# How are your winter loss rates this spring



## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

How are all of your bees coming through winter? What percent (%) losses are you seeing?


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## Dan Williamson (Apr 6, 2004)

I've seen 7.4% loss as of 03/01/08. Lost 4 out of 54 of my full size hives. My nucs however aren't fairing as well. Lost 7 of 11 as of yesterday. I've gotta do better with the nucs this next year.


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## kirk-o (Feb 2, 2007)

I'm In Los Angeles 
6 hives one late nuc doing poor 
kirk


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## Gregg (Dec 22, 2003)

Had 52 dead out of 480 by the time I left CA on January 20, about 11%. Not bad IMO, much better than last year.


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## Nick Noyes (Apr 28, 2005)

Less than 10% and very happy with that. What is yours?


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Nick Noyes said:


> Less than 10% and very happy with that. What is yours?


Hi there Nick,

I am running about 3% loss which I was happy with, but what I struggled with was brood production this Jan. I can only think it was the low temps of Jan that was holding back the bees. 

Action (beesource member) helped me go through the bees in Jan, sometimes 25 frames of bees and only 3 frames of brood. This was fraustrating at times.


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## MountainCamp (Apr 12, 2002)

Winter loses so far this winter are: lost (1) of (2) hives I thought would not make it to the New Year, the (30) I thought would see spring are looking good.

Spring is still about 7 weeks away with the first pollen coming in. The Popular and Red Maples should start blooming around the end of the first week in April.


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## mlewis48 (Nov 24, 2007)

So far, I have not has any dead outs. But I am no where as large as an operation as most of you. I have 8 strong, 1 weak, and 1 nuc that is hanging in there. Winter is hanging on far too long in Southern Ohio. I keep reading posts, from the South, about things in bloom and it is killing me to look out at 3" of snow. 
Keith,
I was reading a post of yours awhile ago about selling pollen patties. Have you got any for sale?
Marcus


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## Gene Weitzel (Dec 6, 2005)

I have lost 1 of 15 hives. Tried to requeen this hive 3 times last fall, guess it never took as it is still queenless and has just a handfull of bees left (so technically its not dead yet, but I have no hope for it).


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## Pete0 (Mar 30, 2002)

*Lost 2 out of 13*

We warmed up to the mid 50's yesterday afternoon. On 2 FEB I had 13 out of 13 making it. Yesterday, 23 FEB, I had two dead, small clusters out of touch with stores. Hopefully the others make it through. Now I have additional concerns with the frames of honey and our newest pest, SHB.

Pete0
Bena, VA


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## ScadsOBees (Oct 2, 2003)

So far I'm 9 for 9  The observation hive that I thought wouldn't is still hanging in there, even though it is only softball size cluster and 1/3 frame of honey left...


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## Jeffzhear (Dec 2, 2006)

I checked one yard yesterday since the temp warmed up to 32F, which was set up with sugar on top of newspaper and tar-paper wrapped hives. Five NUCs side by side (with Peggjams Carni queens) and then wrapped as one unit. All five are doing fine, one is working the sugar in a big way, so I added more sugar. Four full size hives all are fine. My weather is about the same as Mountaincamps so we have a while to go yet. I'm pleased so far.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

In my home yard I had thirteen full-size hives. In early January, just before I began stimulative feeding, I found one had gone queenless. I could have combined one of my five overwintered nucs to replace their queen, but instead I combined them with the weakest of my other twelve queenright colonies. So, technically, I lost one full-size hive. The nucs are another story -- one has just finished replacing their lost queen. It seems they may have been completely successful - I should know for sure in about another week. One other nuc is also queenless and has three ripe queen cells -- I hope they are also successful. So, despite some problems, my five regular nucs that I overwintered are okay for now.


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## CSbees (Aug 7, 2007)

I have only lost one. The state apirist came to inspect the hive as well as take samples of the few dead bees left. The laboratory results were inconclusive and the bees did not die of varroa, tracheal, nosema or foulbrood. The hive was strong going into the winter with a queen. The "dead out" was mysterious. My other hives are really starting to build up for the early spring honeyflow. They are bringing in pollen big time.


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## Black Creek (May 19, 2006)

I lost 1 out of 5, looks like they were just a few inches away from stores.


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## Marc (May 20, 2005)

I probably lost 4 out of 6 hives, two of those four I confirmed yesterday, two remaining ones are headed by Russian queens, so I'm not sure whether they made it or not. I am waiting for a warmer day to open them and find out. Tough lesson to learn, one confirmed dead hive died of varroa, second confirmed dead seemed to have lost queen late, they tried to raise emergency queen, but must have been too late to mate. Tons of dead drones in that hive, few workers, lot's of empty queen cells. That one I am real bumped about, it was my best hive, produced 150 pounds last year. I wanted to make some nucs from it this year. I overwintered four nucs, one made it so far, and seems to e thriving. I NEED one day of good weather soon or I'll go nuts...


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

Hi Keith
Yeah, that cold makes it hard to entice those queens to get with the brood rearing. Now you know what some of us Northern beeks go through.

So far 10% loss. True dead outs were rare indeed with less than 1% but after combining the small ones we have about 10% MTs. It hurts to kiss off a good queen but then if she was that good she wouldn't have been so small to begin with, I guess. 
I sure feel bad for those that had the devastating losses. 
Sheri


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## John Gesner (Dec 17, 2005)

*Hope I'm not jinxing myself...*

Two weeks ago it was warm enough to check hives. Out of 14 hives, one was dead. It was weak and I had moved it to the quarantine yard to feed it, but it didn't make it. Small cluster of bees, almost no stores left. They had stopped taking syrup in January.

Now, the weather here is too much like it was last year when most of my hives froze out or starved in the February four week cold snap. Big difference this year is that when I looked two weeks ago, all the hives had good weight and nice clusters covering 6 frames in most cases.

Still feeding two, including a cut out that I did in late September.


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## loggermike (Jul 23, 2000)

Right around the same as Sheri-and the same situation.Few actually dead but they might as well be since they are too small to pollinate.So they get combined and the equipment gets stacked to remake later.Sometimes those combines pull ahead , sometimes they revert back to dinks.Kind of sad to find a dink later on with 3 queens and none of them any good


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## Galaxy (Jun 10, 2007)

Currently, I have 18 of 18. All of them were started lasted year with no drawn comb, all from foundation. Four were started from packages in April, one from a swarm from a bee tree in early July, and the rest (thirteen) were from nucs started in mid-July to mid-August. 

The frames for four nucs came from the packages and the rest (nine nucs) from the swarm I caught. I lost at least one swarm from one of the package hives. Most of the queens I bought from Purvis Brothers. But I used swarm cells in four hives and bought a couple Russian queens from Long Creek Apiaries . I have been lucky so far.


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## Almond Grower (May 25, 2005)

Last fall I had 65 strong hives. Of those I only have 22 left alive and all but 5 are dinks. My winter losses are worse than last year but the dead outs look the same, heavy with honey but no bees. Some have a tiny dead cluster with the queen in the center and dead workers head first in the cells just inches away from capped honey.

After last years losses I requened everything, changed my mite control strategy, and got a new yard. During the summer my splits did great and were plugged out with honey by fall. I even gave them some new frames with foundation which they quickly drew out and filled with honey. They really looked great in the fall so I left them alone for the winter. I gave it a good effort to keep them strong but still lost 2/3 of them. 

I had to rent more bees to pollinate my almonds. Thankfully the bees I rented are strong. The almonds are starting to bloom and the weather forecast is excellent for the foreseeable future. With weather like this we should have no problem setting a good almond crop.

I will make splits again this spring and try again. If I have another year of big losses I will stack my equipment and rent my bees like most of my neighbors. I have been keeping bees for 15 years and have never had winter losses like the last two years. I just hope all the “real” beekeepers don’t get fed up with the losses and quit.


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## bleta12 (Feb 28, 2007)

I lost over 10% of the big hives. Most of the looses are on small clusters hit hard by Varroa. 

I dont know the losses of the overwintered nucs. I overwinter them wrapped together and I will find out some time in March when I unwrap them. They were really heavy in the fall, before I wrapped them and I hope they will be fine.


Gilman


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## michituck (Nov 21, 2007)

Lost 2 so far.
Went into winter with 6 regular and a TBH.
TBH and 3 others are thriving. The others???
Need something other than snow and ice so I can check them.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Got through about 1/2 my yards with a quick enterence check, about 18-20% losses. Its funny, some yards are well below 10% yet others are pushing 50%. Just the way it goes. The hives look very populous, so a 20-25% loss would be managable, thats if all things are considered.
I figure my indoor hives are going to winter well, so I expect a loss of >20% overall.


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## bwyatt (Nov 21, 2007)

Less than 10% loss so far. About the same as the last 3 years.

Bill


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## Maine_Beekeeper (Mar 19, 2006)

*Winter Losses*

So far one of my 36 colonies has died. 
I've got one other colony up against the wall of the hive (as seen by the debris on the SBB) but it has been too cold to manipulate/bring honey. I tried to bring frames of honey yesterday (34 degrees) but my interference incited agitated flying and it was too cold for those bees to make it more than a few feet, let alone back to the colony entrance. 
I abandoned the attempt, hoping the bees will be ok a few more weeks when I can at least shoot for a 45 or 48 degree day. 
If I were to try again, I would to the world's fastest"mountaincamp" and throw a super or spacer with newspaper and sugar - trying to remove a frame or two and shift things around at this time of year to fit in frames of honey is a nightmare for the bees. 

-Erin


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## WVbeekeeper (Jun 4, 2007)

5.9%, lost one of seventeen. Maybe I should have treated them.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Almond Grower said:


> My winter losses are worse than last year but the dead outs look the same, heavy with honey but no bees. Some have a tiny dead cluster with the queen in the center and dead workers head first in the cells just inches away from capped honey. During the summer my splits did great and were plugged out with honey by fall. I even gave them some new frames with foundation which they quickly drew out and filled with honey. They really looked great in the fall so I left them alone for the winter. I gave it a good effort to keep them strong but still lost 2/3 of them.
> 
> Same here, down over 60% starting with about 40, same description of dead hives. No treatments. Most have several combs of honey, little robbing, were collecting honey in September, dead by February. Scattered capped brood on many frames.


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## Bud Dingler (Feb 8, 2008)

*good wintering at below zero*

in western wisconsin where we've had many weeks of brutal below zero weather. 

over the weekend we had a nice warm up and we came up with 90% survival on 285 hives wrapped last fall. this is inline with typical losses for me. 

last year losses approached 40%, we had 2 months of way above normal weather followed by 3 straight weeks of subzero in late jan-feb followed by warm but wet march. lots of dysentery stains last year. 

this past fall i used fumudil on all colonies at half dose. that was the only change in winter prep protocol i made different.


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

*odfrank & almond grower*

Please read the threads about NOSEM C. that I posted, also the discussions on almond pollination and CCD.

Please, do something diferent this year, add something to the syrup, ie acetic acid, fumigillia, etc. at lest attempt something different. That would be the only way to get different results.

And yes your head will hurt trying to figure out what to do, but that's beekeeping in 2008

Good luck,

Larry


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## tecumseh (Apr 26, 2005)

at this point via kicking drone layers and combining dinks has accumulated to an approximate 7.5 % loss. I still suspect by winter's end the total loss will be about 10% (which is approximately my last 3 year winter loss average).


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

LSPender said:


> Please read the threads about NOSEM C. that I posted, also the discussions on almond pollination and CCD.
> 
> Please, do something diferent this year, add something to the syrup, ie acetic acid, fumigillia, etc. at lest attempt something different. That would be the only way to get different results.
> 
> ...


Larry,
Acetic acid from the studies does nothing for nosema, look at the avg loss here from these beesource folks. I don't see any CCD here.

Yes, fulmigilian will work will nosema A&C.


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## danno1800 (Mar 13, 2004)

*2 out of 40 hives so far*

I think that's a 5% loss to date...hives still heavy, lots of stores. I put pollen patties in the closest ones last warm spell & saw a little maple pollen coming in [lime green] -Danno


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

*Acetic acid*

Kieth, please read the xyz's of beekeeping, Acetic acid has been used to fumigate hives for nosema since the 1960's, I know specific beeks that have used it in feed for past 3 years and their operations are doing good.

More importantly I am suggesting, as you have suggested to me to change our ways and adapt to current conditions.

If the beeks continue to do the sample thing and get the same results, I believe you also would suggest to try a new method. Then monitor and discover what works

The acetic & fumigillian were just on my mind.

Other things:

Acetic Acid 
Fumigillina
Thymol
Bleach
copper glutinate
coliodal silver
trace minerals
honey b healthy
tm
tylan
vit k
The list can go on, would be interested to find all things that have been tried.

Larry


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

LSPender said:


> Kieth, please read the xyz's of beekeeping, Acetic acid has been used to fumigate hives for nosema since the 1960's, Larry


Hi Larry,

Acetic acid to be used as a fumigate is one thing (stacked empty supers).

Putting it in syrup as you suggest, is a horse of another color.

Keith


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## Ross (Apr 30, 2003)

One dead out of 36+ checked. That one starved, no stores, small patch of brood they were trying to cover, heads in cells. It was my buddy's where we share a yard. All the others are booming. 88 yesterday, 40's today. Spring is here.


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## dcross (Jan 20, 2003)

5/8 right now, expected two of those not to make it.


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## metrosean (Jan 10, 2006)

All four of my hives are are doing fine here in Pike County, PA. I have my bees dressed in black and they are living the good life on the MontainCamp sugar diet.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

>>Acetic acid to be used as a fumigate is one thing (stacked empty supers).


You dont want to put this in your surip! Works well fumigating though, so they say.
Thats probably what Larry ment.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

266 out of 400 are alive. You do the math.


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## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

sqkcrk said:


> 266 out of 400 are alive. You do the math.


Mark

Works out to 33.5%. Counting my mating nucs that were combined in Nov/Dec of 07, mine works out about the same as yours, a little worse at 37.1% or 85/135. Some of the combines were just too small.....


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Yeah, but think of all the money you've saved by keeping them in NY.


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## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

sqkcrk said:


> Yeah, but think of all the money you've saved by keeping them in NY.


Yup, you've got a point Mark.


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

dcross said:


> 5/8 right now, expected two of those not to make it.



Your percentage is like mine. Brutal winter. Cold temps, high winds, record snowfall.

For you folks in warmer climes:

Dec. 6 --> -16 Went downhill from there. 

My records show _average_ temperatures here at my apiary location in the valley of 18°F in December, 9°F in January, and 11°F in February.

Lowest recorded temperature I had so far this winter was -28°F. This extremely low temperature day coincided with the highest winds. One gust measured 61mph. There were some fairly windy days this winter.

So, if the bees make it, they are extremely hardy stock, or are wearing parkas.

MM


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Ian said:


> >>Acetic acid to be used as a fumigate is one thing (stacked empty supers).
> 
> 
> You dont want to put this in your surip! Works well fumigating though, so they say.
> Thats probably what Larry ment.


Hi Ian, there are some who have tryed acetic acid in syrup, one must becarefull, if one plans on extracting honey.


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## Hill's Hivery (Jan 7, 2005)

Lost 1 out of 6 so far. Feed with the MountainCamp method on the 5 alive. Same aas everyone else. We need some stable weather to check them again!


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

>>there are some who have tryed acetic acid in syrup

Yikes!! I would be very afraid of adulterating the surip


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## Barry Digman (May 21, 2003)

Finally a sunny day here.

I stopped by one of my orphan hives this afternoon to pull it apart and see what killed it. I wanted to grab the honey so I could stick it out with some other hives. Pulled the outer cover and popped the inner. There was a single bee on a top bar, and one moving on a frame of honey. Pulled the super and set it aside, then pulled the next super. Noticed a cluster. A moving cluster. Looked at the entrance and about a dozen were on their way out. Wooooohooooooo !!!! As Mark Twain said " ...the reports of my demise are greatly exagerated....". There are still 40 lbs of honey on board, live bees, and warming temps, so I've got at least one more than I thought I had. 

At this point it looks like I've only lost 1 of 14.


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## DChap (Oct 19, 2005)

Still have 15 of 22, put global patties on them two weeks ago then the weather went back to winter. It will be near 50 this weekend so I will be able to check them again.

Blessed Bee
Doug


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## Ronnie Elliott (Mar 24, 2004)

I haven't lost any, except one is doing poorly, I'm going to reduce that hive down to a nuke tomorrow. Yesterday on the news it was 88-degrees, today high was 54-degrees, tonight it will go down close to freezing, by the weekend it will be back into the upper 60's. You just have to love it, to live in TEXAS, this summer I hope to be in Montanna, maybe no heat wave up there this year.


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## newbee 101 (May 26, 2004)

*6 more weeks*

50%...so far


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## LMN (Aug 17, 2005)

Ian Quote;
figure my indoor hives are going to winter well, so I expect a loss of >20% overall.

Ian: Can you tell us about the indoor hives, how you winter indoors that is.

I had 15 down to 6 now, a lot worse than last year.


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## maddrone (Apr 5, 2006)

Pete0 said:


> We warmed up to the mid 50's yesterday afternoon. On 2 FEB I had 13 out of 13 making it. Yesterday, 23 FEB, I had two dead, small clusters out of touch with stores. Hopefully the others make it through. Now I have additional concerns with the frames of honey and our newest pest, SHB.
> 
> Pete0
> Bena, VA


I lost One of Seven and the rest doing great.Looking forward for the Spring


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## WVbeekeeper (Jun 4, 2007)

One of the best ways to increase your percentage of overwintered colony survival rates is by strengthening your weaker colonies.

*Strengthening a Weak Colony*


http://wvbeekeeper.blogspot.com/2008/02/strengthening-weak-colony.html


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

It's a little too early to REALLY tell around here but:

"Brutal winter. Cold temps, high winds, record snowfall".-- MapMan.

"So, if the bees make it, they are extremely hardy stock, or wearing parkas".--MM.


Same thing here and the snow around my hives is still up to my knees. The forecast is for only a few days [3-5] to be above 32F. for the next 15 days.

So far, all three [OK. !! stop laughing and saying,....Oh! Whoop-dee-do,.Whoop-dee-do] hives are still HUMMING! Good luck to all!


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## ClatsOre (Jul 27, 2004)

*Just did a drive by*

Had ten hives last year have 11 this year??? had two boxes of empty honey frames... They have bees in them this... had to be there last year just did not see them. So is that a 110% by the way I do not treat my bees or feed them anything but honey.... I'm a bee have'er not a beekeeper. I only pull the lids to do splits and get honey.... I do not kill queen cells and I have about Five to six swarm boxes around and pickup about the same in swarms a year.


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## Bob Harrison (Mar 15, 2005)

Finished feeding all hives today. With the mud I had to quit each day around noon since I started when the temperature was in the 20's and quit when the temps rose above freezing. Best Missouri bees I have seen in years.6% losses. 

I was worried as we have had a hard winter for our area and I had not seen the inside of those hives since december.

I did a dumb thing last fall when feeding or I might have had even lower losses. I am migratory and use migratory lids. I replaced about half my lids with a different style last year. I had to feed all hives around 4-5 gallons to get up to winter weight ( I use a scale with a Mann lake hive pallet lifter tool to weigh each hive). Takes around 5 minutes a hive. I write the hive weight on the box but never weigh again as I know the weight each gallon puts on. A couple yards only needed a couple gallons to reach weight but most needed 4-5 gallons.

When I came through pumping feed I noticed a few had full feeders so I noted full feeders on the lid and went on feeding the others. 

When I picked up those deadouts over the last few days I found the feeders still full but instead of last years feed they were solid ice. The new migratory lids had let the rain fill the inside feeder ( all my inside feeders are to the center of the pallet so I only have to slid the lid to the side to feed in cold weather) and I thought was full of syrup last fall. The bees died with heads in cells. Beekeeper fault. The bees were not interested in a whole feeder full of water. The next three days temps will hit 60F. 

I never had a problem with my homemade lids and not sure why these let water in. Might have been my help did not clean enough wax off the lid when they pulled the supers and the lid did not fit down tight enough. 

I switched to sucrose in 2007 and I have no proof but I really believe the bees did better. Bell Hill Honey thinks so also. All but around 25 hives a semi graded in almonds.

Horace Bell Honey in Florida has 5000 hives in singles for sale ( add ABJ). I looked through some while in Florida. Strong and all equipment is new and has never had fluvalinate, amatraz or coumaphos on the comb.


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## mbholl (Dec 16, 2007)

LSPender said:


> Kieth, please read the xyz's of beekeeping, Acetic acid has been used to fumigate hives for nosema since the 1960's, I know specific beeks that have used it in feed for past 3 years and their operations are doing good.
> 
> More importantly I am suggesting, as you have suggested to me to change our ways and adapt to current conditions.
> 
> ...


Do you have any details on how colloidal silver, copper gluconate and trace minerals are used in syrup? Or anyone who has tried these? Might just help to make the syrup nutritious and not prevent disease?


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## beehoppers (Jun 16, 2005)

5 of 5 alive so far. Lost the nuc in January. 
Lost 3 of 5 last winter to starvation. This winter I cut down the air going out the top, put the stick board under to act as a baffle, and put on dry sugar.


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## riverrat (Jun 3, 2006)

lost 2 out of 50.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

*Small cell losses equal to my large cell loses*

I lost a small cell hive in the last few weeks - same remains as all the rest. Plenty of honey, scattered sealed brood left behind. 

This one had an inkling of CCD: small cluster of live bees shivering on the ground out side, no queen.

I hope it is not contagious, I used the combs to build a good small cell nuc up to full size.


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## leamon (Mar 30, 2006)

*Batting a thousand (so far) 2 for 2.*

One is last year's swarm trap but the other is a swarm from '05 and very little mite control. I did sugar dust once or twice in '06 but did such a poor job it does count.
Hope and Pray everyone has a great year.
leamon


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

*answer to mbholl*

mbholl, I do not have any idea yet as to amounts of stuff to put in syrup. I am open to input. The goal is to keep hives alive. Colliodal silver came up as posible anti viral, and from English history " the blue bloods", born with silver spoon in mouth. From what I remember of history class there were to groups of people that survived the great plauges in europe, the Jewish & Artisocrocy. My understanding is that the Jewish people survived becasue of the cultural habits /customes of washing & the Blue bloods because of silver running thru there viens.

So, I will take notes of both and do my best to keep every thing clean, and find stuff to add to bee diet to increase the odds.


Larry


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## spunky (Nov 14, 2006)

*losses*

Have one generic Italian hive left, lost my small cell bees in december and my split Jan 10th. Generic Italian hive pulled thru well after 2 doses of OA 10 days apart. I ended up losing about 50% of the bees in that hive over the winter .


1 for 3 and I have lots of drawn comb


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## leafcutter (Mar 16, 2006)

I lost 2 of 4. (Thats 50% for those wondering about the math).

Anyone else notice that the reports of higher loss % on this thread seem to be coming from CA beeks? 

Not that a thread is in any way a proper study/survey worthy of drawing conclusions from, of course.


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## sierrabees (Jul 7, 2006)

Here's one more CA beek weighing in. I took 80% loss last year (38/45) after treating everything by the book. Went through and got rid of most of my old comb and built back up to twenty by winter. Stopped all treatments and decided to take a live and let die approach. So far this year I have eight really strong hives left. My losses last year had the typical appearance of CCD, but the dead outs this year look more like nosema or tracheal mite. I'm just going to bite the bullet and continue breeding from my survivors, introduce some queens from Honey Bee Genetics in May, and take my losses until I have stock that can survive without all these chemicals. Unfortunately someone moved in about 150 hives 1/4 mile from my best location so I'll have to use one of my worst locations to breed my queens or I'll have mostly drones from chemical dependant stock.

This might seem like a drastic approach, but I think we have put ourselves on a treadmill with overtreatment, and the more we treat the bees them more we will have to increase treatments. Honey bees have survived for hundreds of thousands of years without our help, but now we have helped them develope into a speces where the weakest can enter the gene pool and compete just as well as the strongest. I think we are starting to see the results of that policy.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

leafcutter said:


> Not that a thread is in any way a proper study/survey worthy of drawing conclusions from, of course.


Survey.....

I think it speaks for itself. Most that have posted don't have huge losses and some that do know why the bees whent down.

I think Barry could use this board as a nation wide survey for the USDA studies. Maybe even charge for the service?


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## high rate of speed (Jan 4, 2008)

*living in space*

I think doing a USDA survey might be a waste of time.Since last fall we lost 30% of our outfit,alot of keepers may still be in the clouds or their pride gets in the way.We all fight the same battles just at different levels.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

high rate of speed said:


> .Since last fall we lost 30% of our outfit,alot of keepers may still be in the clouds or their pride gets in the way.


Is that with or with out the skank's help? LOL


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## dcross (Jan 20, 2003)

MapMan said:


> Your percentage is like mine. Brutal winter. Cold temps, high winds, record snowfall.
> 
> So, if the bees make it, they are extremely hardy stock, or are wearing parkas.
> 
> MM


I went and shoveled around mine yesterday, got done and realized I had completely missed one that wasn't even visible.


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

It's been really cold in the northeast for a long time. I really have not looked into much since about the first week of January. I have however talked to many beekeeper from the New York and Northern Virginia and Maryland areas. And from what I am hearing, with no particular reason noted, thats its going to be a very bad year for losses. Tomorrow its suppose to be in the mid-50's, and I hope to get into some yards.

I think once the weather breaks, you will hear of many dead hives.

My personal feeling is a shortening of the bees lifespan due to a number of reasons has impacted hive kill. Late fall acid treatments, mite and viral issues, and a general weakness in the bees ability to over-winter for long periods are all issues. I also think that letting the bees brood themselves on the fall flow in the northeast has come up short in the number of bees needed to maintain cluster volume to survive the late season cold. I think that feeding in august to start a brood cycle prior to fall flow should be considered. There just seems to not enough bees to last all winter.


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## Mabe (Mar 22, 2005)

In Central Wisconsin...

So far, 3 of 12 dead from cold/starvation. It happened the week of the sustained sub-zero temps and wind. Sad, because they all had loads of honey...just not near the clusters. BIG clusters too. Interestingly, the deadouts were Beemax hives with empty _wooden_ deeps on top for feeding. The 9 with empty _Beemax_ feeding boxes are all alive and appear strong. Could be that little bit of extra insulation made the difference.

Mabe


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## MountainCamp (Apr 12, 2002)

"My personal feeling is a shortening of the bees lifespan due to a number of reasons has impacted hive kill. Late fall acid treatments, mite and viral issues, and a general weakness in the bees ability to over-winter for long periods are all issues. I also think that letting the bees brood themselves on the fall flow in the northeast has come up short in the number of bees needed to maintain cluster volume to survive the late season cold. I think that feeding in august to start a brood cycle prior to fall flow should be considered. There just seems to not enough bees to last all winter."

Bjorn, I agree that "ALL" that is done to the colony by mites, disease, and keepers to treat these problems causes a shorten lifespan. I also think that a major problem over the last few years, at least around here has been a poor or failed late summer and fall flow. 
Queens and colonies shutdown brood rearing early and the late summer brood are the "young" bees for winter.

I think that most know that much of what I do is not looked at as being "natural or normal" by many.
That said, I feed a light syrup in the fall. I feed a light syrup to extend the brood rearing of the colony. If i can keep a queen laying longer into the fall, there are more young bees to bring the colony through winter. 
It is not the old field bees of late summer or fall that will see spring, it is the brood of late summer and fall that will carry a colony to a new season.

I popped some tops before this last deep cold and I had lost (1) of the (2) colonies that I did not think would see the New Year. Of the (30) I thought would see spring I know (29) are alive and well, and (1) I am not sure of.


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## Tug Fork Bob (Sep 14, 2005)

I lost 1 of my 4 hives. When I checked on Jan 28 (temp was lower 60's!) they were alive and well with a small cluster showing on the top. Hive was still heavy but to be safe I added a spacer and 5# of sugar per MC method and closed up. Feb 14 I checked again & they were dead---3 or 4 mostly filled frames of starved bees with a small area of brood in the bottom deep and no stores at all in that box. The top deep had 7 frames of sealed honey and the sugar had not been touched. I blame the weather bouncing back from 60's on 1/28 to below zero by 2/14.

So far the other 3 are doing fine.

Bob


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## high rate of speed (Jan 4, 2008)

*2 dot*



Keith Jarrett said:


> Is that with or with out the skank's help? LOL


The skanks gone global now,whats next DANCING WITH THE STARS?


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## panubee (Nov 16, 2007)

*3 for 3*

I took a quick look into the hives this weekend, and all three are alive. One appears to have a very small cluster, and I question whether it makes it. I don't care about the small cluster since it is the only hive that stung me last summer. Come spring I intended to requeen that one any way.

I expect I'll need another 4 weeks before I can declare success. I'm not putting pollen patties on until April. By then I probably don't need any. I don't want them starving while keeping brood warm.

Mike


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## Flyman (Jun 11, 2007)

*4 for 4*

Inspected yesterday. All hives are doing well. Installed pollen patties on Jan 1. Removed syrup feeders on Jan 15th because it appeared they were nectar bound. Reversed boxes on Feb 10th. Yesterday 3 of 4 had expanded the brood nest to the top. Capped brood everywhere. A few capped drone cells around the edges. Pretty happy here. Sorry about the snow up north. That is why we live in Texas. Happy Texas independence day (today).


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## Mike Gillmore (Feb 25, 2006)

*7 of 8*

Well, after seemingly endless weeks of stubborn below freezing weather and a perpetual blanket of snow, the weatherman is finally predicting that tomorrow will be in the high 50's. This has been a loooong winter.

So I took the opportunity today to pop the tops and put in their 1st round of pollen patties and replenish the dry sugar. Only found one dead-out, the others appear to be in great shape! Ironically, the dead-out was my strongest colony last year and the only one that I left with 3 deeps over winter. I was planning to experiment with Checkerboarding on this one. Oh well. Took a quick look and found most of the dead bees clustered in the center deep... with a deep full of stores directly overhead. They just didn't move up.

Anyway, I'm very pleased with what I just found, after last years discouraging disaster. I lost almost everything the prior winter. We'll see what we have come April, but I'm very optimistic.

If anyone is interested... I fumigated all of my boxes and comb last spring with Acetic Acid, and the only mite treatment used last year was weekly Thymol fogging.


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## BerkeyDavid (Jan 29, 2004)

*9 of 15*

That translates to 60% survival rate. Looked in all the hives today, wind died down this afternoon and temp was 40 degrees, some were flying. Still about 6 inches of snow.

Surprised at some of the survivors.
First, all 3 of my overwintered nucs are kicking, in fact they are some of the strongest, overwintered in 2 mediums. (I know technically not a nuc but these were new queens from Bjorn released July 20, 2007) Bunch of mutts! 

The one I expected to be my strongest this year, a swarm I got in early June that was in a styrofoam hive did not make it! Go figure. 

That one and one other one on the end were not wrapped, and the unwrapped one on the end, a Tim Tarheit Queen cell I got from Tim also doing very well.

The ones that died were some of the strongest, in the middle of the row, wrapped well with tar paper and supers of honey left on top. No CCD, dead clusters in all hives.

Too soon to count my chickens I know but last year by this date I had lost 50%. I am really excited now, practiced my grafting tonight in the barn on some old comb, made up a new grafting tool. Pollen patties will go on in 10 days if all goes well.


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## John Gesner (Dec 17, 2005)

I'm concerned about what I'm seeing in the weather forecast for the week, but then there's not much we can do about that... Temps are supposed to be in the low 60's today! Sure feels good, but the weather-guesser says Friday and Saturdays lows will be back in the teens.

Two more weeks before I put patties on....


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

BerkeyDavid said:


> <snip>
> The one I expected to be my strongest this year, a swarm I got in early June that was in a styrofoam hive did not make it! Go figure.
> 
> <snip>
> ...



Sort of like one of Murphy's Laws for Beekeeping- the strong ones which you thought would make it die, and the weakest pull through. Same for mine this winter.

MM


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## Brent Bean (Jun 30, 2005)

Got my first chance to take a look under the hood and found 19 of 22 hives going into winter with nice size clusters. I gave them some sugar on wax paper to give them a boost. It’s still to cold here to feed syrup.
Last year I lost 13 out of 20 so I am very happy to only have three losses. Things I did different this year to last is I wrapped all my hives with tar paper. We also had a better fall in 07 compared to 06 better rainfall good foraging weather until mid October.


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## Hobie (Jun 1, 2006)

I'm refusing to count mine before the snow is done with.


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

Hobie said:


> I'm refusing to count mine before the snow is done with.



You mean in July?

MM


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

Hobie said:


> I'm refusing to count mine before the snow is done with.


"You mean in July?? -- Mapman.

Same here!! The winter for the ages around here is still going strong with 4 inches of snow last night; cold and windy today; DISGUSTTING!. The good thing is that the SUN is bigger [a lot] than the earth and it seems to be winning on the sunny slopes though it's only about 25 F. Another GOOD thing is that for those with DEEP snow in our area it is VERY good for the legume plants like the clovers which mostly, the bees love. For those that believe in wrapping their hives in northern climates, the sun is HIGH in the sky now and providing solar gain.

It may have more useful for me [thread] if most of the postings about losses had included whether the hives were a 2 deep/medium equivalent or a three deep and equivalent in mediums.


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

Oldbee said:


> "You mean in July?? -- Mapman.
> 
> Same here!! The winter for the ages around here is still going strong with 4 inches of snow last night; cold and windy today; DISGUSTING!.


A client just sent me this little Diary - I've taken the liberty of changing the original "Massachusetts" to Wisconsin. Don't know the author - thanks to whomever they are...



Wisconsin Snow Diary

AUG. 1
Moved to our new home in Wisconsin. It is so beautiful here. The city is so picturesque. Can hardly wait to see it covered with snow. I LOVE IT HERE!

OCT. 14
The Midwest is the most beautiful place on earth. The leaves are turning all different colors. I love the shades of red and orange. Went for a ride through the hills and saw some deer. They are so graceful. Certainly they are the most peaceful animals on earth. This must be paradise. I LOVE IT HERE!

NOV. 11
Deer season will open soon. I can't imagine anyone wanting to kill such an elegant creature. The very symbol of peace and tranquillity. Hope it will snow soon. I LOVE IT HERE.

DEC. 2
It snowed last night. Woke up to find everything blanketed in white. It looked like a postcard. Went outside and cleaned snow off the steps and shoveled the driveway. We had a snowball fight today (I won). When the snowplow came by we had to shovel the driveway again. What a beautiful place. Mother Nature in perfect harmony. I LOVE IT HERE.

DEC. 12
More snow last night. I love it. The snowplow did his trick again that rascal. A winter wonderland. I LOVE IT HERE.

DEC. 19
Snowed again last night. Couldn't get out of the driveway to get to work this time. I'm exhausted from shoveling. Frickin’ Snowplow!

DEC. 22
More of that white crap fell last night. I've got blisters on my hands from shoveling. I think the snowplow hides around the corner and waits until I'm done shoveling. That A**hole!

DEC. 25
"White Christmas" my busted butt. More frickin’ snow. If I ever get my hands on that SOB who drives that snowplow, I swear I will castrate him. Don't know why they don't use more salt on this frickin’ ice.

DEC. 28
More of the same crap last night. Been inside since Christmas day except for when "Snowplow Harry" comes by. Can't go anywhere. The car is buried in a mountain of white crap. The weatherman says expect another 10 inches of this crap tonight. Do you know how many shovels full of snow 10 inches is?

JAN. 1
Happy Frickin’ New Year. The weatherman was wrong (AGAIN). We got 34 frickin’ inches of snow this time. At this rate it won't melt until the 4th of July. The snowplow got stuck down the road and crap for brains had the balls to come to the door and ask to borrow my shovel. I told him I broke 6 shovels already, shoveling out the crap he plowed into my driveway. I broke the 7th shovel over his frickin’ head.

JAN. 4
Finally got out of the house today. Went to the store to get food and on the way back a deer ran out in front of the car and I hit the **** thing. Did about $3,000.00 damage to the car. Wish the hunters would have killed them all last November.

MAY 3
Took the car to the garage in town today. Would you believe the body is rotting away from all the frickin’ salt they keep dumping all over the roads. It really looks like a piece of crap.

MAY 10
Moved to North Carolina today. I can't imagine why anyone in their right frickin’ mind would want to live in the God forsaken State of Wisconsin.


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## Brent Bean (Jun 30, 2005)

Funny story that’s one of the reasons I moved away form Wisconsin, I use to live in Two Rivers. 
Now we live on the Sunset coast of South West Michigan, now when I hear it’s 20 below zero in Wisconsin, I just laugh because it will be a balmy 5 below zero here. However nobody told me about lake effect snow?? I never thought I would see 20 inches of snow with blue sky.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

MM,
that was too much. LOL


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## chief (Apr 19, 2005)

I have lost 1 nuc and 2 hives so far out of 12. The nuc starved and the 2 hives where weak from heavy mite loads and starved with small clusters next to lots of stores. I have another two that are looking weak and are on my watch list. My strongest hives are the ones I am overwintering in single deeps.


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

*Winter*

Yup! We have em MapMan,..don't we? Where is this "global warming" when you need it? Enjoyed the story!


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## tecumseh (Apr 26, 2005)

final report...

on the cusp of my yearly inspection via the state bee inspector my total loss this winter is 9%. it is a good idea not to discover dead outs while you have the inspector guys in tow.


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

Oldbee said:


> Yup! We have em MapMan,..don't we? Where is this "global warming" when you need it? Enjoyed the story!



I didn't tell you that the client who sent me the little story lives in Orlando. 

The snowplow in the story reminds me of the plow up here. The town plow has knocked my mailbox "off" three times this year. They haven't hit the post, but the force of the thrown snow has knocked my box off of the post. I have it attached with brittle drywall screws for just that purpose... It is a heavy gauge steel mailbox (vandal-proof - snow plow-proof LOL), so when the snow slams into it it will not tear down the whole post... Getting smart in my old-age, you know... Next year I'm putting a plywood screen to the right of the box. I only get bills and tax forms in the mail anyway. Sunny today. Enjoy.

MM


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

*Getting concerned.*

Now I am becoming worried about possible flooding where my bees are. They are located about 30 yards from a small creek. I know you aren't supposed to put hives in a low area but this is my only place now. It does get a good breeze from the west in the mornings because that part is open; not like being in a valley or something. The neighbor landowners said it has never flooded there. We won't be getting too many days of really warm temperatures for about 15 days; enough I hope for some gradual melting.


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

Oldbee said:


> Now I am becoming worried about possible flooding where my bees are. They are located about 30 yards from a small creek. I know you aren't supposed to put hives in a low area but this is my only place now. It does get a good breeze from the west in the mornings because that part is open; not like being in a valley or something. The neighbor landowners said it has never flooded there. We won't be getting too many days of really warm temperatures for about 15 days; enough I hope for some gradual melting.


I'd be worried too. But 90 feet should give you quite a margin of flood relief, especially if the hives are off the ground. Sometimes those low areas are great for bee-loving plants. I have just arranged to put some hives on a farm which overlooks a massive marshy area to its south. I have been drooling over the area, as there is much (invasive!) Purple Loosestrife, Joe Pye Weed, Goldenrod, etc. A whole valley of bee lovin' cornucopia. 

Last year we didn't have half as much snow, but we had a quick meltdown, and it caused some bad flooding as the ground was still too frozen to accept much water. We have some deep valleys in this area, and the creeks can run fast. Good for trout. 

MM


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

Oldbee said:


> ....... The neighbor landowners said it has never flooded there. .......


 I'd be concerned too. A few years back we found a new beeyard, the owner wanted us to locate bees on a peninsula of a stream on his land. He said it had never flooded there too. The second spring not only did it flood, but the peninsula turned into an island. We had been fishing in Canada and came home to a dozen panicky phone calls from him. All he could do from shore was watch our entire beeyard wash downstream. Of 32 colonies we only recovered about a dozen boxes. All the bees perished. I hope you have better luck than we did.
Sheri


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

Yes, all it takes is a strong storm to wash it all away. There are areas in our valley where the oldtimers told me of rain making the normally 3 foot wide streams "50 feet wide", and I didn't know to believe them, until last August when we had some nasty rains. They were right. Better to be careful, then to bee sorry.

MM


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## MountainCamp (Apr 12, 2002)

Today is a great day here in the Northern Catskills. Sunny and low 40's in the sun, 30's in the shade. The hives are all flying but (1). Put out a couple of trays of pollen sub and they are working it nicely.
Now spring and the first natural pollen sources are still about 4 weeks away, but of the (30) colonies going into winter -- all look good. The (2) colonies that I did not think would make it, (1) is still kicking.


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

That was a SAD story, [email protected] Oh my! Even though it's still going to be relatively "cold" around here, the Sun does it's "magic",....though it may be 5-10 degrees below freezing; 15/20F. tonight/day. The landowners where my bees are, are good stewards of the land. They have fenced off the small creek about 30-50 feet [1/3 mile] and a lot of tall vegetation [grasses] has been growing there for many years. There is also some evidence of former "banks" 20 feet away. If we don't get a big rain storm and temps near 60's in the next 5-10 days, we should be fine. 

MapMan: Yup, heard about about that,.....flooding; didn't look good.

MC: The Catskills. I have been reading a book about birds, written by one of my favorite authers when I was young; John Burroughs.


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## Yuleluder (Mar 2, 2005)

Bjornbee said:


> I also think that letting the bees brood themselves on the fall flow in the northeast has come up short in the number of bees needed to maintain cluster volume to survive the late season cold. I think that feeding in august to start a brood cycle prior to fall flow should be considered. There just seems to not enough bees to last all winter.


Sounds like what I've been seeing in my deadouts this year. The deadouts had tiny clusters that weren't even covering a full frame. Seems they just didn't have enough bees to make it all the way to Spring. I have about 66% surivival rate right now with 35 alive so far. I went into winter with 53 hives. I had 42 live hives a few weeks ago, but I think that last cold spell was too much for those small clusters. Preparing for winter will definitley start in August for me this year. I have found a couple of hives that seem to be as large as they were when they went into winter, breeders???.....


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## MountainCamp (Apr 12, 2002)

The Burroughs family farm was in Roxbury, about 1/2 hour west of here.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Yuleluder said:


> I have found a couple of hives that seem to be as large as they were when they went into winter, breeders???.....


Yes!! Raise some queens from them if they don't show any problems with buildup, Chalk, etc!


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## Mitch (Jul 7, 2003)

It is a bit early to tell here in north west Ohio.I gave all the hive a short peek or listen yesterday.I started winter with 22 hives and one nuc.I have lost 3 hives and the nuc.But more cold weather to come I am sure.Lats year we had a cold snap in april and my losses doubled in that week.More snow in the forcast for today.We hvae about 4inches of snow on the ground now.This is keeping the temps below average

I had a farmer who wanted me to put bees on his property.I thought great a good place for an out yard.But when i went to see where i could put the hives,He pointed out where he wanted them.It was the corner of a field where it was plan to see that all the water draind to that end.Looked as tho the water got a foot deep at times.the farmer insisted that was the only place so he got no bee hives.My area here in OH use to be called The Great Black Swamp,so one has to be carfull where to place hives.


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## Jas0n Bresson (Feb 3, 2008)

*33%*

Went to check my 3 hives today and 1 hive only has a handful of bees so I assume it's a gonner.All 3 were light so I tried the mcm and within a week all 3 hives plowed halfway through the granular suger and looked strong.The hive that is now down to about 200 bees has had allot of spoting on the front of the hive and a little on the top bars.I suspect nosema but what do I know. Can I use this drawn comb if my other hives are strong enough to make splits.


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## MountainCamp (Apr 12, 2002)

Jason,
Some spotting, could be simply dysentery, but without testing you wouldn’t know.
If it is minimum spotty, you could simply wash off the frames and boxes.
Is there any brood in this or the other hives?
How are the other two hives for population?



Scott


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## balhanapi (Aug 22, 2006)

Two out of two survived. going good at this time... 

They were bringing in dirty yellow pollen today..


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## Jas0n Bresson (Feb 3, 2008)

I didn't pull any thing apart because the temp was only about 44.The other 2 hives seem to have alot of bees and have begone to consume the pollen patties I put in last week. The weak 1 did not touch the patties. No spotting either.The suger and patties were pretty well covered with bees if that is any indication of the stronger hives.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Lost 2 out of 12. The two were extremely small, an OB hive and a small nuc. The remaining 10 are in great shape. I still haven't gotten to the point where I'm taking my losses in the Fall. Someday, perhaps, but hope springs eternal. Overall, I'm thrilled with my results. Looking forward to a great spring flow.


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## high rate of speed (Jan 4, 2008)

Like to see the chat about floods when it comes to natural deadouts keith.fsp


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## kbee (Mar 6, 2005)

Went into winter with 9 hives. Just checked them today. Lost 2 to nosema. The rest look OK but we still have some winter left here.


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## hummingberd (Aug 26, 2006)

100% but I only had one hive. I've ordered 2 more colonies. Hopefully I'll be able to keep these ones alive.


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## Sr. Tanya (Feb 9, 2007)

So far my three hives are alive and were bringing in pollen this morning. Hope it continues.  I have one hive that looks pretty full of bees. Hope to make a split from it.
Tanya


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## MountainCamp (Apr 12, 2002)

Hummingbird, where was the cluster in the hive?
Where was the honey?
How did you set the colony up for winter?


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## Pooh (Mar 8, 2007)

So far all mine have survived and are pulling in pollen and nectar so almost in the clear. But living in central NM is cheating compared to you northern beeks


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## Galaxy (Jun 10, 2007)

Galaxy said:


> Currently, I have 18 of 18. All of them were started lasted year with no drawn comb, all from foundation. Four were started from packages in April, one from a swarm from a bee tree in early July, and the rest (thirteen) were from nucs started in mid-July to mid-August.
> 
> The frames for four nucs came from the packages and the rest (nine nucs) from the swarm I caught. I lost at least one swarm from one of the package hives. Most of the queens I bought from Purvis Brothers. But I used swarm cells in four hives and bought a couple Russian queens from Long Creek Apiaries . I have been lucky so far.


I still have 18 of 18 and all are raising brood. By the way, I used Mountain Camp's sugar on newspaper on top of the frames approach in 15 of these hives, 5 lbs. on each hive. Some consumed all of the sugar, some part, and a couple very little of the sugar. I used 1.5 inch shims rather than an empty super. I will definitely use this approach in the future.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

*Fruit bloom is no cure*

Not only have I lost over 50%, my recent inspections of only four hives have found:
weak nuc with heavy chalkgrood
weak hive with eggs, excess drones, drone brood and a queen cell, didn't see a queen but egg pattern was OK,
two queenless hives.
Three of these hives were fine six weeks ago. 
And my first swarm caught was only 3 1/2 medium frames.


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## acb's (Apr 14, 2007)

Our fourth winter and first year of losing hives. This was our first year of trying to bring single boxes through the winter and I sure picked the wrong year. Lost 11 of 39. 3 were double deeps and 8 were single box nucs. Out of 3 different beeyards: lost 8 of 19 in one, lost 3 of 11 in another, and 9 of 9 in the other yard survived and are going strong. The yard where all survived is about 10 miles south of the others and it had a few showers last fall the other yards didn't get. Could have been just enough to make a difference.
All but one of those I lost had small clusters with the queen in the middle and some stores left. The one still had a surviving queen, but with few bees. She wasn't laying, so I pinched her and put the box with the bees on top of the single next to it. Finally got warm enough yesterday for me to clean up the deadouts and add the boxes with the stores to some of the other singles that survived. Some had small enough numbers that I felt they had a better chance if i left them in a single until it gets warmer. Have one with just enough bees to cover the 2 sides of the frames facing each other, but she's laying, she may make it, yet. 
Some of you others had the same problem we did here. A horribly dry fall and a long winter with several periods of bitter cold. Just didn't have enough population with the early brood shutdown in the fall to make it through the kind of winter we had. I'm sure had I tried to do this last year the losses would have been greatly reduced. They had all survived till just past Christmas when we had a bitter cold spell and lost 4. Another cold hit got 3 more a little over a week later. Another bad hit recently took the rest. At this point all the survivors are laying with the strongest having some capped brood.
Thought I might have a few nucs to sell this spring. Maybe next year.
Praying for warmer weather.
Arvin


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

So far, the winter hasn't been too bad...but still have a foot of snow on the ground, and can't drive into the yards. I've checked my nuc yards, and the colonies they are wintering on. 

I've lost 10% of the production colonies. Haven't checked their strength, because I'm not ready to unwrap.

4 frame nucs...341 nice, 23 weak, and 28 dead. Should have enough nucs to replace my winter losses, requeen any weak colonies, and rebuild my apiaries to my operating level of 750 to 800 colonies.

Mating nucs...111 nice, 3 weak, and 34 dead. I'll have more than enough brood and bees on mating nuc frames to fully stock my 540 mating nucs...and have a hundred queens for spring use. 

Who says you can't have northern raised queens in spring. I have 450 of them just starting to raise brood...and it's only March 14.


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## Jesse (May 15, 2006)

*NOT a good winter*

both fellow beekeepers on this island have lost all of their hives ( only 6 total ) and I'm 3 of 8 not medicated.

A very long winter and the three remaining were started this year on packages - 1 russian (of 2) and 2 ( NWC of 4 ) the others died plus 1 - second year italian and 1 - 3rd year italian.

All 8 were strong going into November - poly hives, low mite count, screened bottom boards- I have been medication free for 3 years - but I might have to go to some organic treatments after this year. The previous two winters I was 4 of 6.

I don't have the time I wish I had to spend with them in the summer.


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## denny (Aug 2, 2006)

I went into the winter with 14 hives, ..and all of them are alive and well , with a few that will most likely be booming with bees come April . This is the second winter I've been using MountainCamp's methods of wrapping with tarpaper or BetterBee's black hivewrap, using empty medium super at top for feeding space for syrup jars, dry sugar on paper, ...and started feeding Pollen Patties at beginning of March. I make sure there's an upper ventilation hole near the top of the hives, as well as one in the front of the upper most brood chamber.
I've been making my own pollen patties with 50-50 mix of Brewer's Yeast & Mann Lake's BeePro , adding 10-15% pollen trapped from my bees last summer, mixed with sugar syrup & a little olive oil. The bees are really taking it down.

Another beekeeper not too far away lost both her hives to Nosema, and they lacked proper upper ventilation holes.When we looked in on them last week, the inner covers were very damp, and the undersides of the outer covers were wet, too. She hadn't been feeding them anything, although there seemed to be plenty of stores.


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## allrawpaul (Jun 7, 2004)

Lost one of 1 of 13. PMS killed the dead out. They showed symptoms in early winter so I wasnt surprised. Have one very small hive and one very large, the rest look pretty good. All are taking sugar syrup with fumigillin. The large hive I gave a drawn super from the dead out. They quickly moved into it and they are guzzling a quart a day of syrup. I have dry sugar and fondant on some hives which the bees are working on. Some hives tossed out a lot of their dry sugar. They like fondant though! Tried feeding with topfeeders on some hives but none took the syrup. Had to use jars directly over inner cover holes. Fogged for the first time with fgmo a week ago. Thinking about reversing and checkerboarding the larger hives very soon. supposed to be showery and less than 50degrees for the next week. Lots of pollen available here. A few days ago witnessed several colors(6) coming in. My nuc is doing great. They drank a quart of syrup in two days and brought in lots of pollen when the weather got decent. Very excited to try nectar-management this season! Winters are very mild here. The dry sugar helped with the damp, but still seeing a lot of condensation in the empty feeder deeps on top of the hives. Bees now drinking that water.


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## beehoppers (Jun 16, 2005)

Well I spoke too soon. Put formic on Monday and found 1 of the 5 dead. A deep with2 mediums. They ate almost all the deep and the queen laid a little patch of brood on facing deep frames. That is where they starved...


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## IBEEME (Apr 21, 2005)

*So far so good*

Went into winter with 5 and as of March 13 all were still doing well. Gave them some pollen substitute and will start feeding soon. I want to expand my numers 2X this summer.

Randy


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## Tia (Nov 19, 2003)

*Them Vermints!*

I lost one to voles!!! The hives are on 21" stands, but the buggers managed to invade nonetheless! I immediately put entrance reducers on my remaining 6 hives. Did my spring inspection/manipulation the other day and I've never seen my hives so strong! Wall-to-wall bees, brood, honey & pollen! Even better news is that the drone brood I cracked open when I did my inspection revealed no varroa. Now to keep them from swarming!


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