

[HM Honey]

I resent that, I kept an extremely close eye on my bees, their weight and food level and activity, they came through this winter because I thoroughly checked them for disease beforehand, treated them where necessary, then fed them adequate amounts and monitored their infilling closely.

Many beekeepers I know who are as fastidious as I am towards hive care have come through this winter with all of their good, queenright hives intact, whilst the more lax keepers lost about half their stock (one lost all 13 hives).

The only "bad luck" I see in overwintering is if your queen somehow becomes a drone layer or the bees decide to kill her off midwinter for god knows what reason, everything else can be put down to bad husbandry.

Hi IGPebble - I'm glad for you that so early into your hobby/career in bee keeping that you feel you are experienced and skilled enough to put your winter success entirely down to your own skill and preperation. I'm sure you are correct.

Me, I still consider myself to be very inexperienced and have lots to learn, and dont mind admitting that despite my best endeavour, some of what happens with my bees still depends on luck and the bees themselves.

What would you say to a very experienced beek who has just lost a hive to starvation despite carrying out all his treatments, there being no signs of desease AND there still being plenty of stores ? The colony dies (he thinks) because they consumed the stores in the middle, then moved to one side of the hive, consumed these stores but just never moved to the other side, where all the rest of the stores were, and didnt touch the fondant on the crownboard because they werent under the hole?

Hefting showed no signed of light stores because it wasnt light and he applied fondant as an extra safety precaution, but still lost his bees? Is this bad husbandry, bad bee keeping, inexperience (he has fifty hives and has been a beek for some 20 years) or lack of skill (he has so far successfully brought 47 of his hives through winter)?

I'm sure he is open to suggestions?

 

[HM Honey]

A little harsh perhaps?? My bees didn't make it last year - I had one hive and it didn't make it...I know plenty of beeks whose hives didn't make it last year (and this year!), experienced or not. I had two hives at the end of last year and they've both made it through to this year much stronger...that's all I'm saying, it's a happy and positive thing...I don't understand your comment??

 

[MrPea]

How about...successful overwintering generally comes down to knowing what you're doing (to a certain extent) and making sure your bees are prepared. If you lose a hive then it's just rotten luck. Everybody wins!

 

[HM Honey]

How about...successful overwintering generally comes down to knowing what you're doing (to a certain extent) and making sure your bees are prepared. If you lose a hive then it's just rotten luck. Everybody wins!

 

[IGPebble]

words

Ok fair doos, sorry to rant, was just getting annoyed with the "Its all luck" thing.

Yes that is one of the scenarios where you have little control over the bees survival.

he sounds like a very good bee keeper if he can bring 47/50 hives through winter.

 

[beeno]

I really don't see what Mr Pea said or did to be ridiculed, all the poor guy said was he lost his colonies last year and this year he is pleased to see they are all alive and well. It would come as no surprise if Mr Pea declined to share his news again.

Hi Drinkstone,
You have missed something. He has gone to feed supposedly dead bees!

 

[beeno]

actually beeno, i found my baby boy with a rattle to be a really good distraction to the bes while doing inspections....obviously he gets really badly stung up but the swelling goes down after a week or two......

funny

 

[HM Honey]

he sounds like a very good bee keeper if he can bring 47/50 hives through winter.

So far.... He says there is still a lot of wintering to go yet and that hives can and will still die between now and April...

So fingers crossed....

 

[HM Honey]

Hi Drinkstone,
You have missed something. He has gone to feed supposedly dead bees!

Hi Beeno, i think it's you that has missed something...lol

The dead bees he mentions were last years ( i.e they didnt make it through the winter of 2011/2012) not the ones he has gone to feed this year.....lol

 

[HM Honey]

was just getting annoyed with the "Its all luck" thing.

granted, I probably overdid the "luck" element but my post was intended to be a slightly sarcastic reponse to Beeno's attack on your post.....lol

 

[beeno]

Is isolation starvation bad bee husbandry?

Hi Veg,
I guess it could be if you took a too small cluster into winter when you should have united with a stronger colony.

 

[VEG]

So it only happens to small colonies then?

 

[IGPebble]

granted, I probably overdid the "luck" element but my post was intended to be a slightly sarcastic reponse to Beeno's attack on your post.....lol

Sorry that was my bad then, I didn't notice it was a joke

 

[Skyhook]

So it only happens to small colonies then?

Not only, but isolation starvation is more likely with a small colony as they can't heat the BB enough to be able to move. Has to be cross-referenced against hive size and insulation- a small colony in a poly nuc is probably better placed than a medium-sized colony in a plywood langstroth.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Oh I know...next week gets rather chilly again. But I didn't make it past the middle of January last tme, so very pleased to make it this far

Hi Mr. Pea,
What you are really saying is that your bees did not make it and you don't really know what you are doing.

MrPea lost his bees winter 2011-2012, but this year they've made it. That's what's written in the OP.

I'm not quite sure why you're being so abrupt. I think you're just coming through your first winter with bees, so I can see why you are pleased with yourself, but there shouldn't be any need to be critical of people who lost their bees a year ago. It's one thing to learn from your own mistakes, but you can also learn from other people's mistakes.

I managed to get ours through to Spring 2012 and it looks as if they're all okay so far this year, but there are still a few weeks to go. I'm delighted, but I know quite a few beekeepers with tens of years' experience who haven't been so fortunate.