Winter Loses

[TwT]

just wondering how everyone is doing so for, I just check my 6 hives and they all going strong, bringing in pollin, 1 hive I have was a late removal and only have 6 frames drawn out, 2 of those frames was from the removal, they was a little lite on stores so I took 2 frame of honey from 2 other hives and put in that small hive. but everyone seems to be doing well, so right now im 6 out of 6 still alive, just wonder how everyone else is doing?

[Finsky]

bringing in pollin, ....just wonder how everyone else is doing?

Winter, right!

It takes  3 months here untill bees get pollin from nature.

[TwT]

bringing in pollin, ....just wonder how everyone else is doing?

Winter, right!

It takes  3 months here untill bees get pollin from nature.

we have had a mild winter so for Finsky, still have about 2 months of winter, but it is in the 60's during the day and 20's at night, wierd weather here......

[Finsky]

We have abnormally warm too. Last week it was -25-39C but now it is  -5 - +2.

We have snow 2 inch in Southern Finland.

This is good winter to bees. If some hive does not survive, troubles are somewhere else than in cold. I wait 0% loses.

But when we have snow too little nature wakes upp too early and frost will ruin many berry plants.

[newbee101]

Checked mine today, it was near 50 degrees or better. All hives are alive.
I opened them up, and they are doing great. I will post some photos.
I gave them all pollen patties today, and I could see capped honey in there. I think they should make it through the rest of the winter. :D

[thegolfpsycho]

Hard to say how things will end up here.  Got a couple that are lite, and the weather isn't cooperating.  We keep getting some warm temps and the bees start brooding up.  Then it snaps back to typical winter weather and the bees get busy dragging out the dead.  Dang Italians!!  It snowed a few inches yesterday, so I'm hoping the highs wills stay around freezing to slow things down for a while.  Dandylions are still 6 weeks away.

[gottabee]

I am loosing bees. I find them dead on the comb and they are tunneled into the cells. They are in small groups of about a dozen. Is this normal?

They have some honey stores. Also I have much uncapped honey on the frames. It is thick and looks okay, it even tastes okay, but it is uncapped from the fall.

[Finsky]

they are tunneled into the cells. They are in small groups of about a dozen. Is this normal?

When bees starve they go inside cells.

They have some honey stores. Also I have much uncapped honey on the frames.

Often bees die if food is finish in their corner or between two frames. They do not know where to go if it is cold.
Sounds like you hive had too much room? It has spread when they got food from outer edges ?

but it is uncapped from the fall.

* If things are right they should have capped food on upper parts of frames.  

* If they have had too big space for winter they are not able to keep it warm and they have consumed food in the spot of ball.

* Somethimes after winter I have twist size ball of bees after winter and others have vanished from normal hive somewhere.

Reasons are
* fermented food which make bees sick (uncapped food)
* nosema  (seldom kills whole colony)
* food finished on ball's area
* uninsulated box and wind comes in: consumption is too big.

These are normal reasons.
.

[Michael Bush]

With deeps I often see little clusters of bees that get seperated and when the cluster contracts don't make it with the cluster.  I don't see this with mediums much.

A dozen dead bees is nothing.

My hives are all booming.  They all look like what they usually look like at the begining of April.  Usually now, they'd be at their minimum size, but they are actually building up.  So far I lost one hive in an outyard that was my last Italian hive (I think).  Not sure to what. The hive was pretty heavy and there was a nice sized cluster of dead bees.

[Kris^]

All six going strong here.  It was a fairly warm day today, and they were all sending foragers out.  We opened one of the greenhouses today, and with over 5,000 flowering pansy plants inside, there were hundreds of bees digging around inside the flowers, bringing out lots of pollen.  Of course, they call for snow this Tuesday.   :(

-- Kris

[Finsky]

Big country - big tolerances

So we say about Russia, and may be it is proper to USA in beekeeping.

We talk about winter on areas which have mild weather. The core is not often the winter but  season when bees do not get food from nature. Dry period is one why bees need stores. Rainy weeks is  one reason.

In our country we must feed hives often June, because there  is no food in hive, even if all places are full of flowers. If we have rainy weeks hives consume a lot of food. At summer hive consumes  10-15 kg per 2 weeks.

It is very usual that we must add sugar during May. We do not play with honey or with "natural" way. We have not afford for it.

So, we do not wonder what to do. We look in time inside hive and make sure that they have enough food stores for season.

But we do not feed bees with syrup when bees get honey from fields.

I mean , it is different is it cold or lack of food which kill hives. Winter is not an explanation.  It is easy to handle these cases. Deseases are own question and some are difficult to handle.  

Construction of hives are key word when you provide hive against cold.
Lack of food - just feed them enough  sugar at autumn. But not all the time.

[TREBOR]

just checked yesterday, all 18 still alive!
I did not open my hives, I just stould around and watched them for hours.
  52 deg. all hives were flying.
I looked for mites on the bees I could see, didn't see any!
 99% of the bees I saw looked healthy.
I saw one bee with K-wing at one hive, and one bee dragging its back legs at another.
 other then that all is well !
 As far as poop on the hive, I have a question if someone could answer
it,  they're poop is multi colored mostly yellow, orange and light brown
 There is poop on most of the hives but it is all over (the roof and the walls ) but no great amounts at the entrances, infact not much at all at the entrances IS THIS OK? or should I be worried?
 
all my hives are fairly close to each other, so I'm thinkin that the poop is
from flight , boy o boy they sure do mess up the snow !

[Robo]

 As far as poop on the hive, I have a question if someone could answer
it,  they're poop is multi colored mostly yellow, orange and light brown
 There is poop on most of the hives but it is all over (the roof and the walls ) but no great amounts at the entrances, infact not much at all at the entrances IS THIS OK? or should I be worried?

Sounds normal to me.  It is the really dark brown stuff all over the hive (inside and out) that spells trouble.

[bassman1977]

All is well as of yesterday.

[Michael Bush]

I wouldn't count on seeing mites on bees.  If you're seeing mites on bees there are probably an AWFUL lot of mites.  Lots of us lost hives to Varroa and never saw a mite on a bee.

[banjojohn]

All five of mine are alive so far. Seems everyone is a little more successful this winter so far. I fed a little sugar water this weekend(50s here) ONe hive consumed a quart in 2 days and another only an inch out of a quart. I figure it is cheap insurnace.