our hives are dead

[Bryanthebee]

Well what a bad third year down the pan.
Two hives and a nuc dead, had a bad summer and a bad winter. late summer hives swarmed from being stuck indoors for so long with the rain, young queens could not carry out mating flight`s due to the continued rain.
bought two mated queens one took the other did not, then we were doomed the one that took was superseeded she had no time to mate. got hold of one more queen from a good friend and she took ok.
gone through the winter ok but by this time the old bee`s were worn out the queen was found dead in the fondant alone. it is the same with the nuc old bee`s. Wish i had time to put them all together in one hive but time and weather got the better of us. There was still honey sealed in hives but bee`s could not fly for water to break honey down,
had fondant on all winter, did not see much pollen so fed a pollen patty in january but it was to late they had died end of febuary. we are now bee less hive`s do not look right with out bee activity, it feels sad to see such a sight. we have a nuc on order hope we do right in the coming months ahead.

 

[Beauhawk]

Sorry to hear that- very sad.

 

[RogueDrone]

Sorry to hear loss. Bad luck with the Queens.
I one thought with Fondant on over winter was it not absorbing to much moisture and running down the frames?

Better luck with the new Nuc

Colin

 

[Luminos]

Rotten luck BTB

 

[Pete D]

Bad luck Bryan, such a shame.

I think quite a few beekeepers myself included will lose hives this Spring after the last 12 months of poor conditions.
Certainly the bees in most hives now must be getting on a bit and must be in danger of dying out before there are enough young bees to take over the duties.
Fingers crossed and good luck with the nuc

Pete D

 

[itma]

Bryan, you seem to have had a long run of misfortune, what with laying workers, nasty bees, new queens not being accepted and even a new queen superceded.

Having the colony die out with stores remaining and fondant added doesn't sound like starvation. I'd be thinking in terms of assuming some disease to have been present and thoroughly sanitising stuff before restarting.

I'd also be wondering whether there was any possibility of your finding someone different to turn to for advice - a new pair of eyes and all that.

Be paranoid, super cautious and make yourself some better luck for next time!

 

[Anduril]

Bad luck Bryan. I think we will see a lot more of this over the next few weeks. Last year was a disaster for mating queens. I have had one drone layer so far, it superseded late in the season and produced little in the way of workers for winter.

 

[REDWOOD]

That's life, some you win and some you loose don't beat your self up over it. Buy a nuc of bees with this years queen and there will be less chance of swarming.

 

[TOBY-3652]

I think we will see a lot more of this over the next few weeks. WE CERTAINLY WILL,,, I HAVE LOST 3 ALLREADY AND3 0R 4 HAVE SMALL CLUSTERS.. WE WANT THE QUEENS TO GET LAYING AND SOME DECENT WAETHER

 

[Erichalfbee]

Bad luck Bryan
There will be much more of the same, I fear.
I have lost one colony, my strongest last year but the queen stopped laying after thymol and never restarted. They have dwindled to a frame of bees so they are in a two frame poly nuc with nektapoll on top. Didn't have the heart to do nothing to help but probably useless.
The other three need some warm weather to take advantage of the willow and get brooding.

 

[susbees]

Having the colony die out with stores remaining and fondant added doesn't sound like starvation. I'd be thinking in terms of assuming some disease to have been present and thoroughly sanitising stuff before restarting.

Hmmm....that would be my instinct. The initial post makes it sound like the OP has it all worked out but are all the colonies in your area dead? I would be testing those bees for Nosema. Late build up, late to swarm?

 

[richardbees]

bryan,

My commiserations but don't knock yourself out -- the weather's been abnormally bad since summer '11 for UK beekeeping.

 

[nosmoking]

Bad luck. Lost my 2 as well

 

[Hawklord]

Of the 6 colonies I took into winter 1 has died out, 4 (3 of which are imported queens) were flying last week but no pollen going in, and the 6th was taking loads of pollen in. I just hope this weather changes soon. I think this may be year to build stocks back up for most people.

 

[Cazza]

It would be rare for me to lose any colonies over winter, certainly not for the past 6 years BUT that's because I take my hits in the Autumn. Any colony which I don't believe will make it is combined.

This year I have had one die BUT it was because it was small going in to Winter (late swarm) and should have been culled in Autumn. All my own fault and no one else to blame. Happily I have too many hives so it won't be mourned.

Cazza

 

[beeno]

Hi Bryanthebee,
Don't beat yourself up. You certainly did everything you could. Late swarms, queen problems, no winter bees - doomed. Same happened to me my first year. They just dwindled and died in January that year with plenty of stores, but too small cluster to keep warm and no queen. Had laying workers as well in the autumn. I am pleased that you got a nuc on order. Let's hope we have a good summer for the bees. She says looking out at the ground frost!

 

[Robbie & Jans Bees]

Hi Bryan like the rest of the carring beeks on this site its just rotten luck perhaps there is a swarm collector in your area that could help you out??

 

[Bryanthebee]

Hi folks
Thanks for all the kind words and advise hives will get a good spring clean with some spare time on my hand with hives not in use.

Its a shame had so much planed this year made some nice nuc boxes ect, never mind onwards and upward bring on next year i am sure it will only get better, and each problem brings an insight to a solution. must learn from this. be ready.

thanks folks. good luck

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yep, chin up. If it's one thing beekeepers learn it's optimism

 

[Hedgehog]

We were down to our last remaining colony, and it was the only one we've actually bought. Bought the original nuc about 5 years ago and they've always got through the Winter. Just two weeks ago I took some photos of them boiling out of the hive in the spring sunshine, making the most of the early Spring flowers. The cold snap we had at the end of last week last week happened very suddenly and the wind was horizontal and bitter. Yesterday I checked on the hive. All dead. Some were still in the bag of fondant I'd put in before the last cold snap. We benefit from the Gulf Stream, and I suppose that over the years they'd acclimatised to the mild weather we get for most of the year.

Ho hum, onwards and upwards. As someone has mentioned, beeks are optimistic on the whole so I'm going to place an order for a couple of nucs from the same breeder, and plan a re-site which I was thinking of in any case. Still got the most hated job to do, though: emptying out the hive. Ar5e.