Have been way too busy with work, which has turned me into a lurker and not a poster, so have decided to sit down and write this little update with an added gripe about winter.

Yesterday was a balmy 34F/2C with flurries and it is 15F/-9C right now.  Still a solid blanket of 12in/38cm of snow in most places and below normal temps predicted for the next several days.  The farm road, which I maintain to the barn all winter, is clear but in mud season.  For those of you, who don't know, our five seasons run: winter, mud season, black fly season, a weekend of summer around 4th of July, Colors, and back to winter.  Last year the bees were bringing in pollen by 15 March.  We are almost to the end of the month, but, even on the few warm days when they could really fly, I have seen nothing coming in, yet.  I think the last few winters spoiled me, because it IS only March, but it kind of bites.  Have had a deep snowpack since Christmas, had to use a snow rake on my metal roof (a first), had 6 weeks where it never got above freezing, and it got down to -18F/-28C, which was a new low, since I moved to this place in 2003. I know it  has not been as rough as some places, but it has been a long, hard winter for here.  If I ever meet Al Gore, I am going to beat him about the head and shoulders with his Nobel Prize.  And, before anyone responds to that as a challenge to global climate change (the climate is changing; it always does, whether or not we actually influence it), I know that overall global warming can lead to regions of colder weather, due to changes in things, like wind and current patterns, with some scenarios actually predicting that effect for northern New England.  But, it was too easy to pass up.

Went into the winter with 10 active hives.  Have six now.  Two were very small in the fall, being from my late grafting experiments, and I probably should have combined them, but didn't, and two starved (one has a mouse inside, and I would really like to know how it got through the mouse guard - maybe through the top entrance?).  With all the snow and cold temps, I couldn't open the hives to feed until late February.  Am feeding the survivors dry sugar, since all but one are now on the top frames.  Two have consumed their pollen patties (Global 15%) and have new ones as of yesterday.  The good news is that one of the survivors is the colony headed by my Glenn Apiaries VSH Queen, and that colony looks strong (one of the ones that ate their first pollen patty in <2 wks), so I hope to be able to try grafting again this year, but much earlier.  Six out of 10 is not great, but it is better than I had hoped for (and better than last year), given how much I messed around with the colonies, taking frames of brood and food to raise queens in August, treating so late in the season, etc.  Yes, I know the timing was bad, but for me it was one big experiment/learning experience - first time grafting, new varroa treatment - and I hope to be on a more 'normal' schedule this year, weather permitting.

I treated all my hives with formic acid last fall, using Jean-Pierre Chapleau's flash method of adding to a paper towel under a screened bottom board.  I took careful notes and photos of the drops after each dose and it was very interesting.  I was planning to post here, but have not had the time to collect all my notes and put the data and pics into report form.  I DID find a couple of my own cross-bred colonies last fall (pre-VSH queen) that had very low initial drop counts (<10), and I THINK they are among the survivors, so I hope to include them in my breeding program this year.  All survivors look to be dark bees, my favorite, which makes sense, since I am using a dark VSH queen and was using primarily Carniolan stock before that.  As for the formic acid treatment, it was about the easiest treatment I have ever done, and the initial drops on some of the hives were very high (>100), but came down to very low (<10) by the third treatment, so it appears to work.  It was too late to break down the hives to check for queens, so I will not know for sure until the weather finally breaks.  If my queens made it, then this is my new standard method for testing for and treating for varroa, unless and until breeding renders treatment unnecessary.  It is a great measurement method - no need to open the hive, no need to kill brood, just treat and check for drops on the paper towel.  If you get high numbers, you already have done the first treatment.  It is REALLY easy to prepare the solution and, if you have the right set up - screened bottom board over a solid bottom board with a tray in between - which I happen to have by dumb luck, then it is also really easy to apply, taking a minute, maybe two, per hive.

Well, that's it for now.  Sorry for the long post, but don't know when I will be able to sit down and type again.  Hope everyone in warmer climates is busy as a bee, and those of you with my kind of weather, or worse, have better luck than me with survivors.

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Bill 
Claremont, NH
+43.35687 +43° 21’ 25”
-72.3835   -72° 23’ 01”
CWOP: D5065
Weather Underground: KNHCLARE3
HonetBeeNet: NH001

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