Howdy Folks;
Been a while since I checked in but I'm still out there.
Recap on my progress.
Year One: Bees died. Varroa out of control. I now tell newbies that they have to worry about Varroa. If someone told them otherwise I've advised them to check for Varroa regardless.
Year Two: Had one nice strong colony and two fair to middling ones, plenty of stores in all cases. I moved them to the machine shed for the winter to shelter them from the wind and installed quilt boxes on all of them. Turned out to be a mistake. The quilt boxes, filled with pine shavings soaked up the excess moisture but I had not found any info telling me to swap them out periodically. Even with ventilation, mine turned to solid pine shavings ice blocks which rained down upon the poor girls as Spring came on. So much for that idea.
2017-18 season (Year Three): I think we're getting better at this. 3 hives going into the winter.
One died out in the excessive cold we had this year. Was unable to determine the cause but they went into winter with plenty of stores. My guess is that they were unable to move to fresh stores either due to brood or due to the cold holding them in place for too long. Have one deep with some stores on the side frames and plenty of open brood comb for new occupants and a nearly full upper deep that they never moved into during the winter. To make sure they had adequate winter stores, fed them 2:1 in Sept./Oct. but they didn't take it. Either they didn't need it or it may have been a sign of trouble coming, not sure.
Next hive is still going but just cleaned out the dead bees from the bottom board to aid in ventilation and cleansing flights. Sizeable pile of dead bees but the remaining cluster is taking winter patties and dry sugar and seem to be getting along just fine (but we're not out of the woods yet). Took a quick peek, high activity.
Last hive is a conundrum. Just a handfull of dead bees to scrape out (I'll talk about this more later). While scraping out carcasses a couple of the girls came out to greet me. Nothing violent but with this hive you sort of expect it. This is one... HOT... hive. Have been ever since June/July. We never go near without being fully suited up, even in Winter. Checked on them in December on a 28 deg. F. day and they had not clustered yet. Threw on some winter patties in case they needed any and left. There was a softball sized cluster on my wife's back when we left. I don't know what these gals are on but they were bringing stuff in after Thanksgiving when the other two hives had shut down for the duration. Lowest honey producing hive in the lot and were always bearding during the day in October when temps were peaking in the low-mid 40's. They sucked up 2:1 syrup like it was going out of style in Sept./Oct. I'm leery of giving them pollen patties as Spring approaches because I don't want them producing drone brood. Everyone I've talked to agrees that we should pinch the queen and install a new one when the time comes. Prolific but aggressive. U. of MN. experts even say do this. Order 3 more nucs for spring in case another hive fails but it won't be this one.
All hives were treated in the Fall using OA vaporization. Counts were very low after the final treatment. Hives were 2 deeps and covered with Mann Lake black cardboard hive boxes, vent hole in upper deep for ventilation and cleansing flights and in case lower entrances were drifted closed. We got 65# of honey (a first for us) and all hives were too heavy to lift so they had more than 100# per hive to make it through the Minnesota winter. New spring nucs are coming from the same vendor as we bought last year since these seemed to work out pretty well overall.
And I turned 65 today and having a ball. Don't feel a day over 65 either.... that comes tomorrow.
