# Winter losses for 2016-17



## Steve in PA (Jan 26, 2015)

My 1st winter and they all seem to be hanging in there just fine. I can peek in the top entrance without opening the box and they are usually just hanging around doing bee stuff. The only time I couldn't see them was last week when it was really cold.

I did a last round of OAV in November. The impatient part of me is saying to give them a dose now but I'm holding off.


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## poppy1 (Feb 1, 2013)

11 out of 25 lost so far


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## Charlestonbee (Mar 26, 2015)

1 out of 12.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

ZERO!
All of the deadouts get stacked in containers.
None are lost.


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## Briarvalleyapiaries (Feb 26, 2015)

> ZERO!
> All of the deadouts get stacked in containers.
> None are lost.


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## aran (May 20, 2015)

i havent really looked apart from quickly lifting the top cover and quilt box and placing sugar bricks and winter patties in all the hive feeding shims. I only saw bees at the top in 2 of my 11 hives but im too scared to go digging to look for them at this time of the year.


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## Paul_B (May 30, 2015)

1 of 4 so far


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## GerrieRPh (Mar 10, 2015)

3 of 7, but 2 were my fault and 1 was 50% my fault 50% enviromental factors. 2nd year beekeeper.


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## gtwarren1966 (Jul 7, 2015)

0 out of 4. I do have one hive that requeened itself last summer and is weaker than the other three but they still seem to be hanging in there.


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## WRLCPA (May 12, 2014)

5 for 5 safe so far. All 5 treated with OAV


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## llgoddj (Apr 11, 2012)

WRLCPA said:


> 5 for 5 safe so far. All 5 treated with OAV


Have three hives, all three are still looking good. Treated them with Oxalic acid drip in December. Started with two hives this past Spring and did one split mid summer. Went into winter feeding two out of the three hives after the split. I just added some hard candy to those two hives last week when it was in the 50's. All three at that time still looked good. We still have 1/2 of January and of course all of February, which can be quite cold. Looking forward to making through to March in good shape.

Larry


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## Chester5731 (Jan 11, 2016)

Still have 2 of 2. I'm afraid to open them this time of year in Michigan but I used the stethoscope and could hear a lot of activity in both.


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## shoefly (Jul 9, 2004)

Lost 7 of 7. Lost the last 2 after treatment with 3.5% oxalic/sugar water.


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## ep-bees1984 (Jul 26, 2016)

shoefly said:


> Lost 7 of 7. Lost the last 2 after treatment with 3.5% oxalic/sugar water.


dang man..... that's terrible. hang in there, youll get better at overwintering bees. I promise.


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## WWW (Feb 6, 2011)

Yes hang in there shoefly, it's times like this that really makes one scratch their head, but that's beekeeping, you learn and put what you learned out there on the line and watch it unfold, then make future adjustments from the results. It's a slow learning process when one needs to wait another whole year to make adjustments and try again, patience is a virtue in this business. Listening and learning from sage beekeepers does shorten the learning curve but one must be wise enough to analyze whether the advice is good or not and what will fit into your goals, situation, and region. 

Last winter I had nearly 50% loses and had to re-evaluate my methods, I was actually doing my mite treatments too late in the year to benefit the colonies, at our latitude (yours and mine) it is best to do mite treatments in August to provide time for the colonies to rear healthy bees that winter well. Four weekly OAV treatments in August turned out to be the correct key combination for me, so far this year all 10 of my hives are healthy and doing well and I couldn't be more pleased.


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## Spur9 (Sep 13, 2016)

WWW said:


> Yes hang in there shoefly, it's times like this that really makes one scratch their head, but that's beekeeping, you learn and put what you learned out there on the line and watch it unfold, then make future adjustments from the results. It's a slow learning process when one needs to wait another whole year to make adjustments and try again, patience is a virtue in this business. Listening and learning from sage beekeepers does shorten the learning curve but one must be wise enough to analyze whether the advice is good or not and what will fit into your goals, situation, and region.
> 
> Last winter I had nearly 50% loses and had to re-evaluate my methods, I was actually doing my mite treatments too late in the year to benefit the colonies, at our latitude (yours and mine) it is best to do mite treatments in August to provide time for the colonies to rear healthy bees that winter well. Four weekly OAV treatments in August turned out to be the correct key combination for me, so far this year all 10 of my hives are healthy and doing well and I couldn't be more pleased.


True dat!


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## brownbuff75 (Jul 1, 2013)

lost 3 of 21. But those 3 I wasn't surprised. I figured that they wouldn't make it back in October.


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## Reef Resiner (Jun 9, 2015)

1 out of 6. Too much moisture from condensation did them in. On a high note, it looks like the worse of winter should be done for here.


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## zonedar (May 14, 2015)

Reef Resiner said:


> 1 out of 6. Too much moisture from condensation did them in. *On a high note, it looks like the worse of winter should be done for here*.


As much as I'd like to hope so, I'm not uncrossing my fingers yet. Just checked my two today. One is doing ok. The other, mmmmm... We'll see.


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## aran (May 20, 2015)

I checked today as it is warm (45f)
--> just raised the quilt boxes and looked down without removing the inner covers 
All 5 of the bigger production hives are rocking along and all 6 of my overwintering MP style Nucs look good too...pretty darn happy so far.

Hopefully they all make it into the spring
They were all treated with oav x5 rounds in fall.
They all have sugar bricks and Mann lake winter patties although none have started consuming the sugar or the patties yet.


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## orthoman (Feb 23, 2013)

2 out of 19 so far-- both were small nucs and both were not un-expected as they were small --- as they say, take your losses in the fall.


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## Tejones121 (Apr 28, 2015)

1 out of 6. Split from last spring. Couple of hundred dead bees in a cluster. No queen. Mites on the bottom board.


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## ericweller (Jan 10, 2013)

I lost 2 out of 18 and I am having my doubts on a hive that was rolled by a bear in November.


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## frogpondwarrior (Aug 2, 2016)

2 to 3 cups of dead bees on each bottom board. Didn't see the queen with them. Tap on each hive an hear a roar. Found snow in a corner of the hive with the most dead bees. Not sure how it got in as the hives are wrapped with roofing felt. Thank god it was in a corner. Did open the hives to the largest opening on the entrance reducer. Mouse guards still on. Is that many dead bees normal???


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## aran (May 20, 2015)

Got warm enough today here that all hives had bees flying! Fabulous sight!!!


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## Briarvalleyapiaries (Feb 26, 2015)

All my hives were flying again today.


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## Falconite (Jun 26, 2012)

I opened my hives today and 6 out of 8 are dead outs. I'm contemplating on where I go from here. I had shb for the first time last fall. I'm not sure if that made a difference or not as the bees kept them at bay. Anyways I know the 2 that are still alive may not be come spring.


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## Briarvalleyapiaries (Feb 26, 2015)

Falconite, you may want to consider some method of emergency feeding. It could save your other two hives.


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## wild-b (Apr 23, 2014)

Checked today and have 8 left out of 19. It was a tough Winter so far, we had 2 weeks of nights below 0 and one night that got down to -25. Bees don't stand much of a chance with temps like that. Only lost 2 last winter, oh well feed heavy and early for build up and make a few splits, graft some queens from the ones that made it through the Winter and go again. I through in some sugar on newspaper on a few and took the left over supers from the others, combined the frames that had honey in them and put on a couple of the others. Should get them through the rest of the winter.


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## dennis crutchfield (Aug 5, 2016)

1 hive out of 16 hives.. due to moisture. one nuc with beetles. all the rest look real well. added sugar just in case


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## wild-b (Apr 23, 2014)

I think the bees killed themselves by plugging the entrance with dead bees when it got cold and thus the moisture. I have the small entrance and then a hole in a top spacer for air movement.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

still 1 out of 22, with a couple that cluster roar is getting noticably less robust.


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## Mike Gillmore (Feb 25, 2006)

Unusual temps today for mid January - 50's. Checked 2 of my 3 yards and have lost 1 of 15. Not sure why, I'll dig into it later. 

2 colonies had burned through all of the sugar blocks I added early winter, and I restocked them.
The rest of the colonies had clusters up in the top box, but were not getting into the sugar too much. 

Lots of bees flying, can't wait until spring!


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## rolftonbees (Jul 10, 2014)

I don't think I would count a colony as a Winter loss unless it was reasonable to expect winter survival in the first place.

For exams I had PMS in some hives that I started last spring as packages. I treated and they recover to stronger than expected states. They were still iffy going into winter.

If I loose them I will consider them mite losses not winter losses because they were almost finished in fall.

However if I loose a hive that had wintered over from previous year and grown to double deeps and were treated etc with two supers of honey and lots of pollen, those will be winter losses.


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## Mike Gillmore (Feb 25, 2006)

rolftonbees said:


> However if I loose a hive that had wintered over from previous year and grown to double deeps and were treated etc with two supers of honey and lots of pollen, those will be winter losses.


Personal interpretation of winter losses can be a grey area. For example, if I set up 5 nucs to overwinter, and one dies, is that considered a loss.?


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## Falconite (Jun 26, 2012)

Briarvalleyapiaries said:


> Falconite, you may want to consider some method of emergency feeding. It could save your other two hives.


They have plenty of stores left as did the dead outs.


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## sbrabec (Sep 1, 2015)

First winter for me with 4 hives and all are alive at this point. All 4 are in the upper box and one has started in on the winter patties. I did put the patties on the inner cover but after doing some reading maybe they should be on the top of the frames. These hives were checked a few days ago and I also received my first sting of the year. What can I do to help ensure they make it to spring being they are in the top box already. I'm in MN just south of the Twin Cities.
Thanks
Scott


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## Yorkshire Tyke (Jan 19, 2017)

Yesterday we had three out of three hives still alive, here in southern England. We have had a fairly dry winter (for England that is) and at the moment it's frosty and dry. We put fondant on all the hive on Jan 2nd and one of the colonies has taken quite a lot.


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## kitkat (May 23, 2015)

Lost 5 out of 5 maybe high humidity but went into winter the same plan as last year.
lost 1 out of 4 last year but not until March.


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## 109651 (Jun 26, 2015)

Zero losses of 14 so far. Run all with candy boards and no insulation, and plenty of ventillation.


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## billdean (Mar 5, 2016)

I have 4 hives and all are alive at this point. One of the hives seem to be pretty weak but they are still hanging in there, may have lost the queen. My best hive has a ball of bees the size of a soccer ball on the top box but they still are not eating the mountain camp sugar I have for them there. The other 2 hives are some where below the top box and seem to be doing well on their honey stores. Hoping for the best. Come on Spring!


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## rolftonbees (Jul 10, 2014)

Was out today. Fed who needed it and lifted supers to peek at brood nest as it was in mid to upper 60's. Was glad all 10 had a nice amount of bees. Two are still iffy in size but so far so good. I have had smaller clusters make it.

So no losses so far and its more than halfway there.

Looking forward to playing with wooden ware and planning for spring now. Can we say building frames and inserting wax foundation is fun.


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## StellaRose (Mar 23, 2015)

Knock on wood I'm three for three right now. I've got one that I'l be feeding dry sugar for at least the next two weeks. Luckily, I was able to get a couple of pounds on it yesterday before the cold sets in. Expecting below freezing temps at night for the next week with highs barely out of the 40s during the day (yes, I'm a southerner and a wimp when it comes to cold).


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## BeeDakota (Oct 9, 2016)

1st year bee keeper here. I've lost 4 of 6 so far. One appears to be in good shape. the other has lots of dead bees in it and a cluster that appears about the size of a softball. I doubt that one will make winter. they have plenty of food in that one too.

I'm very frustrated and about ready to toss in the towel all together.


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## Swarmhunter (Mar 5, 2015)

I know how you feel . 1st 3 years I lost almost all my hives. I almost quit the second year. I decided that I was going to learn enough to never get that kick in the stomach again. Spent months reading and on the web . Little by little it started to come together. No more treatment free. I now do sugar shakes on all hives on time, treating all hives when needed. Have incorporated Michael Palmer, Michael Bush, Mel Disselkoens brood breaks and other proven methods of feeding and keeping bees alive through the Winter. Either you get yourself a mentor or spend a lot of time at the local bee meetings, classes, and studying. Pull your pants up tight and get started! :scratch:


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## BeeDakota (Oct 9, 2016)

Swarmhunter said:


> I know how you feel . 1st 3 years I lost almost all my hives. I almost quit the second year. I decided that I was going to learn enough to never get that kick in the stomach again. Spent months reading and on the web . Little by little it started to come together. No more treatment free. I now do sugar shakes on all hives on time, treating all hives when needed. Have incorporated Michael Palmer, Michael Bush, Mel Disselkoens brood breaks and other proven methods of feeding and keeping bees alive through the Winter. Either you get yourself a mentor or spend a lot of time at the local bee meetings, classes, and studying. Pull your pants up tight and get started! :scratch:


Thanks for the encouragement. I've not been able to find a mentor. No one wants to teach the new kid on the block their ways it seems. 

I think i had bad queens as 4 hives never did take off like the other 2 did. 
Might have to come spend some time in Iowa


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## Swarmhunter (Mar 5, 2015)

I would love to talk and show you what I'm doing this year. I'm in the garage building Nucs and ventilation rims this winter. I'm going to have hip replacement surgery next week but I plan on being up and running by the end of Feb. I'm not very computer savy but there must be a way to get a message to me on this site. Where in S.D. are you? I checked on feed last week. 22 of 23 hives are doing great. Make sure the 2 hives you've got left got enough feed. Let me know. Jerry


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## Swarmhunter (Mar 5, 2015)

BeeDakota- I think you tried to write me a message but my pop-up blocker stopped it. Sorry- Try again. Jerry


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## BadBeeKeeper (Jan 24, 2015)

BeeDakota said:


> 1st year bee keeper here. I've lost 4 of 6 so far. One appears to be in good shape. the other has lots of dead bees in it and a cluster that appears about the size of a softball. I doubt that one will make winter. they have plenty of food in that one too.
> 
> I'm very frustrated and about ready to toss in the towel all together.


Though you may have several issues hindering your success, chief among them may be a lack of knowledge and accurate information. That can be cured with books, classes, and reading reading the posts here of people who are successful. Don't give up just because you don't know what to do.


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## BeeDakota (Oct 9, 2016)

BadBeeKeeper said:


> Though you may have several issues hindering your success, chief among them may be a lack of knowledge and accurate information. That can be cured with books, classes, and reading reading the posts here of people who are successful. Don't give up just because you don't know what to do.


Yep, I know you're right BBK, knowledge is lacking for sure.


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## Swarmhunter (Mar 5, 2015)

BeeDakota- I'm afraid I'm computer challenged. Sorry Didn't get your message. Just call me. We'll talk. Jerry 5634190877


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## Mommyofthree (Aug 23, 2014)

I checked mine last week when we had a warm spell 4/4 are still alive and from the 10 second look from the top they looked good. I stuck a sugar brick on top and am hoping to check on them in a month. And since I didn't do any of my normal winter prep I was VERY surprised that all 4 were alive. - They have no wrap, no shavings on top (although last year the shavings were VERY wet and I was guessing I needed another vent hole), no extra sugar brick on top. That being said Minnesota seems to be having a warmer than usual winter even with the -30s that we had in December. And I am hoping that they are still snug and warm and doing well in March when I plan to check on them next


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## Tenpin (Apr 27, 2016)

I've lost 2 of 5. 2 of the remaining 3 are booming, the other has a small cluster.


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## aran (May 20, 2015)

I didn't wrap this year...kinda an experiment , we will see if it pays off...so far all hives and nucs alive.


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## shinbone (Jul 5, 2011)

I have lost hives every winter. So far this year, 10 out of 10 are still alive. However, I don't stop holding my breath until the end of March when it finally gets warm enough that I can start to feed syrup. In fact, my losses typically occur in mid-February to end-of-March time frame because that is the toughest time of the year as the bees begin brooding up before the nectar starts flowing. And, personally, I feel just about any loss is my fault, too. But that's just me.

For the new beekeepers that experience heavy losses, it is a steep learning curve that everyone has to go through, but once you gain just a little bit of knowledge/experience you will quickly start to do better. I encourage anyone to not get too discouraged and try again this year.

My hives are three Medium boxes tall (equivalent to two deeps), with a top and bottom entrance for ventilation, 2" of pink foam insulation on the top, no wrapping, no quilt box, no sugar brick. I like to keep it simple - as long as the mites are kept at bay, and the bees don't get wet and have enough food, they can survive just about any type of weather unless you are really far north. JMHO.






















.


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## Christo (May 28, 2012)

14 of 17 still going. We're having a very unpredictable and out of the ordinary winter this year. We'll see where we are in 6 weeks for so.


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## charmd2 (May 25, 2008)

3 of 21 lost, but realistically 0 of 18. The 3 lost were October captured swarms. I mostly picked them up for public goodwill. August/Sept treated with Apivar and December 4x OA Vapor.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

temps this morning are in the low 40's with overcast skies, just a little wind, and bit of drizzling rain. i just got back from making the rounds to all three yards with the stethoscope and found i still have 21 with decent cluster roar.

this includes one that was getting robbed and had to be moved to another yard and one that hasn't been bringing in pollen on the warm days like all the rest. this keeps me at 1 lost of 22 that i started winter with with a couple being 'iffy' at this point.


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## shinbone (Jul 5, 2011)

Today was a warm day and I opened my 10 hives. I am updating my previous post to say that I have lost 2 out of 10 hives, and 2 more are very small clusters and are teetering on the edge as well.


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## Charlestonbee (Mar 26, 2015)

squarepeg said:


> temps this morning are in the low 40's with overcast skies, just a little wind, and bit of drizzling rain. i just got back from making the rounds to all three yards with the stethoscope and found i still have 21 with decent cluster roar.
> 
> this includes one that was getting robbed and had to be moved to another yard and one that hasn't been bringing in pollen on the warm days like all the rest. this keeps me at 1 lost of 22 that i started winter with with a couple being 'iffy' at this point.


I may try to move the ones getting robbed. Normally I just shake out the one getting robbed and open feed all the frames. How do you think that hive will fare come spring?


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

hi cb. the one getting robbed happens to be my longest lived colony with this being its 8th winter now off treatments. 

usually when i have robbing it means queen failure and that may be the case with this one, but i won't know until the next warm up. 

it's also possible that since i overwinter with the volume equivilent of 3 deeps and the clusters typically get down to 2 or 3 deep frames of bees that there is just too much 'undefended' room in the hive. 

another possibility is that the small cluster had too much brood to cover and couldn't afford to spare enough bees to 'guard' the honey stores. 

moving it to the other yard stopped the robbing, fingers crossed it's still queenright. this one and the one not bringing in pollen are first on my list to inspect.


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## jeeperrs (May 8, 2016)

I have 2 hives. So far I am two for two. But, one hive is a pretty small cluster at this point but the other is doing great. Both have a LOT of honey, so we will cross our fingers.


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## drummerboy (Dec 11, 2015)

Went into winter with 5 colonies, checked them on January 20. It was sunny and around 30F 

Three of the five colonies greeted me at the inner cover holes and were already eating the dry sugar left in November. My stethoscope tells me the remaining two still had living bees in them, lower in the hive, so all 5 got a honey/pollen patty placed near the inner cover holes.

Its 'zero degrees farenhiet' right now this AM, with a lot of winter remaining for our Northern bees, which will force us to continue checking/feeding until the first dandelions bloom, usually by mid April.

The weirdly warm January we just went through, while it gave our bees a good break from the more normal/average temps hovering near or below zero, also likely resulted in a lot of over consumption of stores as they would fly around seeking that which would not arrive for another 4 months!!..(lots of dead bees in the snow this winter)..

That and perhaps an ill advised increase in egg laying....in anticipation of an early Spring?

I guess we'll know soon enough... Good luck to everyone in 2017!!


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## LoneWolf (Feb 25, 2014)

Checked mine today. Went into winter with 19, down to 7 right now. I don't get what I am doing wrong. Treated them with Api guard in August, and OAV in September. I had the same issue last year also and only had 6 make it. Never took any honey this year. Most are all dead in there cluster up high around the candy board and quilt box. This is my 3rd year, going on 4. Very flustrating and hard to deal with.


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## llgoddj (Apr 11, 2012)

LoneWolf said:


> Checked mine today. Went into winter with 19, down to 7 right now. I don't get what I am doing wrong. Treated them with Api guard in August, and OAV in September. I had the same issue last year also and only had 6 make it. Never took any honey this year. Most are all dead in there cluster up high around the candy board and quilt box. This is my 3rd year, going on 4. Very flustrating and hard to deal with.


How were your stores going into Winter? If so many hives are dead, were there any stores left?


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## ericweller (Jan 10, 2013)

LoneWolf said:


> Checked mine today. Went into winter with 19, down to 7 right now. I don't get what I am doing wrong. Treated them with Api guard in August, and OAV in September. I had the same issue last year also and only had 6 make it. Never took any honey this year. Most are all dead in there cluster up high around the candy board and quilt box. This is my 3rd year, going on 4. Very flustrating and hard to deal with.


Beekeeping is totally local but my take is the treatments were too late in the year. Georgia is a much lower latitude than ID but I treat my bees the first week of August. The previous year I waited until September and lost quite a few hives.


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## LoneWolf (Feb 25, 2014)

llgoddj said:


> How were your stores going into Winter? If so many hives are dead, were there any stores left?


Stores were good going in as I took no honey this year and also added frames of honey from other hives I had combined. Stores still looked good from what I could tell. I did not take the hives apart or lift them as we have tons of snow this year and everything is half buried. Even the candy boards still had plenty of sugar on them and that is where I found many clusters that were dead.


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## LoneWolf (Feb 25, 2014)

ericweller said:


> Beekeeping is totally local but my take is the treatments were too late in the year. Georgia is a much lower latitude than ID but I treat my bees the first week of August. The previous year I waited until September and lost quite a few hives.


I did the same the year before, treated in September and lost many hives due to mites. I did 2 different treatments this year starting in August so I did not make the same mistake as the year before. Hard to treat any ealier as supers would be on. From what I could tell, it looks like they died in their cluster from moisture or cold. I know we have had -20 temps and more snow than we have had in 20 years, but I do have upper entrances on the candy board so when the lower entrances became buried, bees still had a way out and quilt boxes to help with moisture.


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## drummerboy (Dec 11, 2015)

Loosing bees and getting stung occasionally are the unfortunate parts of keeping them, no?


Agreed; All Beekeeping is Local


Not to open a can of worms, but we've not treated our bees with anything other than providing feed, brood or nutrition and splitting 'as needed' to any of our colonies since 2007. Some years we/they do OK...some years not so good. The winter survivors are always split early in Spring and those that survive another winter are generally considered 'adapted' bees and treated like royalty around here 

@ LoneWolf. My wife's Great Grandmother was from your neighborhood


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## Briarvalleyapiaries (Feb 26, 2015)

I was in my hives yesterday and one of them was dead. Looks like just simple starvation. This hive was a deep and a half from the Deep South so I didn't expect it to survive.


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## LDE-Bees16 (Sep 25, 2016)

I lost my only one. Had honey left, very few dead bees, no beetles, no sign of mites, some queen cups but no cells. Feeling defeated that I did not winter on my first try.


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## Charlestonbee (Mar 26, 2015)

Went back in today. I had 11 going into winter one got weak and then got robbed. Today I looked and lost another one. Out of the nine remaining one is very week and I think I may lose it. That leaves 8 good ones. I treated only using oav this year and have been chasing mites due to not having a broodless period. I'll be using maqs mid march and maybe apivar after I pull honey. I was hoping to be doing better at this point feeling a bit defeated. Hope this year is better. Definitely a learning curve for me going from 1-3 hives to trying to get to 25. I would eventually like 50. Good luck everyone


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## NicoleV (Jan 20, 2017)

So far all 7 of my top bar hives are alive as of last week and dealing with a very wet winter here in northern California. One had a small cluster the size of a grapefruit, but it was still raising brood. I swapped its position with my best colony, which already had capped drone brood in it! I couldn't believe what I saw when I opened them up! Hopefully the extra forager force will give the weak colony the edge to stay in the game and hold on until spring. I treated with formic acid last fall starting August 1st.


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## aran (May 20, 2015)

going to be mid 40s here in Rochester NY this saturday...thinking i would take another look, make sure there is honey close to clusters, remove empty supers, put on more winter patties/sugar bricks, and probably do an OAV Rx.
-> we will see if the weather man is right!


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## enus75 (Aug 3, 2014)

Lost 1 out of 6 Hoping the rest winter thru even though we have had some warm weather we could still have some really cold temperatures yet


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## Briarvalleyapiaries (Feb 26, 2015)

Lost another three. Down to 12 out of 16.


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## Jamiesoncd (Aug 30, 2015)

4 out of 5 done. Heart breaking


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## K9bees (Apr 8, 2015)

I am in central NJ and a month ago the weather was great so I took a peek in on my 3 hives, 1 was doing bad, not surprised by this it was weak going into winter, but the other 2 looked great lots of bees all eating the sugar I put under the lid. Last week we had temps that hit 60 and the next day 10* and 6 inches of snow. Yesterday we hit 60 again and I went in to see how they were and all 3 of my hives were dead....not sure what could have happened, does anyone think the sharp temp change a week ago could have anything to do with it? They had plenty of stores going into winter and still had some on the frames. I am really stumped here. I am all set to buy new packages and get them up and running again come spring!


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## ericweller (Jan 10, 2013)

ericweller said:


> I lost 2 out of 18 and I am having my doubts on a hive that was rolled by a bear in November.


The hive rolled by the bear is dead. That is 3 out of 18 that died.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

I looked in 8 hives today. 5 at my mentors house and not mine. Four of those were alive with three looking real good. Some brood in all. His biggest hive was dead and compleetly robbed out with no bees in the bottom. Then we popped the top on my three dinks. I had sugar blocks and so we just tipped my upper box. My smallest hive top box still seemed like it weighed 30 lbs and the bottom is not compleetly built out. All three hives were working the sugar blocks with one of them ate down more then half. I have mediums for my brood boxes. All still alive and bringing in pollen and not starving. 
So far so good.
Cheers
gww

PS saw lots of small hive beetles in my mentors hives and I got some more old black comb peices for all my traps.


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

All of my 14 colonies were out cavorting about yesterday. Checked their winter patty and they've hardly touched it in three weeks, so I expect they've got enough home-grown chow to keep them provisioned for now.

I know winter isn't over here yet, not by a long chalk, but I am savoring this unexpectedly warm week and watching my bees fly again. I am always braced for winter losses, so I never breathe easy until after I've filled out my BIP survey on April 1st.

Enj.


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## memphistigerjeb (Jan 31, 2017)

did a top to bottom inspection of my 7 hives on Friday. all came through winter so far just fine, even the box I've been worried over. its been so warm here there is already a pollen run going and they were bringing in wet as well. folks here are already rotating their brood boxes and after spotting all my queens & seeing egg, brood, capped brood and drones in all my top deeps, I went ahead and rotated mine as well. pollen patties put on a month ago were all gone and the hygene looked good, a few hive beetles is all. my wife was with me and she enjoyed seeing a few bees chew their way out of their brood cells and emerge. all seemed happy as clams right now but lets see if we get one last nasty surprise weatherwise in the next 6 weeks.


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## dixieswife (Apr 15, 2013)

We have had a very wet fall/winter and not a great one in winter success rate, just four out of 20 left. 

We know a couple starved and we may not have had sufficient moisture protection given how rainy it turned out to be. All had small amount of (now dead) bees left, most had dead bees on bottom board and most had plenty of stores. Lots of honey frames went into the freezer. Did not notice any deformities or lots of mite frass, though admit mites well may have factored in as we experimented with treating *and* not treating. Half the survivors are from treated, half from untreated. 

Surviving hives still surviving, have stores and sugar bricks. No good day to go through them yet, still cold and wet. Very curious to see how survivors are faring.

Upside: we have a whole lot of drawn frames and stores ready for use.


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## Peter Montague (Feb 23, 2016)

None so far but 1 of three is dwindling fast.


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## Dabbler (Aug 9, 2015)

First year beek. 
55 deg day in Buffalo suburb on Sunday. Checked my one hive. 
To quote Dr. Frankenstein . . . "It's alive !"

Good sized cluster, still down in 2 lower brood boxes (stack of 3 mediums). Lots of stores left. 133 lbs hive weight. Loving (their) life.

Stared winter with ~155 lbs hive weight, 2 " foam panels on all sides and top. Quilt box and OAV varroa treated.


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## Green Tractor (Mar 31, 2016)

No losses among 5 hives, all of which are doing good to great right now. Treated for mites and nosema last fall; fed 2:1 in Fall until daily temps dropped below 45. I combined one queenless in September with my weakest hive and it's now one of the strongest.

I reversed chambers (where needed) the last days of Jan/first week of Feb when it was warm. It was a mild winter in Southern Maryland. We have new bees already - actual moving bees that popped out last week. Plan on splitting a few before the main flow to hopefully help manage swarming, and to increase hive counts.


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## jonsl (Jul 16, 2016)

First year, both hives doing well. Yesterday was in the low 70s. They were bringing in pollen. Based on color it was maple or willow (yellow) and alder or elm (orange).


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## minz (Jan 15, 2011)

Found the relatives that I keep some hives at had disconnected the electric fence and plugged in the battery charger to the tractor. Cattle had pushed through and knocked hives over, and the tops off. Still had two flying and looked like they were bringing in pollen. That puts me at 2/5 in that yard. I shook out the top deep (every frame was full of rain water and the feeder was overflowing. I think the hives that survived were half on their sides let the water run out the bottom.


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## D Coates (Jan 6, 2006)

As per my walk arounds yesterday it appears all 47 made it (32 hives and 15 nucs) to this point. I saw bees entering every hive carrying pollen which normally indicates brood to feed but not always. I'll be a bit smart in a few weeks when I break them open for real but I'm cautiously optimistic.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

So far I have lost 13 colonies out of 21 this yr, of the remaining 8 6 look really good. The other 2 looked good but were low on critical mass which isn't suprising because they were very late spits last yr and then the fall flow failed. Of the ones that died 2 I will flat chalk up to mites, as they went in with big clusters and died with tiny clusters and plenty of stores. several had normal sized clusters and ate all of their honey, and the rest were critical mass issues and were all late splits. The cool thing is I have one colony that has made it through it's 5th winter TF a couple through their 3rd. TF and the rest were feral swarms last yr. I may have to re-think my no feeding policy on these dry falls with no flows


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## frogpondwarrior (Aug 2, 2016)

One out of 4 gone but that was a split last Aug. My original 3 still going but we have 2 months to yet. Lots of bees but not huge clusters. With the temps that worries me.


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## Walter Lawler (Apr 12, 2013)

Went in today to check things out. They had been flying off and on last week then yesterday all 3 were flying (50+ degrees) so I just wanted to see if there might be enough honey left to get them through another month or 2. they each have a full capped box of honey. I didn't go down past top box as they always have burr comb with honey in it and I didn't want cold honey all over them as it is not all THAT warm (mid 40's). 2 hives were from packages last spring and they are supposedly russian. Third is now in it's 3rd year and are italian mutts. if they keep up like they are now i'll split all 3 as early as I can get queens. Heres hoping they make the next 2 months. They seem a lively bunch right now and I'm pretty sure they didn't appreciate me in there although I wasn't stung.

Walt


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## hilreal (Aug 16, 2005)

Crazy weather, had a week plus of 60+ degree weather and the hives are bringing in white and yellow pollen from something. Been a relatively mild winter overall in northern Indiana. Lost 6/30 full size hives so far. 2 were completely empty, no dead bees, nothing, honey stores still left. Bees were there late November. Lost 2/15 5 over 5 nucs. One amazingly was from a swarm captured around the middle of September. Fed like crazy and it is in a south facing protected location. Of course, at least another month of winter to go so fingers are still crossed.


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## jeremy6638 (Sep 30, 2015)

Lost 2 out of 7 hives so far... Bad circulation and high moisture levels.


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## DerTiefster (Oct 27, 2016)

This is a set of observations for anyone who finds them useful. All eight of our colonies going into winter last September are still alive, all also deeps. Distribution and notes on any:

June-installed Italian nucleus colony double 10-frame deeps -- largest and still going

Carniolan (reportedly) queened 3-box, 5-frame split started late last June -- weakest but full of honey

Two Carniolan-queened (Chautauqua Apiary sourced - extreme S.W. New York State) August splits 3-box, 5-frame active

Two Russian-queened (soapandhoney.com, Chris Hewitt) July splits very active; triple 8-frame and double 10-frame

One Italian (locally raised) queened August split in single 10-frame deep, active

All of these seven colonies had sticky boards last summer and showed mites on them. But I didn't treat for mites because I'm a newbie and not very smart. I bought an OA vaporizer but lost track of the OA I bought (family re-sited it somewhere shrouded in mystery) and never treated the hives. All, for whatever reason, are still active. I might not be so lucky next year. And now, the eighth colony. I hope no one's passed out from holding his breath.

Eighth colony was a spontaneous late April swarm which took over a dead-out. I viciously re-queened it several days later with a queen from Rock Hills Honey Bee in Stafford, VA. The package I bought at the same time grew vigorously on syrup and swarmed out on me. I messed with it and probably caused its subsequent queenlessness (see "newbie" above). They reportedly were VSH-related bees raised/packaged in GA, claiming nothing special about the bees. One daughter queen survived in the 7th colony listed above, having successfully resisted introduction of a NY Carniolan queen before I realized the queen cell I'd introduced had remained alive there. I realize that the swarm-origin colony eventually was made up of progeny of the separate RHHB queen. For that colony and that one alone, I could never find a mite on its sticky boards. It is also still active. I'm very curious about it and hope to use it to generate some queens.

Most of these were post-Solstice, late-started splits. Disselkoen recommends such as an important part of his IPM strategy. I fed syrup through October and put small sugar cakes on some colonies in winter. It wasn't a harsh winter, and winter may not be over yet. But I'm cautiously optimistic. The bees were of varied sources/strains as an overwintering test. All have passing grades, so far. I haven't seen "crawlers" or deformed wing virus that I have the wit to identify. Wit may be the limiting factor.

Michael


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## Mommyofthree (Aug 23, 2014)

Super excited to report as of today I still have 4/4 hives. And they were FULL of bees when I checked them this week. So full that I got to enjoy the first few stings of the season as one of the hives did not take kindly to their gift of a sugar brick. Let us hope that they can make it through this drastic change in the weather this week. 

Early in the week we had temps in the 50s and today we are under a blizzard warning.


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## dlbrightjr (Dec 8, 2015)

I still have 29 out of 29. I'll be a whole lot more excited in April.


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## merdoc (May 4, 2010)

4 of 5 to fun to quit


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## Luke (Sep 8, 2003)

At my house in Kennebunk, ME I lost one late started nuc. Three hives and one nuc still alive. I checked my hives in Dover, NH today. Three out of four dead.


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## jcase (Jul 30, 2016)

0% loss in Port Angeles WA, one weak-ish hive due to damaged box (that I didnt notice :/) leaking water. Had a pool of water in it when I finally opened it. I think it will make it, warming up a bit, repaired hive box, tilted hive to drain water better, got feed on hives.

Building new hive stands today, 45f and all hives brining in white and yellow pollen.


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## Chris G (Feb 26, 2017)

so far only one loss out of the five , the one lost was a really late swarm I combined with a weak colony so I was kind of expected the loss anyhow .


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## genzer (May 14, 2015)

In central new York, 4 for 4 dead, sad! not going to wrap or use a quilt box next year!


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

You have more problems other than wrapping and quilt boxes


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## genzer (May 14, 2015)

Michael, yes I'm realizing this now, the next decent day I'll delve deeper and try to get pictures.Two hives were very strong so maybe a mite problem, however what I didn't like was the quilt boxes were soaking wet.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

genzer said:


> Michael, yes I'm realizing this now, the next decent day I'll delve deeper and try to get pictures.Two hives were very strong so maybe a mite problem, however what I didn't like was the quilt boxes were soaking wet.


Quilt boxes done properly dont get soaking wet!


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## Cjj (Dec 12, 2015)

I wrapped and used "2 insulation on top went into winter with 30 came out with all 30


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## genzer (May 14, 2015)

This is my fourth year and I'm far from knowing what I'm doing, here's how I proceeded into winter, I left all stores then a full candy box then quilt box w/ pine shavings 1" Styrofoam on top and 3 vent holes. Wrapped outside with 1" Styrofoam as well including 16" open base but left bottom screen open, made a large enclosure with pallets and wrapped them with plastic sheeting to protect from winters winds.


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## genzer (May 14, 2015)

Also let me mention I'm in the " land of lake effect off eastern lake Ontario " now here's where everyone will probably unload on me! I don't treat my hives with anything, this is 2 part- the only beek I know doesn't do it, second - I'm overwhelmed with all the chemical do's and don't. Okay I'm ready for it.:no:


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Sorry for derailing;

This thread has been for reporting losses and I entered into being judgemental, which quashes reporting.

It will be another month here before I can be sure of counts but so far all 12 are still buzzing. The got out a week ago for a good crap shoot but winter is back.


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## BadBeeKeeper (Jan 24, 2015)

crofter said:


> Sorry for derailing;
> 
> *This thread has been for reporting losses and I entered into being judgemental, which quashes reporting.*
> 
> It will be another month here before I can be sure of counts but so far all 12 are still buzzing. The got out a week ago for a good crap shoot but winter is back.


Probably right about that.

I could be in deep doo-doo- been warm here, maple and aspen are about to bud, Spring-like temps forecast until Friday then a rapid plunge. It's weeks early and they may get ahead of themselves, looks like I may have to stock up on sugar...


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## drummerboy (Dec 11, 2015)

BadBeeKeeper said:


> Probably right about that.
> 
> I could be in deep doo-doo- been warm here, maple and aspen are about to bud, Spring-like temps forecast until Friday then a rapid plunge. It's weeks early and they may get ahead of themselves, looks like I may have to stock up on sugar...



Agreed; Our weather is heading your direction and we could be seeing a repeat of 2012 when fruit trees and berries began budding early due to abnormal winter warm ups, then followed by a sudden freezing, which decimated the annual harvest throughout much of the Great Lakes region. ....as well as confusing many honeybee colonies and beeks ...

The 2 out of 5 colonies (mentioned earlier in this thread) we were concerned about do in fact have bees, but little remaining stores....So, we've begun to feed and will likely have to continue feeding until dandelions bloom...sometime in April...

Time to stock up on sugar is right on!!!! ....if we want to see any survivors at all.....


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## spencer (Dec 7, 2004)

8 out of 16. 2 are very weak. Plenty of honey from the dead hives to feed the ones still alive.


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## Bdfarmer555 (Oct 7, 2015)

Went into winter with 35. 30 of them lighter than I wanted(ppb). 

Had 3 queens that went from double deep hives in summer to singles, chalked them as lost, but one is kicking and brooding. Had a lid blow off and rain killed that hive. Lost 1 of my 4 "nucs" that I stuck in a 10 frame box and placed a wet super on before feeding up. 

31 left.


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## Tom1617 (Oct 17, 2016)

Well if you are a newbee, like me, and you don't treat you are throwing away money, your bees will die 99%... I listened to the TF people as well and all it did is cost me time and money... First learn the ins and outs of bee keeping then try your luck at TF with extra nucs that you can afford to kill. I even sent my dead bees to the lab... mites


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## drummerboy (Dec 11, 2015)

Tom1617 said:


> Well if you are a newbee, like me, and you don't treat you are throwing away money, your bees will die 99%... I listened to the TF people as well and all it did is cost me time and money... First learn the ins and outs of bee keeping then try your luck at TF with extra nucs that you can afford to kill. I even sent my dead bees to the lab... mites


Treatment free for 10 years....never going back. If we can get our bees to survive even one winter w/out treatment, the survivors are split and those survivors become adapted/treatment free Northern WI bees.

TF just takes a little more time and effort...but personally I believe its been worth it....for my own education and of course...for our bees


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

drummerboy said:


> Treatment free for 10 years....never going back. If we can get our bees to survive even one winter w/out treatment, the survivors are split and those survivors become adapted/treatment free Northern WI bees.
> 
> TF just takes a little more time and effort...but personally I believe its been worth it....for my own education and of course...for our bees


Thanks drummerboy, makes me forget my setback this year.
Still 5 left.


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## drummerboy (Dec 11, 2015)

SiWolKe said:


> Thanks drummerboy, makes me forget my setback this year.
> Still 5 left.


Yeah....set backs are mostly forgotten or left to the notebooks once the new bee season begins ....I cannot wait!!!! ...only about 6 weeks to go before dandelions...


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## Buzzed (Oct 26, 2014)

Three out of five survived. All my own fault of course. The two starved out. I didn't check on them for about six weeks. All five had "what I thought plenty" of honey stored. I was wrong. We live and learn if we're lucky.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Agriculture. After over 35 years of home farming I _still_ wish I had a crystal ball.

Trying to predict 'normal' weather and prepare for any variance is a never ending challenge.











I've taken my bees though several winters and every single one has been different.
This has been the coldest and longest winter for me. But after an exceptionally warm winter a few years ago, I'll take the colder one.
Longer brood break, slower to brood up in most hives is OK with me. 

I have several hives that started to populate up early and am managing those differently than the other colonies, low in the hives with full deeps of honey overhead. 
This colder, longer winter has shown me I have bees out there with apparently a little more Carniolan influence than others. That's been quite interesting. I didn't plug into that when normal spring weather allowed them to forage decently.

Small mating nucs I overwintered have taken a hit. And I'll likely loose a couple larger nucs to starvation if they get overlooked this next few weeks. I'm well aware I need to be very careful now.










Long range forecast for March is staying about the same as my Feb. 20's & 30's at night, low to mid 40's daytime temps with lots of rain and some snow here and there.

My heat imaging devise has been invaluable for locating colonies high in the hives that may need tending and for locating dead outs early so those resources can be collected for redistribution.

Anytime I can get that kind of work done early in the season, it frees me up for more productive, temperature sensitive work when weather finally does clear. 
I'll only have 100 things to get done in a day instead of 110.

I look at photos from the last season and they seem like such a long time ago.


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## Forgiven (Nov 17, 2016)

First check since christmas...

6/7 solid buzz on knock. 7th I heard... weak buzz. 7th was victim of a woodpecker attack it seems, got few new entraces, same problem with one of the others too, will have to do some quick patchup and find some kind of net to put over them to prevent any more damage. Only one had done it's cleansing flight as far as I could tell (hit +5C today, with very clear sunny day, but only few were flying around.)

Seemed pretty heavy all of them, not too worried about food situation, won't open them up before I come back from my japan trip, ie, some time in april, maybe.

Shall check on the hives stored indoors some time early next week while I move them out.


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## Forgiven (Nov 17, 2016)

I gather for most of you winter has been over for a good while but... ah well.

Finally got to near +10C, and thought I'd take a quick look to see what's going on.
Did not check for larvae, just for live bees and food stores and gave one frame of pollen to each live one.

Overwintering results:
Outdoors 7 out of 7 survived.
Indoors 2 out of 4 kinda survived, they are very weak though, and kinda low on food too, so I gave them some Apifonda too...
The 2 that did not survive appear to have starved. 21-22kg of sugar was not enough for warm winter indoors it seems. I presume they did not ball up properly and possibly queen kept laying a lot more and longer/earlier than the outdoor hives.

And yes, it's possible some are queenless, though they sounded allright... no alarming buzz... but I'll check on that later, not much I could do even if they had no queen. Actually, those two weak hives might need more bees, may have to check on the situation afterall, though I was thinking of merging the weak ones with eachother. (one of the indoor survivors was a nuc, and the only nuc I had as test.)


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## juzzerbee (Apr 17, 2012)

Southern Wisconsin...my personal yard I lost 5 of 5 hives. Oddly, 2 hives were completely empty of bees and they were there when I wrapped them in Fall..:scratch: Across town at the elementary school bee club I mentor has 3 of 3 hives still alive. I love bees...I hate bees....I love bees...grrrr juzzer


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