My reply to an off list request for those who may be interested:

I am located on a ridge top in northeast Alabama that overlooks the Tennessee river.   I got my start with bees in the summer of 2010, but didn’t start using this current stock until 2011.  The supplier from whom I purchased my queens and nucs has been propagating these successfully off treatments since 1996 having started them from feral bee tree cut outs.  I am in the process of building a list of keepers working with these off treatments and so far there are five of us that I know of and all having similar results.

I am a hobbyist/sideliner and run +/- 20 hives for honey and nuc production.  My average winter loss so far is under 15% and mostly attributable to queen failure with one confirmed case of heavy mite infestation.   I believe the loss rate may improve over time along with my experience level and the winnowing of less hearty stock.   The supplier typically has losses around 5%.   I don’t take mite samples on a regular basis, but out of interest I may do counts later in the fall and after I am finished with the honey harvest.

I have noticed that this stock is very good at swarming in the spring and I have had only limited success with methods to prevent it.   I have decided that going forward I will likely perform an ‘artificial swarm’ on most of my colonies whereby I’ll split the overwintered queens with two or three frames of bees and brood to make up nucs just prior to swarm season.  I think this will give me more consistent honey production per hive plus save me the trouble of capturing and hiving the swarms.  

I have been pleased with the production and temperament of these bees.  I harvested about 150 lbs. (five mediums) this year from the colonies that I was able to prevent from swarming still leaving them enough honey for overwintering and not supplementing with feed.   The one colony that I split the queen out of for grafting this year yielded about 120 lbs, and the harvest from the ones that swarmed varied but was less.  I suspect that more harvest per hive may be possible going forward as I build up my inventory of drawn supers and control swarming.

The numbers aren’t entirely in yet, but basically I went into winter last year with 12 established colonies and 7 five frame nucs.  I lost 2 of the established (wasn’t surprised as these had been ‘dinky’ all season) and 2 of the nucs thereby starting spring with 15.  I dedicated 8 of those to honey production and the remaining ones for nuc production.  I sold thirteen five frame nucs and should end up with just under 1000 lbs honey harvest.  So I am back now to 19 strong colonies all fully established and going into winter in a single deep plus a medium super.

Next year my approach will be to let all colonies be used for nuc  production (from the artificial swarm) and honey production and see how that goes.  Any colonies that lag noticeably behind the rest will be requeened and/or split up for nucs.

I’m not sure if this is the data you were asking for but I have been keeping a journal and I am happy to share any information that I can.

Best regards.

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