Indeed.. I am hoping you dont lose any more at all.
I thought I was going to lose a couple packages to Nosema, or dysentery.. Whatever it is thats causing them to poo all over the inside of the hive.. One of the two managed to pull through, and they are doing well at this point. The inside of the hive is a bit of a mess, but they are alive.. and they pulled through on sugar cakes. Most of their reserves were gone.
Unfortunately, I can only give advice on my own bees and experiences, those experiences may not relate to your area at all..
1. Packages dont do well here.
In total, I have bought 18 packages over the years. The number of them that survived the first winter is 4. The number that survived the second winter is 0, but I have two daughter queens from packages that are alive at this point, MAYBE they will survive next winter, and maybe I will replace the queens before then to remove the worry/loss.
2. Fumagillin B has reduced my winter loss to Nosema/Dysentery from about 12% to less than 1%
Is it the Fumagillin that has produced these results? I do not know, I lost a lot of hives. I started using the Fumagillin, and those losses ended, so I keep using it.
Beekeepers who have fed fumagillin to field colonies years ago had noted significant differences in colony build up. In fact, many of them stopped using fumagillin. The colonies built up too quickly and swarm control became nearly impossible.
http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/files/147621.pdf 3. Upper ventilation.
Apparently we NEED it here, Lost two hives, nearly lost 3 others.
4. Sugar;
it has been fed to the bees for a very long time. If it was harmful, i doubt that it would have been used for very long.
Candy or bakers fondant was first used to feed bees in the 18thcentury because it was the purest form of sugar then available.
https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/downloadNews.cfm?id=121 Honey actually contains the same basic sugar units as table sugar. Both contain glucose and fructose. Granulated table sugar, or sucrose, has glucose and fructose hooked together, whereas in honey, fructose and glucose remain in individual units.
(Wiki)
Invert sugar has the glucose and fructose broken down, and is supposedly easier for the bees to convert. Having never had any problems I dont worry about that.
We had a terrible fall flow last year, and as most know, my bees subsisted almost entirely on sugar through the winter. The losses i had, were starvation/cold 1 Nosema like symtoms, and 2 were moisture related. Those lost were 90% package bees in nucs and hives. 9% purchased nuc hives. 1% my fault.
I have 25 hives and 4 nucs flying at this point, all living on sugar cakes, but its not yet mid March.
I think if i was in your shoes, I would be bugging the bejeesus out of Rob. (Maybe he is susceptible to Bribery? Cookies? Beverages? Money?)
He is local, and can probably give you the best advice of anyone.
