Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: ablanton on March 14, 2014, 08:39:09 pm
-
What a disappointment. I thought I was going to bring all 10 of my hives through winter. It was looking good until this week. Had been seeing slower and slower activity around one of my weakest hives. Then, this week, it looked like some robbing activity; but, no dead bees below the hive and no fighting at the door. Popped it open today to find the hive dead and a few robbers checking things out. Luckily, I caught it in time to get several frames of honey in the freezer before the robbers tore them up.
Not sure what happened. Very small cluster about the size of my fist, head in the comb, starvation style. Just a few inches from plenty of honey. I figure I must have lost the queen sometime back. There were just a very few cells of capped brood remaining. As the population got smaller and smaller, the cluster just wasn't big enough to get through this last ice storm we had last weekend.
On the bright side, I have a 10-frame double-deep going gang busters that I've been planning to tear down to an 8-frame this spring. I'll pull four frames and a queen and dump them in this empty hive with plenty of comb & honey. They should go from zero to sixty when the poplar flow starts.
-
1 out of 10 is pretty darned good to my thinking. March is the month to watch. I can still hear bees in all 51 of mine, but I won't really have an accurate count for at least another month. probably more. From here forward is when the going gets tough (to watch).
1 out of 10, I'm impressed. ;) I'll be happy with 10%.
-
Sounds like a good plan Ablanton. Also sounds like you have a good theory of why they died out.
i ordered five queens.. expecting losses... I wish I could get a memo from the big fellow above telling me how many I would lose so I could order the right amount of queens... But then.. I'd not have the need and pleasure to raise my own queens later in the season..
-
Still waiting on my memo also. Five ordered in January, too many almost, last year. Half the amount needed this year. My little voice sometimes lies to me.
-
It is never very hard selling an extra queen in the spring of the year. or making up an extra nuc. I guess we are all a little cautious that we may not have enough bees survive to go with the queens we've ordered.