I've been keeping bees in various capacities for 35 years. When I started,
I was advised that 20% losses weren't unusual, but now I try to keep it in
the 10-15% range (I'm stationary).  I've mentored maybe 80 new beekeepers
and have maybe a dozen that are serious enough to take it beyond the first
3 years.  I teach classes. I'm president of local bee clubs, on the board
of the state ass'n.  We have a lot of new beekeepers.  Here in CO, the
success rate without a mentor is about 10%, less than the 25% of Seeley's
feral swarms.  That goes on for 3 years at which point they give up or get
smart.  *Very* roughly, 2-3K nucs/pkgs come in each spring. A few starve or
queens go on walkabout.  95% of colony deaths mid Jul-end Dec are due to
varroa mites. The rest are bears.  It's pretty easy to distinguish between
the latter two.
So, here's what I advise my mentorees, club and association members.


   - KISS. Start with tried and true, standard equipment, standard methods,
   get to know bees, seasons, other beekeepers, stay away from Youtube and
   Facebook, and keep your bees alive for 5 years. Then you can start trying
   other things.
   - It's always easier to blame things on someone/something else, black
   helicopters, contrails, fracking, poisons that someone else sprayed,
   Monsanto, 3G-4G-5G. Do your own due diligence first.
   - Varroa infestation is a fact of life. It's here to stay.  It's not
   getting better.  Your bees will die the first year unless you help them.
   Varroa isn't the same every year.  Some years hives start crashing in July,
   some not until August, some not until the stress of the first cold weather,
   which can be in early Nov or mid Dec.
   - Every hive that dies can take down 2-3 more (okay, I'm estimating
   because, while the bees die, the mites don't.  They hitch a ride to another
   colony, like MINE. (stern looks)
   - A miracle is not going to happen in your backyard to your bees. (But
   you won't know unless you're monitoring)
   - Letting a hive die isn't fair to those bees, the surrounding bees or
   the surrounding beekeepers. (Randy's mangy dog photo here)

So,
To keep your bees alive:

   - Monitor correctly
   - Treat correctly.
   - Monitor with an alcohol wash monthly Apr-Nov (For first timers,
   Apr-Jun is practice, Jul things start creeping up so you want to be on your
   mark). Every colony (It's usually <10).
   - DO NOT EVEN BOTHER LOOKING for mites on bees.  Not by pulling out a
   frame, not by looking through the flip open window.
   - Forget the sticky board. (Too hard to use for beginners, don't take
   into account bee population size)
   - No hive style is immune.
   - Treat when mites are above threshold (6 mites/300 bees in
   alcohol)(there's more wiggle room in advanced classes)
   - Treatment must be
      - 1. Safe - for you and the bees.
      - 2. Needed
      - 3. Proven effective
   - IPM pyramid, treatment options, what's organic, pros, cons
   - I use Medhat's Venn diagram of monitoring, treatment, prevention for
   traditional v IPM and add in a picture of a brain in the middle. You need
   to use it.
   - Rotate treatments.  Don't treat willy nilly or prophylactically.  Yes,
   mites have developed resisitance to synthetics and so far not to "organics"
   but it is not true that it can't happen.  All treatments are hard on the
   bees. Think chemo for cancer.
   - No, it's not easy, or straightforward.  You'll have to make a decision
   every time.  But you can do it.
   - Monitor after treatment. (mite bombs, treatment failures)
   - You may need to treat 3 times or just once.
   - Just doing the "fall treatment" isn't good enough.
   - Where to get information
      - I point them to reliable resources - University, USDA, Extension,
      honeybeehealthcoalition.org (if they send you to Youtube it's okay)
      - BIP results are to be taken with a grain of salt and are
      misinterpreted by the media.  Beginners who say they monitor don't do it
      correctly, they don't treat correctly, and complainers respond
      disproportionatly to surveys.
      - Don't believe what you read in the general media
      - Not Fat Bee Man

Dead bees don't help anyone, least of all the bees.
Phew!
Cheers,
Kristina Williams
Longmont (not Boulder), CO

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