# Canadian wnter losses



## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

Thanks JM. Glad to hear there is no disaster there.

Haven't started any work here, but I did check 50 or so yesterday since it was so warm. Didn't find any dead hives. Big populations. Lots of feed. Freshly hatched bees, and lots of capped brood.

What I found most encouraging was the amount of stored Pollen I found. From last fall of course. I have not noticed that most years. 

We have had a mild winter here in ontario. Lots of "winter" left though.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Those girls are brooding indoors?


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

Last year the came out with lots of brood. We have 2/3 outdoors. These are the ones I looked at yesterday.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

That's interesting, I keep looking after set out and have yet to see brood
For some reason I thought you have them all inside, just your nucs?


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## swarm_trapper (Jun 19, 2003)

Do you do anything to your temps or Humidity in the sheds B&E to get them to Brood? I just looked at a hive indoors yesterday and not a cell of Brood.


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Brian:

Nice to see and hear. Caspian bees are very good at storing pollen and keeping some on hand. I think you had raised a bunch of queens from them. This would help explain the pollen you are seeing. Happy that your bees seem to be in good shape.

Guys were out again today. More of the same. We wintered about one third or so of our hives as singles and they are looking good.

Jean-Marc


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

In a word; no. Nothing special. I deliver air at 4c which keeps the return air at about 6c. So maybe it's a bit warmer than most sheds. I didn't expect them to brood last year , but they sure did.


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

All nucs and singles are inside. And the doubles are outside. 192 doubles in as a comparison. Going to actually calculate the value of each this spring based on percentages. 200 singles outside as well, just to compare .


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Oh I loved the day I switched to single management


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Swarm Trapper:

In my conversations with beekepers that winter indoors, no brood is very typical, perhaps small patches just before being set outdoors again. B&E's situation with capped brood is outside the norm, perhaps beginner's luck, just to trick him into building 2 more sheds, and never see it again lol
I don't winter indoors although I would like to have a shed. The darned moisture over her is pretty tough at times.

Guys went through another 625 hives today. Only 4% dead, we has quit a few singles in the mix.

Jean-Marc


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

It's hard to tell what my wintering losses will look like, peaking through the entrances can be deceiving both ways.
But March typically is a ***** for hives falling off,


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

I'm really not sure why they brooded indoors. But if you recall the serious of articles by RO, he cited a study from the 80's in MB in which half or more of the lives bees in colonies pulled from sheds in the spring were not present in the fall when the bees went inside. They had gone through the trouble of counting and marking each bee. Which gave clear data to the amount of brood reared while inside.

Interesting bugs they are....


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Wish I could pull a hive apart and look... can't bare the punishment. Lol 
I typically count round one starting a few days out of the shed. Helps to have patties on and open dry supplement and a splash of syrup to get them brooding.


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

B&E said:


> Thanks JM. Glad to hear there is no disaster there.
> 
> Haven't started any work here, but I did check 50 or so yesterday since it was so warm. Didn't find any dead hives. Big populations. Lots of feed. Freshly hatched bees, and lots of capped brood.
> 
> ...


I looked through a yard on Sunday and pretty much found the same - didn't check for brood, but stores and bees looked pretty good. No dead hives.


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

I have an observation hive in the house and they seem to always have a small patch of brood. Perhaps at 5+ deg C, shed colonies do the same.


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

Good to hear. I have heard many rumblings of guys that let mites get the upper hand last smer/fall. There will be some high loses out there. I didn't see any signs of mite pressure.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Makes me nervous


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Producer here (small) has taken my advice to treat Apivar to control mites. 
He's experiencing total hive crash right now...
Apivar may have run its course


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

Mites were tough last fall. Was really glad I checked post treatment. Hopefully all that OAV fogging paid off.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

What was the mite load and when did he treat? It matters even with apivar.


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## grozzie2 (Jun 3, 2011)

I have started getting reports from our neck of the woods here on the island, and a trend is emerging.

Those who did a mid season mite knockdown and another in the fall are reporting strong colonies in February. Those who did only a fall knockdown are asking where they can buy packages and/or nucs. The interesting thing, there is no correlation with beekeeping experience. On one end of the spectrum, I talked to an old timer (full time beekeeper since the early 60's till he retired, keeps a dozen colonies today), did only a fall knockdown, and has 100% loss this year. On the other end of the spectrum, rank beginner with a single hive, did a good mite knockdown in late June, and another in late August. Strong hive with bees on 7 frames 2 days ago.

I'll be talking with folks from all over the province next week in Kamloops. I'm really interested in seeing if this correlation holds true over the rest of the province.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

zhiv9 said:


> Mites were tough last fall. Was really glad I checked post treatment. Hopefully all that OAV fogging paid off.


You and me both


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Michael Palmer said:


> What was the mite load and when did he treat? It matters even with apivar.


Spring treatment with Apivar, mimics my treatment regimen. , except I did a couple of off the cuff OAV treatments late fall after I realized my earlier fall shake samples had grown


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

Myself and a neighbor both tested last fall after hearing many alarmingly hi reports of high counts post treatment. We didn't find a mite in November. We both used apivar.


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## Maybee Apiaries (Jun 23, 2016)

Ian said:


> Spring treatment with Apivar, mimics my treatment regimen. , except I did a couple of off the cuff OAV treatments late fall after I realized my earlier fall shake samples had grown


So, did he treat in spring 2016, then nothing the rest of the year? If his hives are crashing now, I don't think it's fair to say the Apivar didn't work. With the warm winter and early spring last year, I think the mites got such a head start that the strips didn't do a complete job. 
Rumours are we are to leave strips in for a full 8 weeks to get better efficacy.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

That's what I've done for the last 5 years. I know many who just treat in the fall.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

Just an anecdotal report. I winter outdoor in wrapped doubles with mountain camp on top. I got greedy and didn't pull supers until late in September and lost 2/3 of them to mites in a prize location still producing honey. **** expensive honey. The rest of my colonies were treated in August with Apiguard, 50ML on a card placed on the top bars at center of lower hive body and the upper lowered right on to it. I have less than 10% loss on those. They were all treated with Apivar in March/April last spring. I do not think Apivar is doing what it needs to anymore.


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

Would you welcome some bees with mite resistance? Serious question, just looking for a few people to say if they would have the gumption to give them a trial.


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## Adam Foster Collins (Nov 4, 2009)

Fusion_power said:


> Would you welcome some bees with mite resistance? Serious question, just looking for a few people to say if they would have the gumption to give them a trial.


I would.


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

Sounds like it worked. You had strong bees to produce a crop. 2016 was a big year for mites as we all know. I also know a guy who had the biggest crop of his life and pulled off his record crop from hives with zero bees below the excluder. That doesn't mean Apivar didn't work. It means the mites had been reproducing at an astounding rate since spring.


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## ABruce (Dec 27, 2013)

Not a commercial bee keeper, But I came out of last spring with five decent hives , I didn't buy any more import bees. I bought local queen cells and got to late fall with 29 hives. I screwed up , I didn't realize we had a killing frost in early September and then warm temps till mid November. The feed i gave them they burnt up flying around and by the time I realized they were light it got too cold for them to utilize 2-1 sugar. I went in to winter lighter than I should have and we had a colder and much longer winter than normal. I put on sugar blocks and hoped for a mild winter.Finally at plus 1 c today I opened the hives. 29 in, one failed in the fall, two failed since then 26 are allive 24 are actually as strong as I have ever had. I added a pound of sugar brick and half a pollen patty and put them back together with hope. So 26 out of 29 and my singles seem tohave overwintered stronger than the doubles. 
I treated last Feb 14 with Apivar, and August 30 with 65 % formic on Mite gone pads. I installed Apivar today, would love to figure out how to add OAV to the mix either to replace the Apivar or at least get each treatment out to 18 months rotation.
I am feeling pretty good, just poured a stiff drink of good Canadian Rye, maybe I will start to understand how to do this.


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## dgl1948 (Oct 5, 2005)

We are about half way through our hives and losses are at 9 percent. Some of our hives are still under snow and a couple of yards we cannot get to just yet.


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## dgl1948 (Oct 5, 2005)

One of the things we are facing this spring. This yard was drifted in. If you take note of the four small circles in the snow there are hives under there. The heat produced by the bees has melted four chimney like vents through the snow.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I just set mine all out, I have not had a chance to assess. But spot checks show good signs 
Because of no frost and banks of snow I had to place all my hives in an old reclaimed gravel pit. 1500 hives is a lot for one spot, and as you can see first flight was a bit busy. Things sorted out within an hour and straight to foraging supplement


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

Ian
Did you use a fork truck? 1500 is a lot of hive moving.
Cheers
gww


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

My back


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

Ian
Hey man, thanks for the pictures. 1500 is still a lot of work but thanks for showing me how the other side lives.
gww


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

Ian, did you try alternating orientation of every other skid in order to minimize drift? Just curious. Although you have many colours of boxes, so that helps tons.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Well, I focus more attention towards pointing the entrance down hill to help keep the water from pooling on the bottom boards. 
I don't have those Lewis sloped bottles boards on my two way pallets


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

Good idea...


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

They look great btw! I'm waiting expecting to see pics of capped brood really soon.


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## babybee (Mar 23, 2012)

Do you have any drift on their first flight out of the shed? Or do they stay pretty well even?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I'll be into the hives tomorrow, camera in hand lol
babybee, drifting, yes and no. There has got to be some drift with millions in the air, I'm not exaggerating, first flight in a yard this size is spectacular. One of my favourite times of the year. That pic either shows lost bees or sunning bees, I counted 12 like that. In an hour they settled in and were foraging my supplement


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Brian, I'm only finding small patches, but brood nevertheless. 
These were placed out on Wednesday night. That's 3 days ago. You can't see it but the frame is full of eggs and maturing larvae. A good portion of that large are older than 3 days, and solid unlike the existing capped brood. Those were laid inside, but the pattern is way more pronounced than the capped...
I'm not sure what would of triggered that.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

As for Jean-Marc's OP;
Well, the bees aren't there. 
Mostly all hives are alive but 20% will count as 2-3 frames
No big 8-9 framers this spring.
They all fall under the 4-5 count.
Hauling them out, I peaked under the lids. Hives look big from the top 
Not sure what to make of this yet


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

The Brood in the frames is encouraging, it's even possible that they had already had some hatch in the shed.

Ours also look amazing from the top, but as you know the true test on a single is to tip it forward and look from bottom as you have done. We see many that are also four or five frames. But we do have lots that are very big hives.

I bet on that first flight they lost a frame or two of bees. I don't think that has anything to do with the size of the yard, that is very common for bees coming out of a shed and then flying hard for the first time. In my opinion anyway


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Maybe, from what I see the bees tucked themselves back in after that flight. Nothing looked out of place, or un usual. 
Unless something else is going on...
But you should see the aggressive nature towards the dry supplement. After it like you would see robbers after spilt syrup. Lots of brooding going on.


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

Hello everyone. It's been awhile since I've been on here or posted something. 

On January 16th was my first outing to check weights and put on sugar. At that point we had 9% loss.

On March 4 we put on the first patties and got a better look, we were at 11% loss. (4 queen problems)

Last outing was march 14-16 and we had lost 2 more hives (both queen problems).

So we lost 21 hives from the initial 176 into fall, 6 of them to queenlessness. a couple to starvation (small cluster couldn't reach the honey during cold snaps). Some had the craps from to much aphid honey and dwindled into oblivion.

I asked a lot from the girls last year. It was the first time I fed so late into the fall (last feeding was November 20th). This has been my highest loss year in the last 5 years but we've had a winter to reckon with too, not that the winter was the coldest but it was the first winter I've seen in my 30 years of keeping bees where we had the longest duration of temperatures below 0 degrees celcius. That first cold snap started on Dec 7th. Going to the end of February, I'd say that maybe 10% of the days hit a high of 5 degrees.

Anyway, The bees I have are looking mighty fine, Huge clusters already developing great broodnest. only 11 were weak (about a frame of brood) and the strongest were already at 6 frames combined total frames. I've already equalized that so the strongest got thinned down to 5 and the weaks were boosted with 2-3 frames of brood. One more equalization may be done if need, But we'll see.

BTW, Sorry I've not posted anything on here for a while. I was to busy dealing with my tobacco crops and making beer and otherwise spending long, long, long, days in the bee yards or wood shop.


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## Maybee Apiaries (Jun 23, 2016)

Bees, tobacco and beer? 
Are you hiring?


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

Wow. Ian, that is wild!

Our bees got back onto pollen today for the first time in a week. ( they had two hours worth yesterday) I think 9/10 bees coming home had a huge load. It's amazing how much they collect when they really need it.

Sampled 20 hives. All zeros, except one had 1%.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I'm sending a live sample to the national bee diagnosis centre in Beaverlodge for a viral and Chem residue analysis from a number of dwindling hives. 
After working through 300 hives today my nerves feel better. Lots of big ones, and good hives. Just too many 3 framers, roughly 20% 3 frame or less


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

We are getting some fantastic early spring weather here. It's allowing us to get our early spring work done. Next week not so peachy so we will be pushing to get everything done by Sunday


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

I love how you are so proactive in checking for problems in the hives that hopefully can be corrected. 

How do you know that hives are dwindling though, since they have just come out? Do you know that those ones did not go in weak? Are the Queens laying in those?...just thinking out loud.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Proactive, hmm, feels reactionary lol

I call them dwindling, the samples are from my 2-3 frames or marked dead half frame hives. Could be Queen related. I've noticed a trend towards mites. The assessments actually look real good except for one yard we came through in the line. It was the yard last year that had fallen ill with mite crashes, the yard that spurred on my late fall OAV treatments. That yard has severe losses, obviously we were too late. But what puzzles me is with mite load cases I usually see DWV. This year or last year I have not seen a single case yet. So I'm thinking...out loud as you are... these are obvious cases of mite loss secondary infection, but what infection? I'm suspecting IAPV. It was identified in my apiary last year. I have a handle on my overwhelming nosema infection, but with it present perhaps a few things are coming together. Not all hives within the loss yard has fallen ill. 
I'm hearing the same thing from other producers, lots of ??? All arrows point to ineffective mite control,


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

Ok . . reactionary. I was trying to sound polite.  

Have you done any mite washes/ shakes?

Sounds like you took care of the mite problem...or are you thinking the damage was already done?

The best things I did for my bees in the past two seasons was to stop feeding fumigilian. We gained nothing and spent huge sums.


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## Maybee Apiaries (Jun 23, 2016)

Such a guessing game... 
I've always thought there was going to be substantial dwindle coming out of wintering buildings, just the nature of having 5 month old bees with nothing to replace them. 
I'm trying to make the shift away from fumagillen as well, but like a heroine addict, I must be weaned off. Tried 10% without last fall, and so far see no correlation between treated and untreated (visual symptoms only). My hope is the money spent on fumagillen can be better used for fall pollen supplement.


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

Ian said:


> Proactive, hmm, feels reactionary lol
> 
> But what puzzles me is with mite load cases I usually see DWV. This year or last year I have not seen a single case yet. So I'm thinking...out loud as you are... these are obvious cases of mite loss secondary infection, but what infection? I'm suspecting IAPV.


that's the same symptoms that we had down here, everything under the sun has been blamed except mites. No one was seeing any DWV in the bees, many of us sent of bees for virus samples, the bees sent to BVS that I know of, none showed any high levels of virus's. The samples collected by BIP that I know of, pretty much all showed high levels of DWV, but no one saw any bees with it??? But most of the samples sent out had high mites, and all of those people treated for mites.
Interesting to say the least, If you read bee culture two months ago, the young lady that writes and is from DC, described the symptoms exactly that we saw.
as far as IAPV my sample had low readings, others had none??? like throwing darts, no clue where they will land.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

My live sample just mailed this morning, which will include a viral and pesticide >> neonic analysis 

We will see what comes of it


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## dgl1948 (Oct 5, 2005)

Got into 2 more yards today. So far 5 yards and losses are 5.7 per cent.


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

We started doing washes a few days ago. So far 0 mites from 20 samples. Queens come tomorrow. It is too early but they were ordered long ago.

Jean-Marc


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## dgl1948 (Oct 5, 2005)

We are through the last of the yards. Winter losses came in at 8.7 percent.


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

You calculate your winter loss on April 7th?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

That's awesome dg1948
We will get through the last of the hives today. I'll know the damage tonight.


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## dgl1948 (Oct 5, 2005)

One of our best years. The only thing we did different was treat the hive three times with OA. We had one yard that we lost 10 out of 50. All other yards run from 1 to 3. The only thing different with that yard were the queens were on there 2 nd year. All the other yards had new queens.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Roughed out an 8% dead loss, 20% sit on 3 frames. Those small one caught me off guard...but I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Did some mite washes today, did not find one mite, as compared to my control yard which has 5% lingering...
That OAV worked


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## BDT123 (Dec 31, 2016)

Sweet, Ian. Good work, and apparently worth it&#55357;&#56397;&#55356;&#57339;&#55357;&#56399;&#55356;&#57339;


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

Ian said:


> 20% sit on 3 frames.


What percentage of these would you typically expect to make it? I'll usually
put sub on them and find that at least 2/3 will complete the spring turnover.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

zhiv9 said:


> What percentage of these would you typically expect to make it? I'll usually
> put sub on them and find that at least 2/3 will complete the spring turnover.


I have some tricks up my sleeve :thumbsup:


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

Caspian?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

B&E said:


> Caspian?


I never used it, but intrigued

I'll use newspaper and excluders, weak over strong 
Check back in a week for proper acceptance and let the hive ride out as a double queen for a few weeks and take the top as a full split


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

I was just making a joke to my buddy Jean Marc on his Voodoo recipes.

I have used that excluder method two different seasons with the weak ones. The first year it was incredible and I would say that we saved 90% of the ones that we put on top. The second year we screwed up almost every parent on the bottom, and we found hives with three frames of cap brood where the bees had abandoned it and moved up top with the other Queen and brood. We had some very cold nights and days that spring. Even though we started the process almost two weeks earlier than the previous season, we did not wait long enough.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Hmmmm. Second thought is terrible in this businesses....


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I've done it before on a limited scale

Maybe putting the weak under the strong would be best. That way the large unit will never be at risk


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

I think the key is to make sure that they are indeed large enough. Last year we had so many weaks put on top that we were searching for all of our large ones; and I think far too often my employees were pushing the limit on whether the large Hive could withstand to support another one.

I think if you select correctly you wouldn't have a problem even if it got very cold.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Ya but you got me thinking. 
I don't like adding seconds ontop in April for exactly that reason, always under. 
This process should follow the same principles. 
But my back... top would be much simpler


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## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

I used to do a lot of weak over strong with an excluder. Then I got to thinking why was I trying to save a welfare case for another season. Now its show me you can do it on your own or you are out of here. If at the beginning of May a small hive has a lot of brood I help it. Otherwise the hive gets replaced with a nuc.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Ever think about banking those queens out of the weak colonies for a time?

I've been doing that this spring due to my bad weather and slow brood build up in many colonies.
My weak hives are mostly smaller mating nucs I tried to overwinter. Usually I give them a few frames from other hives to get them going in Feb, but still is too cold to do so this year, so I've been forced to adjust. 
I also have a hand full of colonies that had a good young queen, but were previously troubled colonies(laying workers or high mite load in late summer)so I know the strength of the colonies are most likely the result of going into winter with a colony imbalance, not the result of a poor queen.

I cage the spare queens and just set them on top the frames in a well populated queen right hive until I need one. As I go through my other hives, I can replace older failing queens or have them handy to install in hives that have come out of winter queenless.

Some of these mating nucs had just _maybe _a handful of bees and the queen, too cold to rear brood. I figure she's better fed and warmer in a large hive-caged -at that point.
How do they do after that overwintering hardship? SO far, they've been amazing.

Here is one example of a queen taken from an almost nonexistent overwintered mating nuc. This OB hive had dwindled and appeared queenless last year, late winter. I went to my weakest mating nuc with almost no bees and removed the queen. Direct released her into this hive.

Below: Queen was installed in late Jan/Early Feb









4-10-16








6-10-16










The growth is pretty much in your face when you can see them through the glass. Makes me pretty confident an overwintered queen can take pretty brutal conditions and still perform and have good longevity.

Taking these queens out of their nucs and banking them is a different procedure than I usually follow, but necessary this year if I want to have any early mated queens at all. We'll see how it works. 
Winter was colder and longer than normal this year. Nucs were on 5 half sized deeps frames










Weather is still bad, but slowly improving. My temp. currently this morning is 28 F. With thundershowers & occasional sun breaks forecast for the day.

In past years when I've come across a late winter queenless colony, I've always gone straight to the weakest mating nuc and taken that queen before she perishes. The results are amazing. It's like turning on the light switch. The growth is amazing once she is warm and fed.


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## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

Makes sense to save queens that from mating nucs as they have unrealized potential. The queens/hives I ignore are the wintered production hives. They may have requeened late or had another event that set them back but often they just seem to be poor queens.

It is easy to misapply the 80/20 Rule in beekeeping; spend 80% of your time on the 20% of the hives going nowhere. I tend to focus on the strong hives, replace the weak, and hope the law of averages applies and I've made the right choice.


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

B&E said:


> I was just making a joke to my buddy Jean Marc on his Voodoo recipes.
> 
> I have used that excluder method two different seasons with the weak ones. The first year it was incredible and I would say that we saved 90% of the ones that we put on top. The second year we screwed up almost every parent on the bottom, and we found hives with three frames of cap brood where the bees had abandoned it and moved up top with the other Queen and brood. We had some very cold nights and days that spring. Even though we started the process almost two weeks earlier than the previous season, we did not wait long enough.



We don't do the voodoo brudda on our bees... just bee pheromones and the 3 jellies bees produce.
We have done another 14 washes for a total of 33 so far ths year. Zero varroa and plenty of dead bees... hmmm... gotta watch out for that.
On a brighter not it gives me much more confidence with my crew and the oxalic acid sublimation. They did all the treatments last fall so I was not completely sure what to expect. I thought we would be fine but untilwe measure we just don't know.

Jean-Marc


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Ian said:


> Hmmmm. Second thought is terrible in this businesses....


Spend my beekeeping career doing that. It is tormenting though, hehe. Today I decided to go for an addition to a bulding. I had signed a contract, then given a deposit, then secnd guessed myself. 4 days later and finally a sunny day ( 3rd one this season) I let it get to my head, and called the contractor. I suppose when it is done I will have a honey house warming party and will invite yo'all.

Jean-Marc


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Lauri said:


> Ever think about banking those queens out of the weak colonies for a time?
> 
> I've been doing that this spring due to my bad weather and slow brood build up in many colonies.
> My weak hives are mostly smaller mating nucs I tried to overwinter. Usually I give them a few frames from other hives to get them going in Feb, but still is too cold to do so this year, so I've been forced to adjust.
> ...



Nice to have a few of those around. Saves the effort of brinbing in a double to the shop. What do you do with the last remaining bees from the mating nuc?

Jean-Marc


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## swarm_trapper (Jun 19, 2003)

jean-marc said:


> Spend my beekeeping career doing that. It is tormenting though, hehe. Today I decided to go for an addition to a bulding. I had signed a contract, then given a deposit, then secnd guessed myself. 4 days later and finally a sunny day ( 3rd one this season) I let it get to my head, and called the contractor. I suppose when it is done I will have a honey house warming party and will invite yo'all.
> 
> Jean-Marc


Glad I'm not the only one!


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

Ian said:


> I never used it, but intrigued
> 
> I'll use newspaper and excluders, weak over strong
> Check back in a week for proper acceptance and let the hive ride out as a double queen for a few weeks and take the top as a full split


No queens killed thru the excluder?


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

I am sure some are, like maybe 20% at most. It is not such an issue in the spring. In the fall it would be a likely death sentence.

We will have recovered winter losses as of the end of last week. Things have been terribly slow here, as far as weather goes. All growth and recovery has been done through careful feeding of top notch ingredients,caspian solution and high test pollen patties or dry pollen in the frame. I sure do not envy other prairie beekeepers as far as the long winter goes. Things get tough at the end when the bees are old and ma Nature does not fully cooperate. I am slightly envious of their yields, but we just have to get it together and get the same yields. We should be closer to that goal by the end of this season.

All the best to everybody this 2017.

Jean-Marc


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## B&E (Dec 27, 2011)

We finally finished our second round. It's safe to say we've caught all the QL and laying workers now. Total loss is just under 8%. My best ever...by a long shot.

Indoor bees were 11% better than outdoor. Hmm. Under 4% on indoor group of hives. 

Wettest spring I have ever seen. 4.75" this past week. 3" last week. Many beekeepers reporting bees in starvation mode. We almost lost 1000 really strong splits, but got them fed at the last minute. Huge hives eat a ton when they only fly once in 2 weeks. 

Dandelions are full bloom and people are talking about starving hives. Gotta be on your toes in this business. 

All the best to everyone as well!


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