I went in to the winter with 250 hives. The looked good iin Seopt having 'fatened up' on cotton. Only 4 exceeded thresholds with sticky boards in Sept (overall very low mite count) and they got Sucrocide. I lost ~75. I attribute loses to fluctuting temps, cold early winter, mild Jan. and Feb., then cold March. The variability in wintering is a killer these days. I have been feeding heavily and will make splits next week to get back up to 250. Anyway you look at it there is a lot of work involved. On the plus side, I get a chance to cull combs and really clean equipment indead-outs.
Bill Lord
Louisburg, NC
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