Did I learn the right lesson?

[luvin honey]

My 2 packages last year built up well, swarmed once or twice, and then got robbed silly right before fall. I fed them like crazy, but they were starved out by January. :(
LESSON: Watch hives more closely, do splits or add bars before swarming. (bad weather prevented this last year)
            Close up "ventilation entrances" before honey gets robbed, maybe July/early August

My split I made from those 2 earlier in the summer went into winter strong and came through winter strong, an absolute fantasy for a first-year northern beek such as I!! Then, I opened them up on a beautiful March day, found the queen, added a couple bars next to the broodnest and pulled out the "false back board" so they could freely build throughout the entire hive when ready. I also opened up the entrance, as they were having traffic jams.

With a week, the weather dive bombed. Having lived here for 35 years, I should have known better than to be lulled by a week of warmth. Anyway, a check revealed LOTS of dead bees on the bottom of the hive.

Since then, the hive has dwindled and dwindled. I opened again last week and found the queen, maybe 100-200 bees and a couple hand-sized patches of eggs, including cells with multiple eggs (laying worker, right?)
LESSON: Do NOT expand the hive before consistently warm weather.
             Keep the entrances reduced until consistently warm weather.

What else am I missing?

Thanks so much in advance!

[doak]

Those few nice days will always come some early time. Don't rush it. If you are not expecting a good nectar flow, just do an inspection and take care of any drastic problems. You may have a later main Flow that far north compared to what we have here in Central Ga. Unless I move my bees July and August is my dearth months. Sept. and Oct. bring the asters and Golden rods, which I don't take any of this honey.

If possible, and there is no way around it. Split rather than let swarm. In other words, if you can keep a large populated colony from swarming with out splitting, the better chance of a good harvest.

If both my colonies make it past the honey flow, "which is now in full swing", I plan on splitting with the Queen and only one frame of capped brood, another with mixed brood. Leaving the rest with plenty eggs
and most of the bees. Relocating the queen and her bunch. I hope they think they have swarmed.

Just reverse from what I have done in the past. Which I always moved the frame of eggs and left the Queen with the mother colony. The survival rate has been low.
My thoughts. :)doak

[luvin honey]

So do you think the cold killed off a lot of the hive?

At what population number is there a point of no return? A point where there are not enough bees to take care of the brood, take care of the queen?

[doak]

If it was a warm day I would not think too many were lost if you did not keep the hive open too long and take frames of brood out for more than a half minute.

Some time we get carried away with the first inspection. All we need it to make sure there is a queen and that she is laying. You do not have to see the Queen if there are eggs and young brood present.
This once early inspection, if you see the eggs close it up and let them work. Making sure there are plenty of stores. I would say a cluster any smaller than a volley ball would be border line. If it is that big in Feb. and/or March, then it should start to increase in size if the queen is laying.

It is believed the Queen will lay no more eggs than the cluster can maintain.
This may be hard for some people to comprehend, But remember, Once the Queen starts laying the population increase is more than the die off, there fore increasing cluster size. Now she can increase her laying rate more, etc.

The main thing for early spring is to make sure the food is there. Colonies will and do starve at this time of year more than any other time because it takes so much more to rear brood.
Hope this helps. :)doak

[luvin honey]

It was a very warm day, and the inspection was short and sweet. I went far enough to see the queen, and then left the rest untouched. It was the cold and wind afterwards that worries me. Would a much expanded hive (topbar) in cold weather be enough to kill off a lot of bees?

[doak]

I am not into top bar hives but I would think the extra space should be kept to a minimum. :)doak

[luvin honey]

Thanks for your help :) Any other opinions out there? I welcome them all!

[doak]

Some one else will chime in. :)doak

[Scadsobees]

Hmm...how much honey was in this hive?

Because they are still enclosed in the box, I doubt that the cold would have killed them (although it won't help them either).  Not knowing the food situation, I'd be more inclined to suspect problems with that.

Rick

[luvin honey]

They still have honey, plus a bunch of dry sugar they have been using on the bottom of the hive, leftover from feeding last fall.

The pollen and nectar situation is looking really great around here and they had been foraging like crazy.

The only other factor I have not mentioned is they had carpenter ants, really badly. In the last week, I started noticing (through the observation window) white flakes everywhere on the bottom of the hive. Too white for sugar or wax cappings. It turned out to be the insulation board I had installed above the topbars. The ants had completely eaten through the styrofoam and specks were sifting through gaps in the topbars and littering the hive.

Could this be a factor?

And the low temps I'm talking about were 20s and 30s pretty consistently for a week or so.

[luvin honey]

Hey beeks--I'd love to hear everything you think I did wrong. I don't want to make the same mistakes again this year. I feel sick to be losing this colony, and what seems to be an incredible queen and don't want to do it again.

Any other opinions or help out there?