One hive down...

After almost two full years of enjoying our healthy hives at TLC's demonstration beeyard, we finally lost one one of them this winter.  Winter losses are all too common for beekeepers these days (average winter losses are somewhere the in the neighborhood of 30%), and there are a number of reasons a hive might not make it through this trying season of the year.

Without leaving sufficient stores on the hive (I'd say at least 50 lbs. of honey), a colony could easily starve over the winter months.  In our parts, beekeepers usually harvest in the summer, trying to leave enough honey for the bees to get through the summer dearth.  We then usually experience a modest nectar flow in the fall, and the beekeeper may or may not do some supplemental feeding at that time to get the hive up to weight.

Also, if there are problems with the queen in late summer or fall, there might be a low population going into the winter, so that they have a hard time forming a sufficient cluster to stay warm and move to where the stores are in the hive.  Bees don't exactly die from the cold, but if there is inadequate ventilation in the hive, it can become damp.  Cold and wet bees is definitely a deadly combination.  Add to the equation stresses from parasitic Varroa mites and their associated viral diseases, and the cluster of bees could already be dwindling throughout the winter due to a really high attrition rate.

The hive we lost was "Hive A", which was previously a superstar, but attempted to swarm last summer and stumbled a bit in requeening itself.  It didn't seem to have an especially high Varroa count, but honestly any Varroa mites in the hive are not helping matters.  When I found it dead on March 16th, I didn't have time to do a full autopsy, but peeked in and closed up the entrance to prevent the remaining stores from being robbed out.  There seemed to be a rather small number of (dead) bees in the hive, which leads me to believe there weren't that many in there going into winter.  That may have been related to queen issues from last year, that I didn't pick up on in the fall, or it may have succumbed to a combination of other stress.

The fact of the matter is- hives die; though it's sad, it's the beekeeping world we live in.  On the bright side, the hives at TLC's apiary have done better than average.  Also, as long as Hive A did not fall to a communicable disease, we can reuse all of the equipment and drawn comb from that hive to give a new colony a real head start this spring.  Sounds like a post for the near future!

Beginner Beekeeping Seminar on March 2nd

For all of you new and aspiring beekeepers out there, the Chester County Beekeepers Association will be hosting its annual beekeeping seminar at the Westtown School in West Chester, PA on March 2nd.  It's a wonderful event with great speakers, great company, and even some great food! 

If you've been thinking about taking the plunge and getting started with bees, this all day seminar is one of the best jump-starts you can get.  You can CLICK HERE for more information and to register.  I hope to see you there!

Winter update

2012 turned out to be a great bee year for most beekeepers in the area, and we at TLC were no exception.  There were a few of the typical stumbles along the way, but we went into Winter with 3 strong hives again.  They were basically set up similarly to last year, so you can browse those posts for a few more details.

In a nutshell, we build a short wall out of straw bales to provide a windbreak for the hives.  Cold winter winds blowing straight across the field toward the hives is the one Achilles' heel of that location.  The wind break was an easy quick fix that has worked in the past, and I recommend that everyone makes sure their hives have some wind protection throughout the winter.  Each hive also got a metal mouse-guard over the entrance to keep out pesky invaders.

All 3 hives were a little light on stores at the end of the Fall, so in early December I put 5-10 of dry sugar on each hive to act as "emergency stores".  If, and when, the bees run out of honey stored in the hive, they will hit the dry sugar that I placed above the frames.  It is not the best bee food, but our goal is to make sure they don't starve!

In mid-January we had a very warm weekend, so I took the opportunity to do a quick inspection of all of my hives.  Each hive had bees flying, and when I peeked under the cover, I could see theat they had eaten a little of the sugar I placed in there earlier.  Hive A, always the most robust, had eaten about half of it, so I just topped it off with a few more pounds of sugar and closed up the hive.

There's not much else to do in Winter, other than wait, and worry, and sometimes give some emergency feed if necessary.  Hopefully there will be at least one or two warm days for me to do a similar inspection each month until Spring really begins.