Winter Losses 2011/2012

[Calum]

The question I replied to was whether German beekeepers had big losses over the winter.

The answer, taken directly from the beekeepers' mouth, is that there are some massive losses, with beginners as well as with very experienced people.

They treat for varroa, they know how to feed bees for the winter, but they can't keep them alive anymore.

Many are at their wits end and consider giving up.

A friend of mine in Austria lost all his 10 colonies, it happened in late autumn, I inspected the beehouse with him at Christmas.

Well you say that, but we had an awful autumn from the bees point of view. We are on the Austrian border and our club lost about 15% (of over 1000 colonies). There has been huge variation in losses, some lost none some lost 50%,- the long warm autumn give plenty of oppertunity for reinvasion, and the winterbees worked themselves harvesting late wood honey and springkraut.. The summer was awful, so queens raised after ma were dodgy at best. Still plenty of beekeepers trying out experimental varroa treatments, so I think you may be generalising there a wee bit. Year on year the number of colonies is going up just now in Germany. But I agree with your assertions that monocultures are making it very difficult in some areas.
Here is the average varroa fall i had when I treated in december (I lost 10% of my colonies)

[Jon]

Hi Calum. That is some varroa drop for December. Even if you got rid of all the mites at that point the virus load would probably have severely reduced the longevity of the surviving bees.
My mantra is that control of varroa and nosema is they key to healthy bees.
Pesticides can be a problem under certain circumstances but it is usually a sideshow.

I had one colony drop about 90 mites when I applied oxalic in december but most dropped just one or two.

[Calum]

Hi Jon,
thats on of my best colonies just now. 12 frames of brood, drawing out foundation well in the super.
The bees were flying well into october last autumn. It stayed warm right up untill the winter arrived - so no autumn to speak of really.
I treated with formic acid 9 times in the end, once in october, but as you see there was plenty of reinvasion. Also plenty of robbing of weak colonies so pleny of colapsing colonies in the 'autumn'. I fight varroa as best I can, nosema - had signs of it, but not really aware of how to fight it except through rotation out old comb, and removing as much wood honey as I can (suggestions?). Another colony's drop I recorded also came out strongly, removed a drone frame from it last week, didn't find any varroa in the cells I broke open..

[Stromnessbees]

Well you say that, but we had an awful autumn from the bees point of view. We are on the Austrian border and our club lost about 15% (of over 1000 colonies). There has been huge variation in losses, some lost none some lost 50%,- the long warm autumn give plenty of oppertunity for reinvasion, and the winterbees worked themselves harvesting late wood honey and springkraut.
The summer was awful, so queens raised after ma were dodgy at best. Still plenty of beekeepers trying out experimental varroa treatments, so I think you may be generalising there a wee bit.
Year on year the number of colonies is going up just now in Germany. But I agree with your assertions that monocultures are making it very difficult in some areas.
Here is the average varroa fall i had when I treated in december (I lost 10% of my colonies)

Hi Calum

That's an awful lot of varroa there, I agree.

But the conditions you describe are actually not that different from what other regions might be experiencing, like the South of England:

bad summers, warm autumns with problem honey like ivy, neighbouring hives or feral colonies without varroa treatments, monocultures taking over

Yet as far as I am aware this hasn't led to a similar explosion of varroa, or has it?




Springkraut is Himalayan Balsam by the way, a plant that's very much appreciated by most beekeepers as it delivers free winter feed, but hated by others as it's very invasive and leads to the erosion of river banks.

[Stromnessbees]

Bavarian Television had a short report about bee losses yesterday:

They claim that the losses have been higher than ever.
The beekeeper in the clip has lost 50 of his 100 colonies. He says it started when the maize came to his area and blames the pesticides.
The scientists and bee institutes blame varroa.

http://blog.br-online.de/quer/voelke...-25042012.html

Die bayerischen Imker waren nach dem Winter geschockt. Etwa die Hälfte der Bienenvölker sind in diesem Jahr nicht wieder aufgewacht. Schon seit Jahren dezimiert die Varoa-Milbe die Bestände. Doch diesmal weisen viele Völker keinen Milbenbefall auf. Ein neuer Verdacht taucht auf: der Mais. Viele Indizien sprechen dafür, dass ein eigentlich verbotenes Mais-Insektizid für den massenhaften Bienentod in diesem Jahr verantwortlich ist. Doch weder Landwirte noch die Politik wollen das wahrhaben.

[Calum]

Hi,
I think the difference may be the density of populations.
In the 2 km around my primary bee stand are at least another 100 colonies, if I increase the radius to 5km it is more like >400.
Talking to other beekeepers the amount of varroa pictured is not unusual for this region.
Also we have a very high carnica population which generally likes large amounts of brood - so will bring with it a better climate for varroa..

[Jon]

He says it started when the maize came to his area and blames the pesticides.
The scientists and bee institutes blame varroa.

http://mediathek-video.br.de/?bc=_162881110&bccode=bfs

This is the problem. We have good research going on but the beekeepers want to Blame a bogeyman without any supporting evidence.
If they built a swimming pool in your town and the following year your bees died would you blame it on the swimmers?
People use faulty logic as it is easier to blame something external than consider it might be a management issue.
The same thing has happened in the US with commercial beekeepers like Dave Hackenberg wedded to blaming neonicotinoids.
Apparently this year his survival rate was good but he has twisted the argument some way to still blame neonicotinoid pesticides.
A good definition of prejudice.

You are lucky to be in a varroa free area. Varroa or nosema can take down a big colony in a couple of weeks.
Have you not noticed how the 'natural' beekeepers who do not treat lose their colonies to varroa all the time. (and then blame pesticides)

[Stromnessbees]

Hi Jon

I think you still don't understand how angry German beekeepers are after losing so many colonies and being fobbed off with fabricated explanations.

Here are pictures from recent demonstrations against neonicotinoids and GM maize:

tmb_140920081044.jpg
Get pesticides and gene technology off our planet (Bonn)

tmb_140920081039.jpg
Nature needs bees - Bayer poisons bees - politicians are asleep (Bonn)

img_9723.jpg
(Karlsruhe)

imkerdemo.jpg
(Berlin)

[Jon]

Of course they are angry.
They have lost a lot of colonies.
I wonder why they were lost?
That is what we need to get to the bottom of.
Writing 'Death to Bayer the Great Satan' on a placard is not evidence of anything apart from a sense of frustration.
Holding a demonstration is evidence of holding a demonstration.

[EmsE]

The small colony I thought was not going to make it is now thriving with 4 frames of brood and sufficient stores. However, the small colony I thought would be fine isn't going to make it. It was a cast that I homed and it Seemed tobuild up fine going into the winter and had plenty of stores. when it had the oxalic acid treatment in winter, the cluster was over 4 seams - much stronger than the other small colony above.

I found and marked the queen last Sunday when it was nice and warm. The queen isn't much bigger than the workers, there is only a small patch of brood (the size of the palm of a babies hand) that seems to have died out and there are very few bees in the colony. I suspect that the colony loss is due to having a poor queen and there are insufficient bees in the hive to look after brood. I had placed a contact feeder on with some syrup to help knowing that there were probably too few bees in the hive to bring in the food required but hasn't helped. I have taken the frame of brood out of the hive (with some bees) to check just to make sure there is nothing else behind this.

Not sure if you would class this as a winter loss as the failure of the colony is likely to be a poor Queen from last year- this is the first colony that ive lost ( excluding a swarm).