Does anyone have any clue why the huge variation in winter deaths this year?  I do not think it is climate.  I watch the normal high and low temps for each day out of idle curiosity and my temps have been well within the normal range for the majority of days.  And a heck of a lot warmer than two years ago.  Average highs for where I live today are 35 deg and average lows are 24.  My forecast high today is 28 and forecast low is 20.  That sounds pretty normal to me.  I have had more days above long term averages than below since mid Jan, but from Nov to mid Jan was very normal or below normal a little.  So, maybe my winter the last month has been more like moving 200 miles south overall.  That kind of difference should not make a bit of difference in survival I would not think.

My losses so far are low.  My next door neighbor lost two out or two.  So, what is the difference?  I was not in her hives at all last summer so do not know what was going on inside.  Just looking at the entrance flights both looked low on bees to me.  I had an ok honey year last summer and she harvested 20 pounds total so there was something wrong inside.  I do not know if she did anything about mites at all last summer.  For all I know she could have been queenless by fall.  But, I see people with a lot of deaths that I know are diligent bee keepers and know what they are doing and am sure they did not neglect their hives.  The high losses by good bee keepers are a real worry to me.  When am I going to run out of luck and get bitten?  I am serious when I use the word luck.  I am not convinced low losses are just skill.  Am I going to see 40% deaths in the next month?  Could be.  It does not seem to be just mites.  When guys like Peter or Cam have the deaths they report this winter it scares me big time.  I sure can not blame it on the "evil migratory guys" bringing in diseases and mites like some people claim.  There are none anyplace close to me or close to many of the people with high losses as far as I know.  Besides, the migratory guys do not seem to be having high hive deaths.  This is a smart bunch of people on this group.  What do we need to do different?  Or, is this variation in deaths normal historically?  The only thing I saw last summer that was different was a lot of hives with a half dozen hive beetles on the inner cover.  First time I have seen hive beetles regularly.  But none got slimmed.

Dick

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