Here is what I have seen recently in regard to hive health in southern 
coastal CA.

I have been feeding hives for a commercial beekeeper on the coast 
recently, and some hives are very dramatically worse off than last 
season.  It is my observation that beekeepers have been very much 
over-confident after how successful they were last season. 

1.  Starvation-- This season was a bad drought, and hives that stayed on 
the coast all season have been on the brink of starvation since 
September.  Cannot feed them fast enough.  Some yards were 15 frames in 
October and now are 6 frames.  Hives that were brought to the coast full 
of cotton honey are in much better shape, but there appears to be a slow 
kill happening in some hives, with dead workers piled in front of the 
entrances.  Eucalyptus started blooming this week, which is a helpful 
source of pollen.  I am also noticing the phenomenon recently coined 
"entombed pollen" in many hives, where there is brick red pollen sealed 
beneath wax.

2.  Varroa-- As more holding yards are brought into the area, mites are 
reappearing in previously healthy hives.  In response the hives consume 
syrup reserves at a greater pace.  All hives in other yards I have 
looked in have misc. forms of home-brew miticides.  Also, hives are 
coming home from South Dakota after a poor clover honey crop loaded with 
mites.  Apparently South Dakota has cracked down on off-label miticide 
usage, so the hives were not getting treated before being sent home.

3.  General hive health-- I have noticed that the hives seem "fragile" 
this season.  Feeding them syrup can be enough to kill what was a strong 
hive.  This is apparent with the commercial run Italian hives.  I have 
some yards with VSH queens where the hives are much more robust (and 
much more full with bees).

Other interesting things I have seen recently include SHB larvae brewing 
in pollen patties.

--Jeremy Rose
San Luis Obispo, CA

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