Any casualties yet?

[Calum]

sorry yes as - Armeisensäure, my bad, fromic acid

[Jon]

Could there have been something wrong with the formic acid he used, the dosage for example, or maybe some contaminant.
Bees can abscond completely due to thymol fumes or anything which smells toxic to them. Was there brood or stores left behind?

[Calum]

hi, the formic acid was the standard stuff we get supplied with from the government - medical grade.
There were plenty of stores left, and no brood.. In some of them a hand full of dead bees..
It could be he was a little less that dilligent at drone brood removal - he is 83.... And lifting all the supers off 20 odd colonies is a pain in the bum...

[Bobs-bees]

Never seen any of my bees with such long hairs. taken morning of 23rd december. Here in Rainham Kent.

[keith pierce]

Nice bees. Here is a sample of mine.



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[Neils]

Been around all mine today with OA, doesn't look like we're going to get much of cold winter. Much to my surprise all are still going though a couple are down to a couple of seams of bees. The Nuc appears to be one of the strongest colonies at the moment and I'll be looking to get it into a full size hive at the earliest opportunity. Otherwise they all seem ok and were surprisingly placid for being disturbed in this weather.

[Jon]

Been around all mine today with OA, doesn't look like we're going to get much of cold winter.

Don't speak too soon! looks quite chilly by the end of the week and the following week as well.

http://www.forecast.co.uk/bristol.html

Those colonies with just 2 or 3 seams will probably be ok if you get them dummied down with insulated material. I have quite a few like that.
I will be interested to hear your mite drop as a lot of people are reporting a bigger drop than usual. Someone on the bbka site reported a drop of 700 after treating with Oxalic.

[Jimbo]

Did OA on 4 colonies today, although they are still OK noticed 1 hive was light on sugar. I usually put a few sugar bags on top of the brood as an insurance poicy and that colony has used up the 2 kg. They also all took a lot of winter liquid feed so the mild weather may be keeping them more active and they may be using up their stores quicker this year.

[Jon]

What about cluster size Jim? All fine and dandy?

[Jimbo]

I was a bit concerned about cluster size at the end of the summer as they did not build up as strong as i would have liked. At present they are all a bit mixed anything from 6 seams to the weakest at 3 seams. The colony that has used up the sugar bags was only 3.5 seams and not one of the strongest. They should all get through the winter (fingers crossed) but then I do live in that pesticide free west coast of Scotland!