a Richard Cryberg snip...
Does anyone have any clue why the huge variation in winter deaths this year?  I do not think it is climate.

my comments...
Well I would suggest you think about that a bit more and a bit deeper.  Bad seasons (we had a bad drought here ending pretty much in 2011 but was essentially about 5 years in the making) and this impacts not only the quantity of nectar gathered but also the quantity and quality of pollen.  Poor nutrition pretty quickly impacts the health of individual bees and the colony.  Everyone keeping bees is so concerned about varroa but seems to overlook the first thing they could do something about which is nutrition.

As far as I can tell a lot of severe bee die offs (historically) happen right after poor crop years in a given region of the country. 

ET Ash   

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