The very different climates too!
The very different climates too!
For those who do decide to respond, you might consider, as Drumgerry has done, adding your own comments. Dr Connolly has said a lot in the press about a possible link to pesticide exposure and I suppose that it is possible that he only speaks to beekeepers who are firmly of that sort of view. I tried in my small way to try to correct that by getting him to meet the biggest beekeeper in Scotland, but the suggestion wasn't well received.Originally Posted by drumgerry
So if you are going to send him data, let him know your views as to why any colonies died. I haven't yet decided whether to send him my data. Impartial epidemiological type research just doesn't seem to be his thing. Another issue I have is that there is no definition of what constitutes a colony. I had one which was far too small to survive the winter, and it didn't. Was that also a 'colony'? It is very clear that colony strength has been one very important factor this last winter and you really need to know how strong or weak were the colonies that were lost.
There was chat at the Perth meeting last night of winter losses. The beekeepers in the room generally didn't feel that the winter losses are disastrous (however hardly anyone has had a good look yet) but there was talk of heavy losses in the commercial sector.
Last edited by gavin; 10-04-2013 at 08:53 AM.
Gavin I think you should send data
Drumgerry kindly sent me the form-- wish I had done it last year as it would have improved the east coast results
I wondered a little about the colony thing as well because I brought two late swarms through winter in Paynes Nucs
They are both alive and kicking at the moment no stores though so I put a honey patty on both
That honey was not strained with lots of pollen etc in it (I wouldn't do that as a rule in case I spread disease)
I expect them to survive but you never can tell
If the only people responding to a UFO survey were people who had burned a witch I wouldn't trust the result
This is the way to do a study looking at winter losses.
Gerersch et al
The German Bee monitoring project
Apidologie
Volume 41, Number 3, May-June 2010
Honey bee health
abstract
The Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, is the most important animal pollinator in agriculture worldwide providing more than 90% of the commercial pollination services. Due to the development in agriculture the demands for honey bee pollination are steadily increasing stressing the pollination capacity of the global managed honey bee population. Hence, the long-term decline of managed honey bee hives in Europe and North-America is of great concern and stimulated intensive research into the possible factors presumably causing honey bee colony collapse. We here present a four-year study involving more than 1200 bee colonies from about 120 apiaries which were monitored for the entire study period. Bee samples were collected twice a year to analyze various pathogenic factors including the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor, fungi (Nosema spec., Ascosphaera apis), the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae, and several viruses. Data on environmental factors, beekeeping management practice, and pesticides were also collected. All data were statistically analyzed in respect to the overwintering mortality of the colonies. We can demonstrate for several factors that they are significantly related to the observed winter losses of the monitored honey bee colonies: (i) high varroa infestation level, (ii) infection with deformed wing virus (DWV) and acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV) in autumn, (iii) queen age, and (iv) weakness of the colonies in autumn. No effects could be observed for Nosema spec. or pesticides. The implications of these findings will be discussed.
In case you've overlooked the last pages of the April Scottish Beekeeper, the survey (the April 2013 survey form) is published there. (I suppose it's the same survey - and sorry if somebody has already mentioned it.)
Kitta
Last edited by Mellifera Crofter; 10-04-2013 at 12:55 PM. Reason: to clarify sentence
On the BK forum Murray McGregor said that those exposed to the nasty east wind last summer were suffering the most losses.
thanks Jon that was a really good article and worth reading the whole thing
Often these studies are shrouded in advance techno mumbo jumbo but this paper was clear and informative.
Calum was right the German beekeeping project is streets ahead with a comprehensive winter losses monitoring program
The German study recorded the varroa and nosema levels in 1200 colonies over several years, and looked for 5 different bee viruses.
It also sampled bee bread for pollen content and pesticide residue.
The Scottish survey (last year) made a note of colony deaths via questionnaire but looks more like a GCSE biology project than a serious piece of research.
It recorded the data from one winter, ignoring a load of important variables such as those in the Genersch study relating to mites, nosema and viruses, then speculated that neonicotinoids make the difference in mortality between East and West. The sample size was miniscule and ignored the data from the largest bee farmer in Scotland who claims that his bees do far better when exposed to oil seed rape. Whatever it is, it is not science as I understand it. Maybe this year there will be more relevant data collected to isolate all the variables. But you cannot ask a beekeeper to guess about varroa, nosema or virus levels. This has to be measured in a standardized manner.
Not so, Gavin. He speaks to the likes of me and I've returned the survey. There is space on the form to record 'weak' colonies and also plenty of space for saying why any colony died out. If people don't return the forms, they shouldn't complain later on that the sample was too small to be significant, eh?
... and there's a form on the website. (I assume this is the survey you're talking about.)
K
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