On Tue, 10 Jan 1995, George Clarkson/SC wrote:
> Does anyone know what my bees might be finding as a food source in
mid-January in central South Carolina. On days when it warms up enough they
are quite busy coming and going and a lot of them are coming in heavily
loaded with pollen.
I and others had previously indicated possibility of maple, willow,
alder, canoloa, or wild mustard. In the days following I saw maple blooming
and a lot of nectar came in during the warm spell. Rain and colder weather
has now stopped that, I hope, temporarily. The earliest I have seen maple in
the past is about the 20th of January, so this was definitely unusual.
There is another possible source - robbing - which we did not discuss, and
there is something unusual here, as well.
During the heyday of tracheal mites, we saw a lot of bees die during the
winter that were heavy with honey. Not since then have I seen so many. This
winter I have seen quite a few colonies that really packed in goldenrod honey
(it is distinguishable by taste and yellow cappings), but now are either very
weak or dead. Some have been robbed out, some not. Some thoughts:
1. It is unusual here in SC to see that much goldenrod honey. Was there
some mechanism that stopped the brood rearing during the goldenrod flow,
allowing them to save more than normal (ie plug out), but then go into winter
with mostly old bees.
2. Is this a resurgeance of tracheal mite? On the weak survivors, there
seems to be some varroa, but not at high levels. (On the dead ones, one
can't tell, of course.) On the other hand these weak hives have little or no
brood, often there is dead, chilled brood. With the lack of brood, did
varroa die off too, after doing its damage?
(I guess I need to cut some samples to check for tracheal, but I haven't
had much time)
Other losses: I have 150 hives that I think were hit with mid day aerial
application about the time goldenrod was starting. These did not get the
goldenrod, nor did they replace the lost bees, and went into winter with old
bees. 85% of these are dead now, and the rest are not in good shape.
(Really hurts - that took the profit from all the fall season's
pollination.) This was not varroa, as I had put strips on half of them as
they went out in September, and they were just about the same ratio as those
which did not have strips. These also did not die heavy with honey. The
survivors ate it up.
I have come to believe that there is some synergism acting, as well. Lets
suppose that a particular hive loses 10% of its strength from tracheal mite,
10% from varroa, and 5% from chalkbrood. Then they are hit by pesticide
misuse and lose 15%. If you add these together it makes 40%, but the reality
is not this. Somehow these loss agents interact and the losses are really
much higher - maybe 75 - 80% or more. I would love to hear some response
from the experts on this idea.
Mites, diseases, weather are all things that beekeepers must cope with,
but much of what can be done is in our hands. Pesticide label compliance, of
course, is out of our hands and in those who apply, and those who enforce the
law. We had a lot of damage during cotton bloom, and then again on fall
cukes.
Our SC authorities have thus far refused to take any signicant action to
implement and enforce pesticide label protection for bees.
You will hear more of this in the future. Other states have done a little
enforcement, not enough, but better than nothing.
In the meantime, we are struggling to survive. At this point compared to
last year, we are off about 30% in strength. The warm winter is not really
helping, as the bees are active, and consuming a lot of feed, and I fear some
serious cold would now damage a lot of buds, and possibly create a lot of
chilled brood, etc. We've also had some flood damage. I have only lost a
few, but others have lost a lot of bees in localized areas where whole bee
yards were under water.
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Dave Green PO Box 1215, Hemingway, SC 29554
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