I thought that wintering was good last year.

Fed 159 colonies and 152 survived.  The 7 that died were either small lots
that were not viable or had queens that failed.  A further 10 failed in the
spring - all due to queen failure from poor mating last year.

All colonies were fed on fondant, except for those that went to the
heather -  they were not fed in the autumn, but some were topped up with
fondant in February.

The stop/go weather caused a great deal of swarming and I now have increase
to around 200 colonies plus 18 nucs.  The crop is looking good and may well
be above average this year despite the splitting of colonies.

I am sure that there is always a good reason, or combination of reasons, for
poor wintering - but do beekeepers always read the signs correctly?  It is
very often possible to predict poor wintering based on conditions during the
previous year, e.g. poor weather when queens are mating may produce
partially mated queens that fail during the winter, or early the next
spring; long hot summers with queens shutting down early due to the drought
and therefore fewer young bees to go into winter.

Peter Edwards
[log in to unmask]
www.stratford-upon-avon.freeserve.co.uk/

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