RE: How do you handle the loss of a colony of bees and claiming a loss deduction with the IRS? Mike in LA

Hi Mike,  

I know that the dollar cost of a colony of bees even without considering the cost of the foundation and woodenware is in my mind and the lion's share of most of the folks on this List is a lot of money. I have learned that a three-pound package of Italian Bees with a queen is right around a hundred bucks; that's a lot of money. Most of the folks at the IRS except perhaps for some of the ones that are beekeepers really wouldn't care about it; especially a single colony of bees; but, you should!  

Handling the loss of a colony of bees is a serious matter. The loss of a colony is a serious matter to an experienced beekeeper as well as a novice with his first hive; you need to find out why they died: For the experienced beekeeper it is a matter of routine and for a novice it is a necessary learning experience. In my humble opinion you need to become a bee coroner and perform an autopsy on that hive; you need to investigate and either discover or deduce the exact cause of your loss. 

Did they abscond? Was it pesticide poisoning? Was it starvation due to the lack of winter stores?  Was it due to the lack of a viable queen? Was she either injured, not-laying, or just poorly or slightly laying? Had the hive been robbed several weeks before you went back and discovered that all your colony is dead?  Could it have been American Foulbrood or some other disease? Perhaps it was degradation of the colony caused by nightly visits from a predator? Was it simply a small colony going into winter and temperatures were too cold and the honey too far away from the cluster for the cluster to survive? Was the cause simply the carelessness of the beekeeper? WHY? Why did they die?

There are clues to your loss both inside and outside of your hive and with experience and insight one can learn to search for the clues and discover the cause of death and perhaps prevent the same thing from happening again. If you know an experienced beekeeper close by that can help you and it is not to late to evaluate your hive and apiary go ahead and find out why you lost that colony. There was a colony lost near Manteo, North Carolina well over 400 years ago and folks are still trying to find out why. 

Best regards,

Chuck Norton
Norton's Honey Farm

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