> >The word locally (central NY) is that supersedure was remarkably common
> >this year, for some strange reason.  I had a few colonies which were doing
> >great, building up with first-season queens (some reared, some bought),
> >only to find the queen GONE after filling the hive with a beautiful brood
> >pattern.
<etc>
 
RICHARD BARNES wrote:
> I know it is very possibly a coincidence, I treated with apistan strips from
> June 23 through August 3 this year (between spring and fall honey flows) and
> with in three weeks, four out of ten hives had no queen or eggs.
>
>  Of the queens I lost this year, counting early losses for a total of 6, all
> either obsconded after laying 2-3 frames of brood or were killed by the
> bees.  Five were new queens this year and one was a swarm I caught about 1
> and one half mile from my bee yard.  One of the interesting points is I had
> no queen cells in the hives.  It is like they became queenless some where
> past the point of taking eggs and making a new queen themselves.
 
Similar things happened to me this season. I also found hives with no
queen
and no emergency cells in the spring. About 10% of my queens were lost
later
in the season without any reason I could see. They were mostly newly
mated
queens that had been laying for some weeks that suddenly were gone. In
at
least one hive the bees had started making emergency cells before the
queen
stopped laying.
 
I don't have varroa yet, so no medication has been done. There is very
little
spraying going on, and the farmers are well aware of the risk of killing
bees.
There were good weather with a good honey flow and plenty of pollen
available.
 
I have never seen anything like it before, don't belive it's bad mating
or
poorly reared queens. But something is affecting the bees.
 
Anyone else with similar experience?
 
--
Regards
 
P-O Gustafsson, Sweden
[log in to unmask]    http://www.kuai.se/~beeman/