Hello All,

The news in Pennsylvania concerning the outlook for honeybee colony 
survival this winter is typically described in many news articles (similar 
to the one at the bottom of the page) as a grave.  Some beekeepers are 
already reporting colony losses this year here in PA.  

(See link to ARTICLE at the bottom of the letter)

I was asked earlier this year by some neighboring beekeepers to inspect 
their colonies in mid July to try and help determine why they weren’t doing 
so well.  Looking at these colonies, the cause was obvious and the symptoms 
were many.  Mite populations were what I would describe as very low and 
also not the time of year one might expect to see severe stress from mites 
(so mite pressure and associated disease ruled out here).  The bees 
themselves and brood nest generally appeared to be in rather good health, 
and I was satisfied that there were no brood related disease or stress 
factors affecting the health and broodnest function in these colonies.

What I like to see during late June to July, is colonies in my area should 
be rather heavy with stores and brood, and one occasionally needs to open 
up the broodnest to insure proper development and productivity.  But there 
was an obvious absence of a honey cap and nectar near the broodnest in 
these colonies, and apparently a lack of nectar intake was having a severe 
impact on broodnest development and colony growth, as many colonies were 
very light and only managing to rear only very small amounts of brood.  
Looking at the affected 2006 seasons package bees, and weak colonies, the 
outlook for survival appears to be grave.  For comparison, the majority of 
my colonies were a bit light on stores, but still managing a sufficient 
nectar intake to maintain a very strong productive broodnest and population 
throughout the summer.    Inspecting my 2006 feral swarms; about one half 
of these also appeared to be coping remarkably well.  

Looking back at the year, it seemed like the nectar flow in May was rather 
normal, but was basically non existent as the early flow progressed thru 
the end of May into June, at the time when colonies here need to be packing 
the broodnest with much of the pollen and honey needed for summer carryover 
and fall flow build up, and swarms and packages also needing the nutrition 
at this time for colony growth and summer carry over.  IMO, because the 
symptoms stated above, and that the losses are occurring over the vast 
regional area, weather is certainly a potential culprit.  And because some 
mature colonies as well as 2006 feral swarms appear to be coping much 
better than others,   it suggests genetics is playing an obvious role here 
also.   

IMO, these losses some are experiencing in Pennsylvania this 2006 season 
are the result of a natural weather fluctuation that occurs every so 
often.  But this particular fluctuation is having an extreme impact because 
of the timing of the occurance.  It happened to occur around the time of 
the second half of the early flow, at a time highly important for colony 
developmental growth, summer carryover and fall buildup, especially for 
colonies in first year growth.  Another example natural weather fluctuation 
timed with other stresses to cause high losses, is the weather fluctuation 
that coincided with varroa infestations during 95-96 to cause very high 
colony losses over a vast region in the north east.

It is simply, natures way of occasionally culling the poor genetics and 
bringing the honeybee back into balance with it’s environment.  Any poor 
genetics can handle one stress at a time, but compounding stresses will 
stress the poor genetics the most.  YES,  weak colonies and young colonies 
will have a exceptionally difficult time, and some regional areas more than 
others,  but it basically comes down to genetics fit for your environmental 
conditions.  The key might be to resist blaming the weather for this 
problem and place blame on genetics where it belongs.  Perhaps, now’s the 
time to record which colonies outperformed in these extreme conditions for 
expansion next season, and non performers for potential elimination.  A 
lack of teaching of our beekeepers the lost art of evaluating and breeding 
the best bee seems to show itself every few years.  And many areas could 
benifit from a development of some type of beekeeping program focused on 
the basics of evaluating and breeding honeybee stock fit for our 
enviornment.             

ARTICLE:

“Forget the spy mystery -- what's killing the bees?”
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_483406.html


Joe Waggle 
Ecologicalbeekeeping.com 
‘Bees Gone Wild Apiaries' 
Feral Bee Project:
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FeralBeeProject/

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