BEE-L Archives

Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

BEE-L@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Christina Wahl <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 9 May 2013 18:59:10 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (43 lines)
I am confused about the take-home messages regarding USA winter bee hive survival as calculated by the BeeInformed survey.  Maybe others on the list are too, so...I am sharing why I'm puzzled to see if anyone can clear some of this up:

Are reported hive losses strictly the numbers of frankly dead hives and/or empty boxes, or do they include "managed" losses such as combined weak hives?  I've copied the questions from the 2011-2012 survey below (this published report is available at http://www.ibra.org.uk/articles/US-honey-bee-winter-colony-losses-2011-12), and I cannot decipher how such management information might be buried in there.   I do notice that "weak in the fall" is registered as a response for "why did your bees die", and I have to assume most who responded this way were in the North, if all are good beekeepers and don't let weak hives fail on their own given the opportunity to combine them with other, stronger hives.  However, the data aren't presented in a way that allows me to verify that.

If I were trucking hives cross-country, I'd either leave weak ones behind or combine.  How do those sub-par hives count...or don't they?  Once two small hives become one, is there a loss of one hive, or are they both regarded as "survivors"?  A beekeeper can split 100 strong hives and combine 200 weak ones and have no net loss....but are things going well in that situation?  In warm winter locations beekeepers can manage dwindling hives in this way Dec-March, in the north we cannot.

If an operation re-queens annually or even more frequently, how do such hives compare to those that have more "traditional" re-queening strategies such as biannual requeening?  Are hives that frequently require new queens considered to be in good shape?  They aren't dead...but are they OK?  Queen failure was listed as tied for second major cause for colony loss in 2011-2012, after pesticides (#1) and tied with "weak in the fall".

In some states, few of the colonies reported on are there all the time (for example, Mississippi has only 0.07% of reported colonies in permanent residence...hardly any of the reported hives in Mississippi actually "live" in Mississippi).  If beekeepers report Maine (2%) or Missouri (0.07%) as "home" to colonies that often/mostly aren't there, how do we evaluate the situation for those states?

A large number of the hives that are in this report are overwintering in warm places (Texas, Florida, Mississippi, parts of California) where they can fly all year and year-round management is possible.  How does that equate to dormant hives under snow in a cluster waiting for warm weather, with beekeepers keeping their fingers crossed and unable to work with their livestock?

Christina

BeeInformed questions from 2011-2012 survey:

1. In what state(s) did you keep your colonies in 2011?

2. How many living colonies did you have on 1 October 2011?

3. How many living colonies did you have on 1 April 2012?

4.Did you make splits, increases or buy / sell colonies between 1 October 2011 and 1 April 2012?

5. How many splits, increases, and / or colonies did you make / buy between 1 October 2011 and 1 April 2012?

6. How many splits, increases, and / or colonies did you sell between 1 October 2011 and 1 April 2012?

7. What percentage of the colonies that died between 1 October and 1 April were lost without dead bees in the hive or apiary?

8. What percentage of loss, over this time period, would you consider acceptable?

9. In your opinion, which factor(s) was the main cause(s) of colony death in your operation between 1 October 2011 and 1 April 2012?

10. What percentage of your hives did you send to California for almond pollination?

11.  How many times, on average, did you move your colonies last year?

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

ATOM RSS1 RSS2