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Author Topic: hearing winter losses are huge.  (Read 6365 times)

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Offline Yankee11

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hearing winter losses are huge.
« on: January 13, 2015, 05:06:32 pm »
I heard state inspector at bee club meeting last night said bee losses are big. Shes lost 300 out of 1000 so far and said some have lost 100%. Plenty of food in hives and hives empty of bees. Just gone.
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Offline Perry

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2015, 05:16:32 pm »
Hard to imagine that happening already. Up here the cold has finally just settled in, at least 2 more months to go before there is any indication how it went.
I put an ear up to 8 hives in one yard today and heard bees in all 8, but we're a looooong way from home plate.
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Offline Jen

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2015, 05:24:27 pm »
Yankee- "Plenty of food in hives and hives empty of bees. Just gone.

    THAT sounds like Colony Collapse right there..... Just disappeared
 
     Weird
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Offline riverbee

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2015, 10:10:51 pm »
"Plenty of food in hives and hives empty of bees. Just gone."

yankee, any explanation or thoughts on this by anyone?
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Offline Yankee11

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2015, 11:48:59 pm »
No,

She said they have been seeing the usual ones starved out. But these others have plenty of Honey Stores and there are no dead bees anywhere.

Said someone lost 100%. All hives and nucs.

Her and her husband have lost 300 and may not be sending their remaining 700 to CA for Almonds.

Ya know, seems to me if the commercial folks keep losing hives in these kinds of numbers, they may stop sending hives as the cost to replace them may not be worth what they are maling on the rental income. I have no idea what they make but at some point it has to become a factor.

If what she said last night is true (and I have no reason to doubt her at this point) then something is bad wrong.
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Offline LogicalBee

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2015, 12:02:03 am »
That’s just depressing in so many ways.  Depressing that the bees are dying, and depressing to lose 300 hives as a business.  I haven’t been out to check on mine lately…it’s been too darn cold.
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Offline riverbee

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2015, 12:18:38 am »
thanks for your reply to my question yankee. 

"these others have plenty of Honey Stores and there are no dead bees anywhere."

kiwimana posted a link to a podcast he did with randy oliver, i think somewhere in that podcast oliver talks about this (a question on ccd i think), and gives his thoughts on it? can't remember, sorry, will go back and find that in the podcast for you.
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Offline Yankee11

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2015, 08:57:36 am »
I can't even pretend I know the answer but common sense is telling me that they know whatever is inside those hives, the bees know it's worse for them than vacating during the winter. Just seems to me that if a beekeeper lost 100% of his hives that they could figure out whats in those hives that caused them all to do the same thing.

If they want to know... 8)
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #8 on: January 14, 2015, 09:01:23 am »
 Just seems to me that if a beekeeper lost 100% of his hives that they could figure out whats in those hives that caused them all to do the same thing.

   Exactly..   Having someone volunteering to test, as opposed to having to pay thousands for analysis is a big difference though.
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Offline camero7

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #9 on: January 14, 2015, 09:15:50 am »
Wonder what their mite counts were and how they treated.
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Offline Perry

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #10 on: January 14, 2015, 09:28:13 am »
I agree, figuring out what happened shouldn't be too much of a problem, except when there are no bees. Something happened.
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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #11 on: January 14, 2015, 11:17:37 am »
 C:-)   Too BIG to SUCCEED?
I can't imagine how one would keep track of A THOUSAND hives.
I can't imagine coming back from loosing your ENTIRE operation!
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Offline Yankee11

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #12 on: January 14, 2015, 11:38:28 am »
I wonder what the losses are for hobby beeks and side liners as compared to the commercial guys that ship there hives from one mono crop to another all over the country.

I mean, how can someone loose 100% of their hives and a doofus like me not loose a single hive over 4 winters. (yet anyway, fingers crossed).  And we know that the commercial folks spend way more money on feed, syrup, pollen patties etc than we do.
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Offline Zweefer

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #13 on: January 14, 2015, 12:39:09 pm »
money doesn't always mean better...
I would argue the hobby keeper has a better handle on their hives because of numbers.  It's easier to track 10 hives than 1,000 and react in time to keep them along the right path...
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Offline Perry

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #14 on: January 14, 2015, 12:43:28 pm »
Zweefer has it pretty much right IMHO. It isn't so much a matter of caring more or spending more, it's all about time. On most days if I see a problem with a hive I can address it there and then, which is a luxury that a lot of bigger keeps cannot.
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Offline Yankee11

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #15 on: January 14, 2015, 01:15:45 pm »
Well I agree to some point, but a person that has 1000 hives are not doing that many by themselves.  They have hired dedicated folks.

IDK, it just seems to me we are putting bees in very unnatural situations by shipping them around the country and setting them on mono crops that are genetically modified and sprayed to death. I'm not knocking commercial beekeeping, I just feel it's sad that we have to do this to the bees. And if losses keep being severe we may not be doing this much longer.

I heard the inspector at meeting that lost the 300 said they probably are not gonna send bee to Almonds this year. And maybe thats what its gonna take. Let the farmers and chemical companies figure out how to raise crops by hand pollination.
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Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #16 on: January 14, 2015, 01:28:13 pm »
Quote from: Yankee11 on January 14, 2015, 11:38:28 am
I wonder what the losses are for hobby beeks and side liners as compared to the commercial guys that ship there hives from one mono crop to another all over the country.


Anyone else belong to the Bee Informed Partnership?  They survey beekeepers periodically and then send you the results.  You know how and what you did compared to other beeks in your area?
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Offline Yankee11

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #17 on: January 14, 2015, 04:45:24 pm »
Just did, thanks Bakersdozen.
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Offline pistolpete

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #18 on: January 15, 2015, 11:25:56 am »
One thing I don't get about the almond groves.  Every picture I've seen is basically trees and a very short lawn underneath.  Why couldn't they seed that ground under the trees with bee friendly wild flowers.
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Offline Perry

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Re: hearing winter losses are huge.
« Reply #19 on: January 15, 2015, 11:30:01 am »
They don't want anything to distract the bees!
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