Worldwide Beekeeping

Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: iddee on February 20, 2014, 04:01:19 pm

Title: Checked hives
Post by: iddee on February 20, 2014, 04:01:19 pm
Helped a friend check his remaining 3 hives today. Two were very strong, with eggs, open brood, and a very small amount of capped brood. Pollen galore. The other was weak, but had good pollen and honey stores. None had drones or capped drone cells. All had lots of fresh nectar. Don't know what's blooming other than Maple and an unknown small purple yard flower.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: BoilerJim on February 20, 2014, 05:27:25 pm
Just checked mine. I have lost 8 out of 10 hives.  :'(  I have one in southern Indiana I'll check next week.
The two that are alive ARE ALIVE! First time I have been stung in February. :o
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: ralph on February 20, 2014, 05:35:14 pm
Helped a friend check his remaining 3 hives today. Two were very strong, with eggs, open brood, and a very small amount of capped brood. Pollen galore. The other was weak, but had good pollen and honey stores. None had drones or capped drone cells. All had lots of fresh nectar. Don't know what's blooming other than Maple and an unknown small purple yard flower.

take a picture of that purple yard flower. i bet it's dead nettle.

my weak ones i down sized to five framers several days ago. less big house for them to heat. one i added some bees to in order to get them through yesterday.

all the puny queens will get the swim in alcohol late april early may anyway.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: GLOCK on February 20, 2014, 05:38:22 pm
I have  lost 4 out of 25 so far but we are still not out of the woods in these parts.
but spring is coming.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: Woody Roberts on February 20, 2014, 07:45:02 pm
Dead nettle is the first purple flower to show up here but it ain't here yet. I haven't been thru my hives yet, it just hasn't been very warm when I'm home. I had a 10 lb sugar brick that I dampened and set in the yard. I suspect it'll be gone tomorrow.
Their talking like saturday might be warm enough for me to do an inspection.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: LazyBkpr on February 20, 2014, 09:44:39 pm
Dang Jim.. that has to hurt, and I'm not talking about the sting..   Lots of beeks at the meetings are talking about being VERY low on reserves compared to normal winters. Lots of starving bees before we even had a chance to check them.
   I knew I would lose one, and I have another thats not looking as good as the rest.. with quite a bit of cold ahead..   Looks like you have some splitting to do!
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: Jen on February 20, 2014, 09:56:59 pm
Woody- ""Dead nettle is the first purple flower to show up here but it ain't here yet.""

Would the plant Dead nettle be the same as Stinging Nettle?
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: iddee on February 20, 2014, 10:09:05 pm
Thanks, woody. That's what I have blooming here.

No, jaybird, it isn't stinging nettle.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Dead+nettle&client=firefox-a&hs=3ON&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&imgil=qwqL0DI8Joc1YM%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcR0TmvYd07H4dMuJa8sL-t-XupsCUzo1aUVd2SmnH76IFGWP0NAag%253B400%253B301%253B99Tg6KjmFF-qhM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fhome.howstuffworks.com%25252Fgolden-dead-nettle.htm&source=iu&usg=__cBj34eONHCtwpb7CJAgKCoHoGgY%3D&sa=X&ei=LsIGU66zLOfw0gHohoDwBA&ved=0CCkQ9QEwAA&biw=1277&bih=803#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=3QGTN0brgNWJCM%253A%3Bd-GU9pNjqhjbbM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fidentifythatplant.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F04%252FPurple-dead-nettle.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fidentifythatplant.com%252Fthree-easily-mixed-up-early-spring-plants%252Fpurple-dead-nettle%252F%3B1500%3B1007
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: ralph on February 21, 2014, 02:07:14 am
Iddee that yields some of the nicest looking red pollen you've ever seen. Neat to see in the frames too. The nectar is some stinking stuff and tastes funny or exactly the same way that plant smells when crushed.

As my interest peaked in bees before I got them, I thought it was interesting how a cold windy day in march and they'd be out there on the ground wallowing in them flowers. :)
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: tecumseh on February 21, 2014, 05:30:03 am
we have several flower (all very small but in great numbers) now in bloom.  the only purple flowers I have seen here is henbit. 

I had a conversation with a young lady last night who was one of the students at the Bee Lab last summer.  She is from Wisconsin and quite an accomplished bee keeper given her age.  she informed me that the winter had been severe and she had personally experience a largest loss of bees.  she also works in a Dadant store and she say reports of high winter death losses are mounting by the day.... some as high as 80%.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: ralph on February 21, 2014, 07:00:02 am
she informed me that the winter had been severe and she had personally experience a largest loss of bees.  she also works in a Dadant store and she say reports of high winter death losses are mounting by the day.... some as high as 80%.

The manager of our Dadant store up the road is from Wisconsin i think.

Wonder what percentage of these losses were direct descendants of southern package queens and not requeened before winter? It would be common sense that if something is continually genetically selected down in florida somewhere for generations. The ability to handle themselves in winter conditions could be completely eliminated from their genepool.

There is an area bout 20 minutes from me that has four colonies and that's it as far as i know. They are an old line of bees that have made it through the mites and everything else.

Two of those four are dead right now since last year. Might not be but one alive this spring.

Two colonies are in an old 1800s farm house and one each in two more old houses. One of those old houses goes back to the late 1800s most likely.

They got alot of swarming to do to catch back up. but i'm supposed to get a call up there when a swarm is hangin. I'd like to give the genepool a try anyway.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: LazyBkpr on February 21, 2014, 10:02:14 am
Wonder what percentage of these losses were direct descendants of southern package queens and not requeened before winter?

   I have been paying attention to who lost what this year, but it had not occurred to me to ask about the type of bees..  I've OFTEN thought about it with my own..    I think I will start asking that question and write it down.. Unsientific, and really doesnt PROVE anything, but I am interested to satisfy my own curiosity.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: blueblood on February 21, 2014, 10:12:55 am
Just checked mine. I have lost 8 out of 10 hives.  :'(  I have one in southern Indiana I'll check next week.
The two that are alive ARE ALIVE! First time I have been stung in February. :o

Jim, it was 57 here in Central Indiana yesterday.  I walked back around 5pm which was too late to see most of them flying.  I saw three hives with in and out activity.  I have 13 left from last season.  I wrapped on a few and heard noise also.  I tapped on one a little too much.  Ha!  I heard a flurry of buzz.  I removed myself promptly.  Had one buzz me but that was it.  My bee tree and first overwintered tbh all seem to be good.   
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: BoilerJim on February 21, 2014, 04:44:13 pm
Dave,

I am NOT blaming Michael Bush BUT I went and listened to him speak at Cliffy State Park in November and he claims he does not wrap his hives in Nebraska where he says it gets just as cold as Indiana. I always have wrapped my hives in the winter but this year I thought I might just try his way. Well, I did not realize I was going to be experimenting with my bees during the coldest winter we've had in 25 years!  :o  LOL

Lazy,

Your right buddy. It does sting. I have lost 50% and 30% before but never 80%!  :'(
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: iddee on February 21, 2014, 05:39:50 pm
Lazy, how many of those queens were raised from bees trucked down from the north last fall and used to raise queens to ship back up north this spring. All southern queens are not from southern bees.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: tecumseh on February 21, 2014, 06:09:02 pm
No Ralph the young lady simply works at the Dadant store and attends what I think is a local small college in the area.  The professor for whom I works would like to attract her down her for graduate studies.

I SUSPECT for northern tier beekeepers fall prep is pretty import.  Even with this in some years with especially severe winters this may not be enough.  The young lady also informed me that her own losses were approaching 50% but she honestly appraised this to her being down here all of last summer and not adequately treating her bees for varroa in the fall.  She mentioned a quite elderly beekeeper with a lot of experience under his belt who reported a loss of about 80% of his hives (seems like she mentioned he kept something like 50+ hives).  Wrapping at least in some locations (say perhaps anywhere north or Missouri) I would think would be essential < some winter perhaps not necessary but in winter like we have just experience perhaps essential.

IMHO the entire 'southern queens' thing is largely overblown and sometimes a weak excuse for lack of beekeeper experience.  However I have no doubt you can get poor quality packages or queens from the southern US.... that is the quality of all package or all queen sold by folks who produce these things are not the same... basically some producers of these items simply have higher standards than others.  As Iddee suggest a lot of queen reared in the south are raised by northern beekeeper or at least northern beekeeping families.  I think (speaking again to Ralph) that you do make a good point in that since most of these folks don't overwinter in the northern US there is no selection for winter hardiness or survival.

Just my OPINION! 
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: minz on February 21, 2014, 06:17:10 pm
Feeling your pain, but it almost location by location for me.  Lost both on a hill in Corbett. Lost all of my overwintered nucs (5 of 5) and  3 of 5 here at home.  Still have both of my pairs at Estacada and Kelso.  My neighbor was complaining about the brown spots on his cars last year (detail business) and I am trying to not think he left something sweet out with borax.   Bottom line 0/5 of my overwinter nucs,  6 of 11 of full size hives and this is the month I generally loose them.  Added sugar to two of them this weekend.

Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: brooksbeefarm on February 21, 2014, 07:03:16 pm
Checked some of my north bee yards last Tues., lost 7 out of 48 hives. 4 Hives starved, due to the cluster dwindled and cold temps. all 4 had 40lbs.+of stores left. Jack
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: Perry on February 21, 2014, 07:11:38 pm
Checked some of my north bee yards last Tues., lost 7 out of 48 hives. 4 Hives starved, due to the cluster dwindled and cold temps. all 4 had 40lbs.+of stores left. Jack

15% loss Jack? There are plenty of folks up here that would be happy to have that.  ;D
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: Bakersdozen on February 21, 2014, 08:10:14 pm

I am NOT blaming Michael Bush BUT I went and listened to him speak at Cliffy State Park in November and he claims he does not wrap his hives in Nebraska where he says it gets just as cold as Indiana. I always have wrapped my hives in the winter but this year I thought I might just try his way. Well, I did not realize I was going to be experimenting with my bees during the coldest winter we've had in 25 years!  :o  LOL

Jim, I didn't catch what the cause of your losses was.  Do you think it was the clusters were too small to handle the cold for that long of a period of time?  I am so sorry for your losses.  That hurts.
Down here, in Kansas, we don't wrap hives.  It's counter productive.  Wind breaks are a different story.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: Bamabww on February 21, 2014, 08:11:41 pm
So far all of my 5 hives have made it. They are bringing in some of the grayest pollen I have ever seen. Our maples aren't blooming yet but are very close.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: Marbees on February 21, 2014, 08:12:36 pm
Jim, sorry to hear that :sad:

Wonder if Mr. Bush ever mentioned his winter losses in any of his books....
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: LazyBkpr on February 21, 2014, 08:23:22 pm
That wasn't my statement Iddee, but at this point I believe in it strongly.. I "had" 4 deep south packages..   ONE of them made it through last winter, It died this winter 2 inches from honey. The rest of my hives are still kicking. The rest of my hives are northern bred or feral bees.. When I see something, or have something happen to me personally it makes believing otherwise difficult.
    Tim Wilbanks whos father is Reg from Wilbanks Apiaries in Claxton Georgia has convinced me to try the Georgia bees, so I have two packages coming to compare them to my survivors. He did indeed say that reputable breeders import outside genetics from northern breeders to insure this problem does not happen..  so it may well be that the four packages I purchased were from someone who did not take similar measures.
   Compounding my problem, is that prominent members of two of the local clubs where I attend meetings, denounce the ability of "southern" bees to survive here, as did the gentleman I helped care for his bees for over eleven years. So I come with predefined prejudices..  I am always open to learning and changing, which is why I have Georgia bees and Tennessee queens ordered. I am not going to leave that to chance, so just in case, I also have northern queens coming.
   So it will be interesting to see first hand the differences when winter again forces the bees into a cluster.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: Bakersdozen on February 21, 2014, 08:32:53 pm
I finally got a chance to check two hives that are about an hour away.  Both doing great.  One was a package last year and the other is a strong split I made.  I had placed fondant on them in December and glad I did.  I put more emergency food on today, using the mountain camp method.  It was way too windy to do anything more.  These two along with the two in my back yard gives me 4 out of 4 hives doing well, so far. 
Knock on wood.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: iddee on February 21, 2014, 08:39:35 pm
Lazy, if it wasn't, someone hacked your account.

""Wonder what percentage of these losses were direct descendants of southern package queens and not requeened before winter?""

Reply # 11.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: Gary on February 21, 2014, 08:50:40 pm
Lost 2 of 12 hives. One with 40 pounds of honey and 4 sugar patties placed on 15 January. Several 60 degree days and the queen went into high gear. Then a string of days  in the single digits and below zero. Nearly 5 frames of eggs, pupae and larvae. Too much for the cluster to cover.
The other one puzzles me. Huge pile of dead bees on the bottom board and in front of the entrance on the ground, 45 pounds of honey, 3 winter patties, just a little brood, and very few dead bees on the comb anywhere. They were in very good shape two weeks ago. 3 day mite count was only 17 last October so not a problem there. Late reaction to pesticides?   
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: brooksbeefarm on February 21, 2014, 09:17:02 pm
Perry, the other 3 that i loss were weak hives that i should have combined, but with all the early snow on i couldn't get to them. I still have 42 more to check, i would be happy with only 15% loss, time will tell and this is the time of year when you lose them. Jack
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: G3farms on February 21, 2014, 09:18:23 pm
Lazy who did you order queens from in TN?
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: blueblood on February 21, 2014, 09:28:42 pm
Lazy, I am following your line of thinking.  I have only finished two complete seasons with bees and have already concluded my feral bees are the ones making it through the winters.  My packaged bees...not so much.  Those feral bees are really acclimated to being up here in the cold in my opinion.

Jim, I don't wrap my hives.  But, It was a harsh winter for us here wasn't it. 
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: iddee on February 21, 2014, 09:48:58 pm
If you are talking ferals VS. packages, I'll always be on your side. IMHO, ferals caught down south will be better than packages with southern queens. I also think ferals caught up north will be better than packages with introduced northern queens. I think bees will always do better with blood related queens.

All mine are ferals and I lost one of five so far. It was 15 plus years old and never been treated.
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: LazyBkpr on February 21, 2014, 11:10:55 pm
she informed me that the winter had been severe and she had personally experience a largest loss of bees.  she also works in a Dadant store and she say reports of high winter death losses are mounting by the day.... some as high as 80%.

The manager of our Dadant store up the road is from Wisconsin i think.

Wonder what percentage of these losses were direct descendants of southern package queens and not requeened before winter? It would be common sense that if something is continually genetically selected down in florida somewhere for generations. The ability to handle themselves in winter conditions could be completely eliminated from their genepool.

There is an area bout 20 minutes from me that has four colonies and that's it as far as i know. They are an old line of bees that have made it through the mites and everything else.

Two of those four are dead right now since last year. Might not be but one alive this spring.

Two colonies are in an old 1800s farm house and one each in two more old houses. One of those old houses goes back to the late 1800s most likely.

They got alot of swarming to do to catch back up. but i'm supposed to get a call up there when a swarm is hangin. I'd like to give the genepool a try anyway.

   Yeah, I copied and pasted it from Ralphs post, I just didnt quote who it was from.. Post #10 sorry for the confusion...    :-[
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: blueblood on February 22, 2014, 06:49:49 am
Lazy, I like your signature, ha! I have read over it until now....yes, Pirate!

Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: G3farms on February 22, 2014, 12:36:48 pm
A pirate ye may be, but better not be a sailing yor ship down the road!


Especially around Dave!
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: LazyBkpr on February 22, 2014, 03:47:47 pm
Nope. dont do that anymore when in Pirate mode.. Daves cohorts don't have the forgiveness they did when I was a kid.. Back then, you were given a ride home and told NOT to go get that car till the next day.. now .. DO NOT PASS GO, do not collect 200 dollars, go straight to jail.
     Was also a day I knew my wonderful lady would come get me...  WAS, being the key word here...
Title: Re: Checked hives
Post by: G3farms on February 22, 2014, 04:20:04 pm
LOL pirate mode. LOL