State of colonies this spring

[gavin]

Lovely images ..... but sadly Getty Images have a fierce policy towards the use of their pics, as Adam from the BBKA forum can testify. Would you mind taking it down? I can see a tag on it so I'm sure they will find it soon enough.

Ankle high for most of the OSR round here. Ruffled rosettes that are just starting to extend upwards. You get the odd field that was sown earlier or has a variety that does its stuff early. The field I mentioned has a fair length of stem exposed and platforms of buds visible on top. A week of decent weather will see it in flower. Or several weeks of poorer weather.

[fatshark]

Hmmm ... uploaded images stay 'attached' even after deleting them via an edit. That's a bit of an oddity. I had to wield the erase button. Here's the mouse again ... I've included my subtle digital mark so anyone copying it can be traced ...

160103-09.jpg

[mbc]

Ankle high for most of the OSR round here

Do you mean 1/8 of a gavin high?

[gavin]

Do you mean 1/8 of a gavin high?

Roughly the same a 1/10 of an mbc if I remember correctly.

[Greengage]

The good news here are that all three hives are still alive, That could be luck or my great skills, but I would not be counting my chickens yet as I have not opened them up. It is still very cold here at 8deg for the past few days. When the sun shines they are out bringing in pollen from Crocus and Willow. Dandelion has started to come into flower and when the sun was out they were open and I saw bees forageing on them, but now the sun is gone they have closed up. Flowering current, and Berberis are out while Blackthorn is starting to put on a show, No great signs of OSR being growing in local fields maybe Ill do a drive around. Gorse in flower too. Bumblebees are flying while away for a week I saw one cross the summit of a mountain at 3000ft not bad for a little bumblebee.

[madasafish]

T. It is still very cold here at 8deg for the past few days. .

Hmm... snow and sleet here overnight for two nights here.
Interesting to see that when it does warm up, my two AMM mongrel colonies have far more foragers than my buckfast and carniolan mongrels..

[Calluna4u]

All in all they are looking far better than expected.

To have whole apiaries with zero losses (and talking over 40 per group here) is really rare. Can only surmise that the very late heather flow had the same effect that the September feed has when given on the wintering grounds, made them raise a fresh cycle of brood, that was not expected. Better varroa control this season may also be a factor. Biggest group with zero losses is a set of 98 of the Aberdeenshire bees, where the winter loss looks like being 3 from 197 put into winter and most are 6 to 9 bars of bees in Langtroth.

Looks like one of these winters that make folk think its easy.................but always lurking round the corner.......

The nucs are in great order, and the best set of the three has only 3 apparent duds from 92, and the worst has 10 from 84.

The few sets of full hives I expected to have 30% losses are generally showing at this time around 15%.
The sets expected to have 10% losses are showing at about 5% overall. Two groups only from 38 showing as worse than expected.

Poly again outperforming wood, all the zero losses sets are in poly.

Queenless colonies and drone layers that made it through to spring yet to be found.

The home bred queens and the Italian and NZ origin carnica have best results. Date home from heather and feeding date appear irrelevant this year.

With the very late heather flow I expected (and flagged the warning up) things to be a lot worse than this. Its not over yet though. Spring dwindle has plenty time to set in, but for sure will not be severe.

[mbc]

Roughly the same a 1/10 of an mbc if I remember correctly.

20160329_110519.jpg

Mmmh!

[Calluna4u]

FWIW....Guys just came back a few minutes ago from a full check of the English bees. total loss from ALL causes is 49 from 454. Almost all of these were queen failure, and the few (8) that were not were bees that never took their syrup in the autumn, which indicates a deeper malaise, most often nosema or a paralysis virus. I know some of you will be thinking that to be ridiculously high, but it roots out all the drone layers and queenlesses as well. This will be the FINAL total, as we call these defectives losses, no matter whether many of you will go to unusual lengths to save them. They have just been shaken out. All the remainder have active worker brood in them and are on the cusp of crossover day.

[madasafish]

Eventually turned sunny - stiff breeze but 10C.
Took temperatures of all crownboards using IR thermometer..(have to be quick after insulation is removed as breeze and 10 seconds loses approx 2C.:
Langs:
#1 MB poly. 24.1C Clear crownboard so will be frame top.
#2 Wood with cosy 20.1C
#3 - ditto- 16.1C
#4 -ditto- 20.4C
Nuc -ditto- 21.8C (bolshie.. 7 stings)

National all wood with cosy and eke
#1 18.9C
#2 20.1C

TBH heavily insulated 16.2C


Conclusion: all brooding.