Hi Ron,

I'm sorry for your losses.  Been there, done that.  It's no fun.  As did
many of us, I took a big hit in '95-'96.  And even after I vowed diligence,
I did not fare well in '98-'99.  Problems can (and do) happen, even under a
watchful eye.

> T-mites.  I didn't think I had them and didn't treat for them.  But since
> then I have not had any problems.
It's easy to forget about T-mites.  In these days of touted resistant
strains, it's easy to become complacent to their threat.  T-mites are not to
be overlooked and veggie oil patties should be routine fall treatments.
This is soap box advice, the problem you describe sounds (as you suspect)
more like varroa, which can be in check in your yard and still hit you hard
if your neighbors have a problem.

> I knew something was wrong in December.  I noticed on a warm day two
> colonies were being robbed out.  Upon investigation the colony had
> collapsed and there were no bees present.
This is a tough call.  Varroa collapse is typically late fall
(Sept-Oct/Oct-Nov) with corpses left.  T-mites is more a mid-winter killer
and leaves a mysteriously empty hive.  So, December could be a late varroa
collapse or an early t-mite demise.  The presence or lack thereof of dead
bees might be a helpful clue.

> In fact I found only one colony in July that was being hit.  I thought I
> would try an experiment.
I'm not sure I follow what your experiment was, but that's not important.
In a non-experimental way I can concur with your observation that newly
split hives (hives set up in mid-summer) seem to fare much better than
seasoned hives going through the winter.  Even hives left alone in the fall
(no fall crop harvested) do not seem to fare as well as splits set up in the
summer.  Please note I'm using "seem" without the backing of empirical data.
Also let me qualify it with "in my climate" - upstate NY is harsher than
Pennsylvania where your are, but not THAT different.

But most new hives (with the exceptions of those that just didn't build up
and one that built up so quickly it swarmed in mid-September) are looking
the best of all my hives right now.  I suspect it's due to a queen that did
not have the stress of a full blown production season, but frankly I can't
say.  I wonder (and have conjectured on BEE-L before) if it is the break in
the brood cycle.  Perhaps a youthful hive has just the right balance of
stores, or ratio of foragers to house bees, or ratio of pollen to honey, or
something not obvious to me, but it "seems" the new mid-summer hives have
fared best this year (and last).  So much so that I have been rethinking the
whole production and over wintering strategy and begin to wonder if it might
be better to run my hives for early summer production and go for massive
splits around purple loosestrife bloom.  Sure would make for a less hectic
fall!  Full blown production through July, split 'em all and let them be.  I
doubt I'll convert to that strategy in my entire operation, but perhaps one
yard (I have 4, averaging 15 hives per).  There's lots of other things to
try this year - formic at long last(!), screened bottoms, drone trapping,
IPM methodology.


> A number of beekeepers in the area including most of the commercial ones
> were all going to use the chumophos (sp?) just in case they had
resistance.
No comment.  I'll spare my usual rant over coumophos.  But I wonder if
anyone verified Apistan resistance in your area or simply jumped scared onto
the coumophos wagon.


> I guess just when I thought I was really understanding and doing well
after
> all these years, I am still a novice.
Don't be too hard on yourself.  Anyone who makes the efforts you do to learn
the ropes is way ahead of the pack.  In spite of your perceived failure,
you're doing a good job!  As I've said before, seems the more we know the
more we realize we don't really know a hell of a lot.

Wishing you more success this year,
Aaron