Waldemar wrote:

>>>>I sincerely thank you for coming out.  Really!  Losses are not 
necessarily an indicator of poor beekeeping practices.<<<<<
Thanks for that. I don't consider that my few hives could prove anything one
way or the other.

>>>Is there anything in your management that you can attribute this loss 
to? <<<
Yes lots. I've been stubbornly trying to keep bees with minimal treatments.
I settled on fuming O/A. No fumigillin, no menthol. I did well last
year(05). I harvested 500 or so pounds by July 06.

>>>>The 20% loss in your 2nd yard seems a bit high.  Were those losses 
analogous with the ones from your other yard?<<< 
No. One hive was weak. The other should have been OK. There were dead bees
in these hives. Winter was tough. Up here this is unremarkable.


>>>>I was a bit concerned last October when I brought them (my bees) back
from late asters and saw quite a bit of crystalized stores. ...the bees did
not starve.<<<<<
I saw crystallized honey. Also I saw a lot of open honey. More open cells
than they had in the fall. Did they open them and not use them?

Can you elaborate on:

1. The strength & age of the clustering bees in the colonies last 
October
I was unhappy with them. They wouldn't take feed. I can't honestly say I
know the age of the fall bees.

>>2. The amount and quality of stored honey and pollen<<
I was unsure if they had enough stores (I always am). It was a bad fall with
no real honey flow from July on.

>>3. Cleansing flight frequency (I am south of you)<<
Winter was kind until late Jan but there was a clampdown of a month or so.
No dysentery spotting.

>>4. Were the lost bees in the hives or did they disappear altogether.<<
In Nov/Dec I found empty hives (Practically) with a queen and very few bees.
The one that is left now has very few bees. In other hives bees died in one
small cluster. It looked like they cold-starved. Now I'm wondering if they
couldn't move to stores for other reasons. Nobody was out of stores.
 
Let me repeat. I think this may be mite damage that the later treatments
were too late to cure or tracheal mites. I'll test the last bees and let you
know.

Dick Marron

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