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Sun, 4 Dec 2022 11:00:33 -0000 |
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>Here in the Calif foothills, having a puddle of water on the bottom board
appears to cause colonies fail over the winter.
Having fully open mesh floors appeared to have a very beneficial effect on our wintering, with losses dropping by 10%. Of course, there are other factors - especially moving to minimal then no treatment for varroa - so it is very difficult to compare one year with another. Each year has also been so different just lately that there can be no standardisation of colony condition going into winter - let alone what happens through the winter itself. As yet we have not had a frost here (min so far 3ÂșC - last night) which is unusual. Still quite a lot of leaves on the trees with some good autumn colours to enjoy; roses, fuchsias, hypericum - even a couple of Californian poppies still in flower.
Returning to mesh floors, I bought a dozen or so 6-frame polynucs several years ago; they are totally sealed except for a small, round entrance hole - and a fully open mesh floor; so far I have only lost one over a winter, and that was due to a badly mated, drone laying queen.
Best wishes
Peter
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