Winter losses 2012/13

[enrico]

but so had to have a littel check think i got lucky tho as no obves signes of damage to frames + dont think it killed any bees :O
was back up in about 2 mins tbh o limted damage but bees dont look good with no bee suite on arfter being on its side :/
so wt does every one els think should i just leav well alone untill weather warms up then check all frames proply ? or do u think its better 2 open all up and look asap ?
its a polly hive so straped to geather but super moved as its on with bakers fondant
+ dog manghed to run into it thats how i no it wasnt down for long

I would open and have a look you have little to lose. Pick a reasonable day and go for it!
E

 

[For want of a better word]

£1.4 million would go a long way in developing quite a few regional bee breeding programmes which could sustainably offer restocking options to all beekeepers for years to come rather than a quick fix for some.

It seems that the URBAN beekeepers have had loads of help... not that that is a bad thing in any way...

NOW this assistance needs to be rolled out into the rural areas, even if the help is from the Co-Op, Friends of the Earth, The Soil Association or whoever.
Seems the UK Government is not exactly too interested in something most MPs seem to think is a quaint hobby for the better off retired!

We have actually got our MP to visit our apiary later this year.... now if we could all do the same????

 

[Hivemaker.]

£1.4 million would go a long way in developing quite a few regional bee breeding programmes which could sustainably offer restocking options to all beekeepers for years to come rather than a quick fix for some.

That sounds a bit too sensible.

 

[mbc]

That sounds a bit too sensible.

Until it turns into the inevitable sh1tfest when the argument over which type of bee to breed starts

 

[Hivemaker.]

Until it turns into the inevitable sh1tfest when the argument over which type of bee to breed starts

All types can be bred, same as other countries do.

 

[mbc]

All types can be bred, same as other countries do.

That sounds a bit too sensible.

 

[Hivemaker.]

That sounds a bit too sensible.

It certainly does for the UK.

 

[For want of a better word]

All types can be bred, same as other countries do.

The answer is to breed our own and not have to import...

...which is something we appear to be doing ( breeding our own that is) as the official reported number of bees imported in previous years nowhere goes anywhere near the numbers reported as sold !
We will need to breed more bees this year in the UK to make up for losses, demand will outstrip supply of whatever sub species is required.
My fear is bees that imported from far far away in the Bulgarkraniomedditeranean... and are "not suitable for our climate specifics" and will fall into inexperience hands, and dramatically increase the reported losses for NEXT Spring !!
​

 

[Hivemaker.]

My fear is bees that imported from far far away in the Bulgarkraniomedditeranean... and are "not suitable for our climate specifics" and will fall into inexperience hands, and dramatically increase the reported losses for NEXT Spring !!
​

Mike Palmer thinks much the same in his videos on sustainable beekeeping,although he is mainly talking about buying in package bees from the southern states, which are unsuitable and die, and the money from any honey they produce goes into buying more package bees to replace the ones that die..until not enough honey can be produced to keep up with the costs of buying more package bees from the south every year.
Part one.
http://vimeo.com/23178333

Part 2.
http://vimeo.com/23234196

 

[Goran]

The answer is to breed our own and not have to import...

...which is something we appear to be doing ( breeding our own that is) as the official reported number of bees imported in previous years nowhere goes anywhere near the numbers reported as sold !
We will need to breed more bees this year in the UK to make up for losses, demand will outstrip supply of whatever sub species is required.
My fear is bees that imported from far far away in the Bulgarkraniomedditeranean... and are "not suitable for our climate specifics" and will fall into inexperience hands, and dramatically increase the reported losses for NEXT Spring !!
​

Well, I am close or part of what You say Bulgarkraniomedditeranean. Just to say you didn't saw our carnies ( which are autochthonous here). Highly adaptable.
But also when I asked one good beekeeper which selection of queens is better - official growers, he said at once: the best queens are which You grow by yourself. Cheers.

I think I would worse adapt to your conditions than the bees ( rain, rain and again rain the whole year). I must admit I would go crazy.

 

[MattC]

Bulgarkraniomedditeranean...

Don't know what their/your bees are like, but sounds like a good holiday destination. What's it like? Any essential Bulgarkranian phrases before I book the easyjet flight?

 

[For want of a better word]

Bulgarkraniomedditeranean...

Don't know what their/your bees are like, but sounds like a good holiday destination. What's it like? Any essential Bulgarkranian phrases before I book the easyjet flight?

Try to learn some Russian... more different languages around the Baltic/ Caspian/ Black sea than you could possibly think... but Russian was taught in all schools when part of the Soviet Union.

Croatia a bit further west... all those lands need visiting​

Looking at the statistics it seems that they tell more about the number of hives / colonies kept by British beekeeperers than how many have dwindled and dwined away!

 

[m100]

(reporting on press comment on Quince Honey Farm) “We have 1,500 hives but as of this week we had 1,008 colonies. We need to try and split 500 hives from 1,000 which is not possible because the colonies are not strong enough to split.

The mind boggles as to why they need to split. If the colonies are not strong enough then they need to merge. Less hives, stronger hives, more potential yield per hive.

As for multiple years of wet summers since 2006 that is not something I believe, or I think the rainfall figures would support. Maybe it's a case of too many hives in an area of poor or declining forage?

You have to make allowances for the bad years and take advantage of the good ones. All subsidies / Euro assistance will do IMHO is facilitate the raising of bees that need feeding and produce bland honey laced with inverted syrup.

 

[Goran]

No matter where all we are,just our bees are alive and kicking. This winter I had no losses ( 29 colonies). But I have candidates for rearing and also for excluding ( brood range from 3-7 frames langstroth).. First frames already built.. In flow increasing day by day..

 

[mbc]

The mind boggles as to why they need to split. If the colonies are not strong enough then they need to merge. Less hives, stronger hives, more potential yield per hive.

As for multiple years of wet summers since 2006 that is not something I believe, or I think the rainfall figures would support. Maybe it's a case of too many hives in an area of poor or declining forage?

You have to make allowances for the bad years and take advantage of the good ones. All subsidies / Euro assistance will do IMHO is facilitate the raising of bees that need feeding and produce bland honey laced with inverted syrup.

Empty, depreciating equipment is a dead loss.
2006 was the last bumper year in many localities.
I agree to an extent about the subsidies, but perhaps a business can still be sustainable in the long term even if it needs a bit of propping up after a run of poor seasons.

 

[Haughton Honey]

.........88% from a Midlands beekeeper yesterday (and a good one too!). One outfit reporting 20% losses, then trying to source package bees in such quantity that hey must actually have 50% empty. (Beekeepers reports can be a bit like fishermans tales, and are often designed to impress or horrify other beekeepers. Beware taking it at face value.)

I'd be interested to know where they are trying to source the packages from ITLD?

As far as I was aware and as you confirmed I think a while back, imported packages from NZ have to be in there 000's.

 

[Haughton Honey]

Just completed the poll as I've been through everything now and all colonies still alive have at least got eggs.

A 20% loss recorded and, in the main, it appears that all have dwindled. A late start to brooding has obviously placed most of those colonies in a position whereby they're simply weren't enough bees to sustain the colony.

A couple (perhaps 3 or 4) have outward signs of Nosema.

Interestingly, my strongest stock....by a LONG LONG way....is a very dark (and pretty aggressive) strain of bee that I picked up as a swarm last year as a favour at short notice. It's over-wintered on two Commercial brood bodies and is going great guns. I'm not stating this to support local, mongrel bees in any 'political' way as I also have many hives with Buckfast and Buckfast X queens - some of which are doing as well as can be expected - but it's interesting all the same.

I really need to get the wing morph done on a handful of workers and raise some nucs from it!

 

[PBee]

........ A late start to brooding has obviously placed most of those colonies in a position whereby they're simply weren't enough bees to sustain the colony.
.......

The mechanism of survival appears to be such that in the absence of other factors the winter bees do not die off until they raise the first brood as this, along with associated foraging, is what causes mortality not the length of the winter or other period (or conditions) where 'winter' bees are produced.

In temperate zones, diutinus bees are the common worker caste that preserves the colony during the winter months (13, 19). In a normal wintering situation, the diutinus workers show negligible senescence (36), but their protein stores become gradually reduced with time (37). This supports the hypothesis that the diutinus worker metabolizes vitellogenin for various purposes and that the protein serves as a general storage protein [as suggested by Engels et al. (18)]. In the spring, when pollen and nectar become available, former diutinus bees start nursing and foraging (11, 12) (Fig. 1 and Fig. 4). Little is known about the regulatory mechanisms responsible for the initiation and regulation of these tasks among diutinus workers in early spring. However, it is likely that the majority of them finally die as nutrient-depleted and immune-compromised foragers (see Fig. 3 for a description of possible mechanisms).

Because the cessation (as well as the initiation) of the diutinus worker caste are largely determined by environmental factors, it is likely that the potential life span of the diutinus stage from the physiological point of view is substantially longer than what is normally observed. If diutinus bees were prevented from entering the production cycle as nurses and foragers, the mortality curve (Fig. 1) suggests a maximum life span of more than 2 years.

http://sageke.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/2004/26/pe28

 

[For want of a better word]

I really need to get the wing morph done on a handful of workers and raise some nucs from it!

My best ( Dark bee) hive by far..... gives a wing morph graph like a scatter gun !

Please let us know the results

 

[Swarm]

As for multiple years of wet summers since 2006 that is not something I believe, or I think the rainfall figures would support.

I'll accept that statement, it sounds accurate to me. The rainfall figures quoted for March last year said it was the driest blah, blah, blah and hosepipe bans were issued. Talk of drought and failing crops.
During March last year I was getting soaked on a daily basis. Should I believe the figures?
Taking advantage of good years is fine if you get one, making allowances year after year gets quite tedious.