WINTER LOSSES

[GLOCK]

So what are everyone's winter losses? Mine is 1 out of 32 hives. I have not lost a hive since 3/2014 .
One thing i have learned about over wintering bee's is get the VARROA off the bee's and they will stay strong.

[LazyBkpr]

I am jealous!
   I only lost 1 hive last year, but this year I bought ten packages and ten nucs...  Lost 12 of those.. all my original hives are still doing well, didnt lose any of those.

[Perry]

3 confirmed so far, but only cause I happened to check. 2 gone in January, found one today, starved. Lots of bees, big cluster, but starved. It was light in the fall, and I was putting fondant on since fall, but they ate it all up and when I checked today they were done. 100% my fault.

[camero7]

waded into one of my small yards... all 4 dead... this was an unprotected yard and the cold wind just tore through the hives. Should have moved them but ran out of time. going into my other yards next week. Still pretty happy that my nuc yard did so well. that's the lifeblood of my program.

[Perry]

This winter has been weird. I had an ear to everything back in January (early) and only found 2 of 65 dead. I have lost a lot of confidence in the last 2 months with the weather we've had since then. Too cold and too much snow to even check on them. Starvation is gonna be my next problem I'm afraid.

[Ray4852]

 No loss this season This will be two straight years without any bee loss. Two hard winters. It goes to show if we do the right things our hives can survive our long cold winter. The homasote board was dry as a daisy. My hard work plowing thru 4 ft of snow to keep the upper and lower entrances clean helped  my bees get thru this winter. 

[Slowmodem]

Right now both my hives are going strong.  However, if they get a lot of brood and it turns cold again, they may die trying to cover it all, which has happened before.

[pistolpete]

All four of my hives have made it through the winter in nice shape.   That means I've never had any winter losses  (but I've only been at it for four years).  Go bees go!!!

[efmesch]

I went into the winter with 6 hives.  Three died out.
I split one that was very strong---that brought me back to 4.
Friday I went through the hives to see how they were doing ---all seemed fine so I thought about using frames from the deads in the active hives.
SURPRISE----Two swarms had set up house in the two empties.  I"m back to 6.  But the swarms weren't very strong and I didn't have time to really look them over.  Depending on what I find when I (hopefully) have the time to check them out on Tuesday, They could be good candidates for uniting and if the queens are young, I might take one and use her as a replacement in one of the other hives.

[Slowmodem]

I went into the winter with 6 hives.  Three died out.
I split one that was very strong---that brought me back to 4.
Friday I went through the hives to see how they were doing ---all seemed fine so I thought about using frames from the deads in the active hives.
SURPRISE----Two swarms had set up house in the two empties.  I"m back to 6.  But the swarms weren't very strong and I didn't have time to really look them over.  Depending on what I find when I (hopefully) have the time to check them out on Tuesday, They could be good candidates for uniting and if the queens are young, I might take one and use her as a replacement in one of the other hives.

The seasons must come early over there!  Last year it was into April before I saw swarms.  I'm at latitude 35 1/2 degrees and it looks like your between 31 and 33 degrees, so I thought the seasons would be similar.  Maybe it's that Mediterranean thing? 

[efmesch]

I think it's global warming---In the past, I never saw a swarm before April 1st.  It was like clockwork---on the first of April the first swarm would appear.
Now, over the past 5-6 years I've been seeing swarms earlier and earlier.  It started with an advance of about 1 week and this year I caught my first swarm on March 1st, a whole month ahead of schedue.

[Slowmodem]

I think it's global warming---In the past, I never saw a swarm before April 1st.  It was like clockwork---on the first of April the first swarm would appear.
Now, over the past 5-6 years I've been seeing swarms earlier and earlier.  It started with an advance of about 1 week and this year I caught my first swarm on March 1st, a whole month ahead of schedue.

Well, it IS the land of milk and honey!   

[efmesch]

I won't say anythingabout honey production, but here's a recent article about Israeli milk production:
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/03/11/the-land-of-milk-israels-super-cows-are-the-worlds-most-productive-video/

[Bakersdozen]

I think it's global warming---this year I caught my first swarm on March 1st, a whole month ahead of schedue.

Wow that is a dramatic difference.

To date, I lost one in a seriously unexpected November cold snap to unknown causes.  One in a lengthy cold spell in January and last week I am queenless in a third.  The queenless hive is my own fault.  I had hoped they would requeen themselves because they had such good traits.  New queen ordered.  All these were in my back yard.  My country bees are all doing fine and I see a split in one's future.  The others were late (June) packages.  So, that is a 50% loss.
Funny, last year I doubled my hives.  I am back where I started.

[crazy8days]

8 out of 11 dead.........

[Slowmodem]

I won't say anythingabout honey production, but here's a recent article about Israeli milk production:
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/03/11/the-land-of-milk-israels-super-cows-are-the-worlds-most-productive-video/

Interesting article.  I never realized that the cutting edge of dairy science was there.  Good for them! 

[tbonekel]

8 out of 11 dead.........

Sorry about that crazy! Tough break!

[efmesch]

Crazy8, you as well as the bees suffered through a tough winter.  I hope it's over now.