Donald Campbell wrote:

> I also live in upstate NY, also wooden boxes and plastic frames. Don't have
> as many hives as Rick Green, but I also lost half due to the cold.
> I did a little experiment, I wrapped all my hives, but 1/2 of them I moved
> to touch each other and wrapped them together in bundles of 2 or 4.

Not an unusual practice for areas of extreme cold. Check the Hive and
Honey Bee for examples.

The keys for successful wintering starts with the queen, stores, number
of bees and health of the bees. Everything after is gravy. But if you do
not have the first group, you are starting behind the curve and losses
are usually because of those factors.

My experience is that long cold spells that result in lost colonies is
usually an indictment of winter stores. Usually Varroa gives an early
winter kill, starvation can come at any time but usually when brood
starts and the bees are confined to the brood area (early spring/late
winter). Tracheal also can come at any time since often, bees can make
it through with them but will be weak.

With 50% winter losses and winter not yet over), I would look for
tracheal and the kind of stores (assuming fall Varroa treatment with a
little seasonal IPM).

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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