Colony losses

[beeanne]

I started last spring with bees, and they've made it through (so far!) with a good-sized colony.
I acquired the colony last spring, in a Smith hive; had a new queen laying by July - I think they superceded the old one, who was of unknown age. She laid incredibly well, far more prolofic than the old one had managed, though took a long time to start.
I fed from early-September onwards - sugar syrup in place and topped-up until they stopped taking it. They managed to find loads of ivy late on. Due to a prolongued queenless period and the weather, I didn't take any honey from them as there was so little to take - I was (and still am) suffering from single-colony-stress!
They are still in the Smith, with brood-and-a-half over the winter; I added some fondant early Feb, but I think in retrospect this was unnecessary - they have barely touched it and have plenty stores now.
I didn't insulate the hive in any way. Where it is can get damp (actually, the bottom of the hive was a few inches off flood water at one point in the winter - I have since increased the height of the stand - in retrospect, I wouldn't recommend going out on your own in the dark to stand waist-deep in flood water in order to add another couple bricks on top of the hive "just in case").
They are on an OMF. They are out of the wind as far as possible, and catch plenty morning sun.

I think I've been pretty lucky - most likely that and having a new queen has got me through, neither of which I can really put down to "hive management skills"!

[linchpin]

Interesting how not taken the bees honey away has helped many more survive this long lasting winter and many newbees all haveing success, listen to see if your dead outs where ones that had honey taken last year !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

L

[beeanne]

I don't know if leaving honey helped much in my case, simply because there wasn't that much there to take. Most of the stores were from sugar syrup, so I don't know that the ratio of sugar syrup: honey stores in my hive would be that much different from more experienced beeks who got a honey crop.

[Jon]

With regard to winter stores, it depends more on the type of bee you have and the size of the winter cluster.
If you have a double brood box colony of Italians they will probably need a couple of supers of stores to overwinter.
Native type bees tend to form smaller clusters overwinter and I reckon mine are fine with 30lbs of stores which is 6 capped brood frames.
I fit mine into a single brood box and never use supers over winter. I don't like giving them extra space to heat.
When I quickly checked mine for the first time this year in mid March, the biggest colony was only on 5 frames.
I haven't done the exact calculation but the bees got a good deal last year as I definitely fed them more kilos of sugar than kilos of honey I removed.
It has rained here for the last 3 summers so not much honey to be had. I doubt if the weather has been much better in Scotland.

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Popz

That is the kind of report I think other successful overwintering beekeepers should be making. You did all the right things - and at the right time which is more important. You are either a beekeeping natural, one smart cookie, able to read books and understand what is best in them or you have some pretty good mentors over there! Or else have all these factors together. Pretty good combination!! We can all learn from yor report. I've been in bees for some 42 years and I am taking some notes! Your signing off 'joy' statement says it all for me! Go for increase this year. Well done!

Eric

[Neils]

I did similar to Popz with mine overwinter. While I took the super off the hive over winter I scored all the cappings and moved the first super under the brood box in late autumn and let them take all the stores into the brood area (single National) before removing the super completely. This seemed to give them ample stores until late february when the hive started to feel a little light and I topped off with a tub of fondant over the crown board. They pretty much ignored this into march when it suddenly dissapeared and at that point I hedged my bets and added a bit more fondant and a litre of 1:1 syrup. The extra fondant went pretty quickly and as of yesterday the last of the syrup was also gone. It was a little too nippy to do a full inspection but I had bees over 8 and a half frames by a quick peek under the crown board yesterday evening.

[Stromnessbees]

Hi Eric

You gave a very good description of what happened this winter to many of your colonies in an earlier post:

I have been successfully using soilidly crystalised granuated sugar in kilo sugar bags for some 36 years.... The sugar bags failed this year! ... The phenomenon of Marie Celeste .... Colonies died in the midst of plenty...

Yes, this winter was colder and drier than usual, but we should be looking at other factors, too. POPZ's bees came through just fine; so did mine, despite not being strong colonies. But we are in the lucky situation of not having the same diseases around us as what your bees might be challenged with.

I hope it's OK to quote what I have found on another list (Bee-L):

> Higes and Meana explained that the pathogenesis of Nosema ceranae infection in a
> colony progresses through four stages:

> Asymptomatic-the infection builds slowly the first year, goes unnoticed,
> but can be detected microscopically in foragers.

> Replacement--The bees rally by rearing more brood, even through winter.

> False Recovery-- This may occur the second summer, during which the colony
> rebounds somewhat. However, in this phase the infection starts to move
> into the house bees.

> Depopulation and Collapse--Finally, the bees "lose ventricular function"
> (they can no longer digest food), stop eating (and stop taking medicated
> syrup, or pollen supplement), and simply starve to death in the midst of
> plenty. Most adults die far from the hive, leaving only a handful of
> young bees and the queen.

>Colonies can collapse either during summer or winter, but the character of
> the infection differs. During cold season collapse, most bees are
> infected, and spore counts exceed 10 million spores per bee. Contrarily,
> under warm season breakdown, less than half the bees are infected, and
> spore counts are generally much lower. Forager bees just die in the
> field, and the colony shows no symptoms other than dwindling away.
...
Sincerely, Bob Harrison Missouri

This winter I have seen colonies in England that had died with fondant available right above the cluster, they just didn't take the food. So it's not just your sugar bag method that seemed to stop working. Re. looking at other options: Have you had your bees tested for spores?

It would be great to get more contributions on this topic yet.
Doris

[gavin]

Hi Doris

Of course it is fine to quote other bee lists here, especially the most informed of the lot. Perhaps I should just point out for the unwary that there are other voices on Bee-L suggesting that N. ceranae on its own may be a mild pathogen, and that you need some other factor to make it dangerous.

You are quite right to suggest that Eric might also wonder about Nosema, as I'm sure he has in addition to the factors he suggested. The reluctance to feed, early loss of foragers, failing queens, these all could be signs of Nosema ceranae (given the apparent lack of dysentery which might indicate N. apis). Of course these symptoms can have many causes.

I've looked at a handful of bee samples this winter from beekeepers across Scotland concerned about their losses. Only one - from near Edinburgh - had an obvious Nosema problem. One from the west with an odd behaviour of bees apparently moving away from the brood comb inside the hive didn't have Nosema.

Eric mentioned pollen quality and a switch from heather to Himalayan balsam at some of his sites. I did have a look, but couldn't find anything on the quality of balsam pollen. It is clear though that the combination of new queens of native bees and late season heather gives a great start to the following season.

I guess that isolation starvation can occur in cold weather with fondant above the colony too? It is often recommended that in winter fondant is best directly on the top bars, although in the autumn they will readily take it through a feed hole in the crown board.

best wishes

Gavin

[Trog]

I fed candy through a feed hole in the crown board from Christmas until early April rather than removing the crown board to check how much they had left/add more. It was very cold with chilling winds until last week. Also, I would have had to add height under the crown board to fit the candy onto the top bars, which would have increased heat loss. When I checked the bees last week, they'd built comb ladders up to the candy! They're all fit and well, expanding nicely, and the floor scrapings got a clean bill of health.

[gavin]

That comb ladder tells you something! A weak stock, or one off-centre might struggle to use fondant in the attic - but if they are already used to raiding the attic, or strong enough to go wandering, or have mild enough conditions for a spell, or already have a ladder, or fondant/candy oozing slightly downwards, then all will be well.

I'm no fondant expert though - just used it for a couple of seasons.

G.

PS Nice to learn that there was nothing untoward in your floor scrapings.