# Lost my first colony



## Litsinger (Jun 14, 2018)

HTB said:


> My apiary is still very young as I'm just at the 2.5 yr mark so mite issues could get worse from here and it will be interesting to see what happens over the next year, but I'm hopeful I can remain treatment free since my two original colonies with the original queens are still kicking.


HTB:

Good post. Up to this point have you conducted any periodic evaluations of mite load in your colonies?


----------



## Muddy creek (Jun 25, 2019)

HTB said:


> Full sized colony that is. I've lost a few small splits to one thing or another but this week lost a double deep. It was at an out yard and I hadn't done an inspection in about 2 weeks but at last check it was full of bees and looked healthy. This week there were no bees at all, dead or otherwise. Assuming mites, and will have to be more vigilant.
> 
> I don't usually go so long between inspections but have been quite busy and since honey had been pulled from this yard over a month ago I wasn't worried about space. I'm about to make splits so I will cover my losses but wanted to post this since so far I haven't had any that I count due to anything other than my own error. My apiary is still very young as I'm just at the 2.5 yr mark so mite issues could get worse from here and it will be interesting to see what happens over the next year, but I'm hopeful I can remain treatment free since my two original colonies with the original queens are still kicking.


I went treatment free for a few years in a row and losses of 75 percent or more were enough to have me make a change to oxalic acid vapor every three days for 7 applications. Now I lose one or two hives average. Last year no losses.


----------



## HTB (Aug 12, 2020)

Litsinger said:


> HTB:
> 
> Good post. Up to this point have you conducted any periodic evaluations of mite load in your colonies?
> [/QUOTE





Litsinger said:


> HTB:
> 
> Good post. Up to this point have you conducted any periodic evaluations of mite load in your colonies?


I have not and don't plan on making that a part of my routine protocol for the time being. This is the first of 38 colonies that has failed so until I see a need I won't be doing washes. If treatment free proves to be unsustainable I'm still not sure I will do washes but rather timed treatments and go from there.


----------



## Litsinger (Jun 14, 2018)

HTB said:


> This is the first of 38 colonies that has failed so until I see a need I won't be doing washes.


HTB:

Hard to argue with your approach in light of such good results.

I wasn't suggesting you need to be completing mite counts, but was curious what metric or benchmark you were using to conclude the hive failed due to mites.

Glad you shared your results thus far here on Beesource, and I sincerely hope you continue to meet with much success.

Have a great weekend.

Russ


----------



## HTB (Aug 12, 2020)

Litsinger said:


> HTB:
> 
> I wasn't suggesting you need to be completing mite counts, but was curious what metric or benchmark you were using to conclude the hive failed due to mites.
> 
> ...


It was really just my best guess. The hive had been cleaned out but I'm assuming it got robbed after it failed as I have not seen any robbing behavior yet this year. In other instances of robbing on active colonies I've witnessed there were a lot of dead bees.


----------

