Colony losses

[GRIZZLY]

This ( droneless ) colony was a full blown one that actually gave me a surplus of about 30 pounds of honey.The Q was 2 years old and had laid normal drones the previous year. Her worker brood pattern was excellant .I just wonder if she was a victim of nosema causing her strange behaviour. They were strong into the winter but dwindlied to just a handfull of bees when they had died out.The thing is its difficult without opening them up to see if the stock had dwindled with the normal flying that goes on on fine days when the bees have their normal cleansing flights.I've kept bees for nearly 40 years by my latest reconing and I've never experienced such losses as in the past couple of years before.With such a late season ( I recon at least a month behind ) its difficult to get on top of the situation and stay there.Down south I could always nip over to the bee research unit at Luddington and stick a sample under a microscope to find out pretty immediately what was wrong,up here its all a lot more primitive and long winded to get answers.Still hey-ho !!

[Jon]

at least a month behind

My colonies are still very small for the time of year.
3 years ago I had a colony swarmed on 26th April and this year they are not even making drones yet.
Everyone worries about Varroa, but Nosema could well be as big a problem especially with a long winter and cold spring.
Mites are easy to see but I think Nosema can be present at low levels and then multiply or express itself when the bees are subject to stress.
A lot of people are reporting colonies dwindling more than expected this Spring.

[gavin]

Good idea, Gavin. I've heard the SBA guy isn't bad

Well I think that he's a lazy waste of space! Will be tomorrow anyway - he's off to wet his fly lines on Butterstone Loch.

[gavin]

Down south I could always nip over to the bee research unit at Luddington and stick a sample under a microscope to find out pretty immediately what was wrong,up here its all a lot more primitive and long winded to get answers.Still hey-ho !!

SASA may be willing to do it for you, and I am too.

[Trog]

Well I think that he's a lazy waste of space! Will be tomorrow anyway - he's off to wet his fly lines on Butterstone Loch.

I've not even bothered to open the season yet. Took the water temperature on Loch Torr yesterday - 48 degrees (F), not sure what that is in real money but still too cold. Is Butterstone stocked, or is it full of wild brownies?

(and do I have to mod myself for going so far off topic?)

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Gavin
The reason I rased the blog is that there must a lot of beekeepers who have lost considerable numbers of bees, hurting, myself included, and who might feel isolated and even guilty for the losses incurred. When some tragic event occurs it is reassuring to know that there is help, advice and dare I say it comfort out there from fellow sufferers. Many of us have been in beekeeping for some time and know that every season is different - that's what makes beekeeeping fun or at least interesting! We should never become complacent or feel we know it all in our beekeeping. This 2010 winter was a a wake up call for me personally. I have been successfully using soilidly crystalised granuated sugar in kilo sugar bags for some 36 years. Managing around 60 - 80 colonies single handed required a lot of creative thinking and using sugar bags instead of feeding sugar syrup in September after the removal of the heather honey made life if not easy but easier for me! 20 colonies fed start to finish in less than 2 hours total! The sugar bags failed this year! This year in the West the normal hive humidity did not materialise - the micro climate in the colonies was arid instead of the usual West of Scotland dampness which assists the bees in consuming the sugar - similar to the stock farmers use of rock salt for his beasts. Also the winter came too early, stayed too long and too severe. In mild winters, even in winters with moderate spells of low temperature queen bees lay steadily through out the dormant period, albeit initially at a very low rate but by around mid March some 35 - 50% of the bees in the colony are relatively young bees. Due to the severity and duration of the winter just past this did not happen this year. What happened in many colonies this year is analogous with losing the queen in late December. The older bees on leaving the hive didn't come back- the young bees which otherwise would have been there as reinforcements just did not materialise. The phenomenon of Marie Celeste which has puzzled beekeepers for years can be explained by the loss of the colony queen at some time after the bees enter the winter mode. Isolation starvation was also a problem this year. Colonies died in the midst of plenty because when the cluster moved up into its own heat consuming the overhead store as they went when they reached timber the weather was so cold for so long that the cluster could not break to reach the store combs on either side of it. The Isolation Starvation phenomenon was a feature of the 70s, when we had some quite severe prolonged frosts. The recent long run of mild winters resulted in beekeepers either forgetting or never having experienced Isolation Starvation - many of us became complacent and paid the price. The loss of the heather in some areas has had a detrimental effect on late autumn pollen quality and the upsurge of Himalayan balsam, an excellent honey plant, has resiulted in bees forsaking lime and willow herb in its favour - Result? Colonies entering winter with mono floral, exotic pollen who's nutritional qualities I now suspect as being inadequate. Poorly mated queens have also a contribution to make to colony demise as has poor foraging weather conditions in recent back ends. Varroa has taken its toll and in my humble opinion is a major factor, which has exacerbated all the other overwintering negatives. Despite my own losses and the losses incurred by the CABA Apiary Project (aka Clyde Area Bee Breeders Group) the CABBG is travelling hopefully and the intention is to utilise the massive sugar mountain we now have at our disposal as a result of the generosity of the communities of East and West Dunbartonshire, to rebuild the honeybee population in these counties to something of their pre Varroa level over the next few years - United we stand!!!!

[drumgerry]

Eric - I recognise that guilty feeling of having lost a colony or colonies. Especially if, as in my case, I'd been able to intervene I might have saved them.

Like I said mine died of isolation starvation - for those of us who weren't beekeeping in the 70s what strategy did beekeepers adopt at that time to avoid it? Or was it just that we started to have milder winters. I'm wondering whether steps to insulate hives might help or is there anything else you can suggest?

If you think the winter was severe in Glasgow you wouldn't believe how terrible it has been here. Being a Glasgow lad myself I've never experienced anything like the winter we've just had here in Strathspey. Extreme cold for weeks on end (the Spey almost freezing solid a few times) and months (between December and March) when there was constant snow on the ground. And just when we thought it was all over we got another 15 inches of snow last week (thankfully now almost gone). The skiers might have had a field day but if I never see another snowflake again it'll be too soon!

Gerry (praying that the forecast of good weather this weekend is a taster of much more of the same for the rest of the year)

[gavin]

Thanks for the thoughtful comments Eric. Lots to think about there. Would you place much emphasis on the need for a decent population of young bees produced at the end of last season? Many colonies just gave uo raising brood last summer, and not all may have caught up when the weather improved late-on.

[GRIZZLY]

I think Erics hit the nail on the head - I'm sure he's right in the fact that Q's gave up laying much earlier last year and probably stopped alltogether during the really cold spells of a terrible winter,thus resulting in dwindling due to lack of young bees to come thro' the winter in a strong condition.Isolation srarvation is another factor and it would seem that no matter how much the bees are fed,if as Eric says " they reach the wood" nothing will induce the colony to move sideways to more productive feed areas.Perhaps we should consider overwintering on double brood or brood and a half so that in the event of another realy cold winter we encourage upwards movement of the colony following the colony warmth.

[Jon]

The sugar bags failed this year!

I use sugar bags from time to time as well, especially for keeping a bit of food on the nucs. I find it doesn't induce robbing as much as the syrup. In the autumn I try and get them to take down syrup but as Eric says, there is a lot of work in that when you have more than a couple of colonies. If I don't feed syrup, I find they fill the box with ivy honey which crystallises later.

Many colonies just gave up raising brood last summer, and not all may have caught up when the weather improved late-on.

The weather was so bad here in August that several queens stopped laying. The Apiguard in September didn't encourage them to restart either as I think the smell disrupts them. A couple of colonies even started throwing out pupae and they shifted the brood nest to the point furthest away from the Apiguard. Timing the Apiguard is difficult as weather permitting, I get a flow of Balsam in August and into September and the supers are still on.
What I did notice was that mine raised brood with a vengeance in October on the ivy flow. Last October was quite mild and I checked at the end of the month and a lot of colonies had 5-6 frames of sealed brood and some even had eggs this late on.

if as Eric says " they reach the wood" nothing will induce the colony to move sideways to more productive feed areas.Perhaps we should consider overwintering on double brood or brood and a half so that in the event of another realy cold winter we encourage upwards movement of the colony following the colony warmth.

I like to fit them into just the one box as a bigger space can make it harder to heat.
My bees go into a small cluster of only 5 or 6 seams of bees or even smaller.
I reckon 30lbs of stores should do them, ie about 6 capped frames. This year, they probably needed a little more with the cold Spring we are having.
If you do Oxalic acid treatment for varroa that is usually around the end of December and it gives a chance to have a check if there are stores in the box and the cluster is centered. If the cluster is in a corner there could well be trouble later on.