Have Beekeepers in Scotland Lost Control of their Winter/Spring Colony Losses?

From Gavin’s ‘Colony Losses’ thread, which itself seems to have got lost. It appears that some beekeepers, including myself, are feeling guilt at losing colonies. Could we have done it better? This might seem an unanswerable question in the light of the severe winter just past and the possibility that such winters could be the norm in future; management we can change. The weather; I wish?
However despite the fact that untoward colony losses were incurred by many – there are a favoured few, perhaps even a silent many beekeepers who came through the winter with their colonies intact or who suffered minimal loss compared with their colleague beekeepers. It would be interesting and educational if these happy individuals would perhaps tell their story – their management system, their winter preparations and, I think most importantly; the type of area where the bees are kept; viz near the coast, location relative to sea level, foraging sources, distance from colonies to these sources - even dare I say it – the type of hive! Such information could be just what is needed to give ourselves and the bees a fighting chance of survival in future years.

I'm certainly annoyed with myself about that recent loss which may well have been avoidable. That's an excellent idea Eric to suggest that people chip in with their successes as well as their losses. The Colony Losses thread is still there in the Bee Health area below if people would like to add their comments to that one rather than start another here.

I have the tools as Admin, so:

Thanks for raising this Eric. I've moved this discussion into the original Colony Losses thread and now closed this one.