Yep it's the small clusters I'm worried about. Don't want to go in to see what the scores on the doors are but they were ok at the beginning of last week. I don't think I've ever wanted a winter to be over so much as this one.
Yep it's the small clusters I'm worried about. Don't want to go in to see what the scores on the doors are but they were ok at the beginning of last week. I don't think I've ever wanted a winter to be over so much as this one.
Two colonies the last time I saw them were very small so I'm expecting them not to make it, the rest looked ok in January, but I've not been able to look at them since. I might hazard a quick peek under the crownboard this weekend, it's supposed to be a tropical 4degrees this weekend.
Bit worried over 4 colonies as I've just today managed to dig them out following our snowstorm. All's well however and despite being completely burried they started to fly in the light warmth onced released from the snow.Just one out apiary left to check - fingers crossed.
small colonies might not be too much to worry about
E.P. Jefree suggests the colony size is smallest at the end of March beginning of April (In lecture notes to the Central Assoc of Beekeepers 1959)
One colony (F) had a minimum size of only 690 bees yet had 12000 in the summer (1947) and brought in 28lb honey
He does however point out the Summer 1947 was a very good one and they would probably have died out in a more normal year
Summer 2013 is also going to be a very good one, so that'll be fine!
Mystic Gavin, the oracle of Dundee.Originally Posted by gavin
Gives even more depth to the morphometry tea-leaf interpretations!
Had an interesting conversation with a MBE beekeeper last who said he has lost 15 colonies already from his 60+ He mentioned that his 2nd year queens seem to be doing ok so far and the losses were from last year mated queens
That's what I have seen as well but my 2012 queens were almost all in nucs so I put the losses down to smaller colony size going into winter.
Re: Any casualties yet?
Well, I had a chance to check on my last hive and found another dead out
3 for 3 lost.. 1 was a nuc but the other 2 were small clusters going into winter. Swarm season coupled with good local mating program to requeen any swarms I get is now much anticipated!
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I spoke to somebody today who reminded me that a lot of the recent colony deaths are probably due to the fact that the hives are full of old bees who could not get out to forage for pollen in this weather and now their time is up. They're dying of old age before they've had a chance to raise new young bees. That hadn't occurred to me before. I thought they were all dying because they were small colonies huddled together far away from their food (or being freeze-dried by the wind from their open-mesh floors).
Kitta
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