What caused my colonies to fail?

[user 20297]

You should definitely give non-treatment a try for 2022. Seriously.

...seriously I won't.
But I didn't treat last winter and I started last year with a single colony of lovely, local bees. They had survived and they've thrived and multiplied, and their queen, Alaska Thunderflip 5000, still leads an nuc through the winter. But this year she and her former princesses bathed in Amitraz for many weeks as I flipped to the opposite end of the treatment spectrum.

Like @pargyle, I am not entreating anyone not to treat their bees against varroa, but this is an accidental occurrence of non-treatment. I hope that @Do224's colony survives and it will be interesting to see what sort of varroa load it turns out to have.

 

[Do224]

Given that OA strips aren't really treatment, what has happened here is that something in the region of 8 colonies (in the apiary) weren't treated, and 6 (ish) have so far died. I suspect that the fact that the surviving colony didn't get the OA strips is just a coincidence (or perhaps the strips are even harmful - who knows!).

The other beekeeper lost 3 colonies too. Just to confuse things further, his colonies were treated with Apivar in May...not OA strips

 

[Erichalfbee]

Something else afoot? Did anybody think of calling the SBI ( I know they don’t work in the winter but there must be some way they might take a look)

 

[Boston Bees]

The other beekeeper lost 3 colonies too. Just to confuse things further, his colonies were treated with Apivar in May...not OA strips

May is very odd timing for Apivar though .... suggests he was firefighting a bad varroa problem discovered in Spring.

 

[Ian123]

The other beekeeper lost 3 colonies too. Just to confuse things further, his colonies were treated with Apivar in May...not OA strips

But that’s a pretty rubbish time to treat with any treatment. Mite load/bee ratio will always be worse come the Autumn.

 

[Boston Bees]

But that’s a pretty rubbish time to treat with any treatment. Mite load/bee ratio will always be worse come the Autumn.

May is an excellent time to treat if that's when you discover your hive is riddled with varroa

I've put Apivar into a hive in May, certainly. But I treated them again in autumn, as you say

(to be fair, this guy did try to treat them in autumn, it's just that he sadly got the impression from somewhere that OA strips were an effective varroa treatment)

 

[Do224]

May is somewhat odd timing for Apivar though .... suggests he was firefighting a bad varroa problem discovered in Spring.

Sorry I should have said Spring rather than May. I don’t know exactly when he put them on I just know it was a Spring treatment rather than an Autumn one. He said he wasn’t aware of a varroa problem at the time...just did it as a matter of course. He’s getting a big mite drop (compared to my hive) off his one remaining colony...at least a couple of hundred in the 48hrs since we vaped

 

[Boston Bees]

Sorry I should have said Spring rather than May. I don’t know exactly when he put them on I just know it was a Spring treatment rather than an Autumn one. He said he wasn’t aware of a varroa problem at the time...just did it as a matter of course. He’s getting a big mite drop off his one remaining colony...at least a couple of hundred in the 48hrs since we vaped

Spring / May - same comment applies

You can't put Apivar into a hive when you have honey supers on. So putting Apivar on (a 10 week treatment) in Spring, as a matter of course, when you have no varroa concerns sounds ..... odd ....... it stops you being able to add supers during the period in which the colony needs to grow rapidly.

 

[Do224]

Spring / May - same comment applies

You can't put Apivar into a hive when you have honey supers on. So putting Apivar on (a 10 week treatment) in Spring, as a matter of course, when you have no varroa concerns sounds ..... odd .......

His colonies were all supplied as nucs in the Spring so maybe he had time before supering...

 

[Ian123]

Sorry I should have said Spring rather than May. I don’t know exactly when he put them on I just know it was a Spring treatment rather than an Autumn one. He said he wasn’t aware of a varroa problem at the time...just did it as a matter of course. He’s getting a big mite drop (compared to my hive) off his one remaining colony...at least a couple of hundred in the 48hrs since we vaped

Whilst he may have done a spring treatment, varroa has then had all season to build. Most importantly as bee numbers drop in the autumn the amount of bees in proportion getting damaged increases. Not only that it’s the winter bees most affected.

 

[Do224]

This was my one remaining colony on 30th Dec. It was about 12 Celsius. Given there’s been a pretty minimal varroa drop off them since vaping, I’m hopeful that they’re ok. I think I’ll vape two more times regardless...belt and braces approach?

View attachment 976D0076-3DF8-41B7-95F4-EE170E3B32F6.MOV

 

[Curly green finger's]

Something else afoot? Did anybody think of calling the SBI ( I know they don’t work in the winter but there must be some way they might take a look)

For some reason I get the same feeling.
@Do224 did your friend look for any other problems other than varroa.

 

[Patrick1]

Maybe worth reading them?

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately I get to spend about 30 min on the forum each day early morning normally before I start my 12 hour day running several businesses in addition to the two listed above.

I would love to spend my days interacting with more posts, unfortunately my live and time doesn’t allow it, I believe I do have something to contribute to the forum and will continue to do what I can when I can, I get enormous please from the forum, its very satisfying being able to read the posts and respond. To try and catchup on 14 pages of posts when many go off piste, is a tall order.

I am sorry if my post was out of sync, I cannot imagine anyone has died or suffered because of it, except of course maybe you.

 

[Wilco]

Something else afoot? Did anybody think of calling the SBI ( I know they don’t work in the winter but there must be some way they might take a look)

RBIs do though so if the weather is appropriate it might be possible to have a visit?

 

[elainemary]

...seriously I won't.
But I didn't treat last winter and I started last year with a single colony of lovely, local bees. They had survived and they've thrived and multiplied, and their queen, Alaska Thunderflip 5000, still leads an nuc through the winter. But this year she and her former princesses bathed in Amitraz for many weeks as I flipped to the opposite end of the treatment spectrum.

Like @pargyle, I am not entreating anyone not to treat their bees against varroa, but this is an accidental occurrence of non-treatment. I hope that @Do224's colony survives and it will be interesting to see what sort of varroa load it turns out to have.

Great naming for your queen!

 

[Sanntos]

.... when many go off piste.....

there were a side discussion about follower and dummy boards, I myself didn't fully understand the subtle differences, especially not when somebody introduced a new item, flower boards...also talk on high level about Duct and aly tape, how to best rip them

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Something else afoot? Did anybody think of calling the SBI ( I know they don’t work in the winter but there must be some way they might take a look)

RBI's are full time

 

[North End Bees]

Sorry I should have said Spring rather than May. I don’t know exactly when he put them on I just know it was a Spring treatment rather than an Autumn one. He said he wasn’t aware of a varroa problem at the time...just did it as a matter of course. He’s getting a big mite drop (compared to my hive) off his one remaining colony...at least a couple of hundred in the 48hrs since we vaped

From this, and your earlier posts about him, I think you need to get yourself a new mentor this year.

 

[Do224]

For some reason I get the same feeling.
@Do224 did your friend look for any other problems other than varroa.

The inspector did a routine visit last Spring and all was well. Given the high mite drop on his remaining colony and the perforated cappings I saw in my failed colonies, I’m reasonably happy to assume it must have been varroa related. In any case, I’ve cleared out all the dead bees now, cleaned the hives up and stored them in the garage ready for hopefully filling them with splits/swarms again in the Spring/summer

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Time to take a deep breath, try and learn from what happened, regroup and start the new season with optimism and confidence.
Onwards and Upwards.