How did you fare this winter

wexfordman2

Hi,

Just wondering his people fared overwinter this year with it being cold etc. Not a good year for me, in went in to the winter with ten hives consisting of 9 nationals at brood and a half. Also one poly nuc.

I lost all but one of the 9 brood and a half colonies, and my poly nuc survived also. So I am down to 2 colonies and back 3 years to building up stock again.

victor8600

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Just wondering his people fared overwinter this year with it being cold etc.

I had 3 modified commercial hives and a nuc. The colony in the nuc died because I did not feed them in February/March. All three hives overwintered successfully, but in one hive the queen is missing, she could have died when I was doing oxalic acid evaporation in January or in some other accident.

The hives came in to the winter with 8-9 full frames of honey and had around half of that by the middle of April. The hives are wooden with mesh floors, closed with sliding plywood bottom boards.

You said your colonies were lost. What do you mean by that? Was it due to starvation? Have you seen signs of dysentery or other disease?

wexfordman2

victor8600 wrote: »

I had 3 modified commercial hives and a nuc. The colony in the nuc died because I did not feed them in February/March. All three hives overwintered successfully, but in one hive the queen is missing, she could have died when I was doing oxalic acid evaporation in January or in some other accident.

The hives came in to the winter with 8-9 full frames of honey and had around half of that by the middle of April. The hives are wooden with mesh floors, closed with sliding plywood bottom boards.

You said your colonies were lost. What do you mean by that? Was it due to starvation? Have you seen signs of dysentery or other disease?

Hi Victor,

Thanks for that. I think it was a combination of cold, and starvation. What I noticed is that while all of them were brood and a half, the top supers were full, but it was ivy honey, quite solid, so perhaps they were not able to process it ?

All my boxes with the exception of the nuc were timber nationals, with pvc underfloor board.

Bunnyslippers

My wooden national hive had two brood boxes going into winter with 20 seams of buckfast bees at xmas time when they were done with oxalic mite treatment, they have a mesh floor with plastic bottom board under it, I had the top box with the feeder in it stuffed with wood shavings to give a bit more insulation as we're up a mountain. They had loads of feed before winter and fondant, which they ate one block and were on their second, till I opened them up last weekend, half the colony was gone and bottom box empty and mouldy, probably about 6 seams of bees left if that. Looks like they ran out of food, they did have some ivy honey left which I've uncapped and have fed them again, didn't see the queen either but there were larvae there, so am hoping when I next open them up she is there!:(

Mind you other bee keepers I've spoken to have had the same result, with buckfast and blacks, which makes me feel it wasn't something I did - i think winter was just too long, cold and wet, spring just hasn't happened at all yet!!

I did speak to someone the other day who keeps bees in the pyrenees and they always only winter in one box and have a corrugated metal house over the whole hive with the option of leaving the front open, just to keep the rain off the hive totally, might be something I'll try next winter, plus I have poly hives to transfer them into when I get them all onto the right size frames! This climate doesn't make it easy to keep bees!

Doctors room ghost

Bunnyslippers wrote: »

My wooden national hive had two brood boxes going into winter with 20 seams of buckfast bees at xmas time when they were done with oxalic mite treatment, they have a mesh floor with plastic bottom board under it, I had the top box with the feeder in it stuffed with wood shavings to give a bit more insulation as we're up a mountain. They had loads of feed before winter and fondant, which they ate one block and were on their second, till I opened them up last weekend, half the colony was gone and bottom box empty and mouldy, probably about 6 seams of bees left if that. Looks like they ran out of food, they did have some ivy honey left which I've uncapped and have fed them again, didn't see the queen either but there were larvae there, so am hoping when I next open them up she is there!:(

Mind you other bee keepers I've spoken to have had the same result, with buckfast and blacks, which makes me feel it wasn't something I did - i think winter was just too long, cold and wet, spring just hasn't happened at all yet!!

I did speak to someone the other day who keeps bees in the pyrenees and they always only winter in one box and have a corrugated metal house over the whole hive with the option of leaving the front open, just to keep the rain off the hive totally, might be something I'll try next winter, plus I have poly hives to transfer them into when I get them all onto the right size frames! This climate doesn't make it easy to keep bees!

Could you cut a door in an old ibc tank and leave it over the hive to keep it dry and air getting in where you cut the door

bpmurray

I lost only one - there was a small handful of bees only, but plenty of stores. My guess is the queen died and they were the surviving winter bees. One nuc had only a hand-sized patch of brood on one frame, as did one hive. I tried a bit of equalization a couple of weeks ago - hopefully the warmth this weekend will give me a chance to check them all.