On Sun, 29 Mar 1998, James C Bach wrote:
>Bob, you don't say what the level of Honey Bee Tracheal Mites (HBTM) were
>in the two colonies in the fall, or what your observations were in
>September and October before the weather became cold.
The TM levels, I don't know. With only 2 colonies, I didn't have my bees
tested. I assumed (correctly?) TM is virtually endemic (sp?) in our bees.
I thought the vegetable oil patties would keep them under control.
Up until October both hives were very active bring in pollen and nectar.
(We had an unusually mild Fall and Winter this year.) Both colonies
packed in a lot of stores. The top deep supers (10 frames) in both hives
were completely filled and capped. The bottom supers were likewise, well
packed. They looked ready for winter.
> You say the Italian
>colony was active in early February, does that mean you removed the hive
>cover to see how many bees there were?
Sorry I wasn't clear on this part. By active, I meant actively foraging.
You see, in the beginning of February, we had an unusual warm spell here
in New Jersey. Many of the trees and flowers started to bloom (something
doesn't usually start happening until around late March. Both colonies
were actively bring back some pollen. The weather turned cold again.
This was the last time I saw any activity for the few weeks. Towards the
end of last week, our weather got real warm (80s F). That's when I became
aware the Italian colony had a problem (an understatement).
I didn't open the colonies to inspect the frames back in February. The
air was too cool by the time I got home from work. A few of the foraging
bees didn't get inside soon enough, chilled and died. I didn't want to
risk chilling the brood.
There is another clue I discovered today when looking through the abandon
hive more carefully. Some of the cells had larvae in them. The larva
appeared to be only a few days old and beginning to decompose. I thought
about AFB and tried the matchstick test. The larva were pretty solid but
definitely did *not* show signs of AFB.
It appears the queen started to lay eggs and stopped very suddenly.
>2. Queen loss. Quite often these days a high percentage of new queens are
>lost by fall and in many cases the bees make no effort to supercede them.
>If the queen was lost in mid August the bees could have moved over to the
Given what I discovered today, it seems the queen may have made it through
the winter.
>remaining hive, over a period of several weeks. You didn't mention any
>robbing of the honey in the empty hive which leads me to presume that it
>didn't occur.
No there was no robbing going on at all that I ever discovered.
>3. This is the most likely cause: bee genetics i.e. bee or colony
>behavior. Between 10 and 90 percent of new queens (average 30 percent),
>and packages, exhibit what I have been calling aberrant behaviors. These
>include a lack of queen retinue, "noisy" colonies, runny bees, a failure to
^^^^^^^
Retinue?
The Italian colony never seemed to do as well as the Buckfast even though
they had a two week head start. Last Spring was unusually wet and cold
here in NJ. The Italian package arrived first. I was able to hive them a
few days later. The Buckfast arrived about a little over a week later.
It was a few days before the rain stop and it was warm enough to hive
them. The Buckfast really took off. The Italian colony just kind of
lagging until mid-July, then they started to take off.
The Italians always seem much more defensive than the Buckfast even during
the nectar flows. I just attributed this to the difference between the
strains.
>In my own experience over the last 12 years these behaviors have caused 25
>to 30 percent colony losses (exactly as you describe) though I have
>purchased queens from at least as many sources.
Seems there isn't a lot I can do about this cause then, or is there?
>remaining colony built at its maximum rate until then. You may even find
>it necessary to replace last years Buckfast queen, judging by local
>beekeeper experience here.
I'm curious what the problem? How I would know if I need to do this? I
am planning to requeen the original Buckfast colony in the Fall.
>To all BEE-Lers: It would be quite helpful if you give us the number of
>combs of bees (deep or westerns) in hives when you are describing a problem
Noted for future reference. Sometimes, especially for we new-bees, it is
hard to know what information is important and what isn't. The more
experience folks would ignore some bits of information. Being
inexperienced, we new-bees might think the same information is very
important.
Thanks for the lesson. :-)
bob
--
Bob Billson, KC2WZ email: [log in to unmask]
second year beekeeper, 2 colonies (so far) [log in to unmask]
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