Death of 2 more colonies

[Cindi]

Yesterday the sun was shining and the air was very warm.  I thought I should check out and see what I could see in the apiary.  Was not very good.

I had 4 hives that were alive two weeks ago.  Now I have two.  I took a very quick peak inside these two colonies to see if there was activity in the two hives.  I knew for sure were alive because they did not have any snow on their roof.  The other two were still covered in snow.  Makes sense eh?  Goes to show how much heat the colony's make, enough to melt the snow on top.  I did not look hard enough to see just how big the colonies were, but I could hear them, yes, alive.  That is good.

At the end of the beekeeping season in 2006 I had hive numbers that had diminished from 10 down to 4.  This has been a summer and winter of learning for me.  This year I am heading off into the apiculture world with far more knowledge than I had last year.  This is with great thanks to so much information gleaned from forum members and alot of thinking back on what I did last summer with my bees.

I firstly had thought that my decrease in numbers of hives was solely the result of the varroa mite.  (And yes, Finsky, this destructor is worthy of mention.  If you do not have a big problem with them, like I get the impression, then consider yourself a very lucky man.)

From my increasing understanding of bee behaviour and whatnot, I would say that yes, varroa did a horrible number on my colonies.  I know that because of the mite count that I took before I applied the formic acid in mid September, after the honey harvest.

But, there was also other circumstances that I believe allowed the varroa to get so out of control.  That being...I thought that my colonies never swarmed.  Now I am of the belief that most of them probably did, when I wasn't looking (LOL).  That would have decreased the colony sizes with the large counts of varroa mite living amongst a small number of bees.

Another problem was that I am certain that I did not keep an open brood nest and without a doubt in my mind, the queen became honeybound.  Now this, we'll call it neglect, on my part is 100% due to inexperience and not understanding how important it is to ensure that there is plenty of room for the bees to store the nectar.  THIS WAS MY BIGGEST MISTAKE.   I know differently now.  I am sure that the bees were short of room and were storing nectar in the brood nest.  The queen did not have enough room to lay her VERY IMPORTANT enormous numbers of eggs.  This made the colonies not grow properly because the queen just did not have room to build up the bees for wintertime.  So, by the time the winter came, there was not enough bees to overwinter and keep warm.

If I could give any advice to a new beekeeper, I think that would be:

You must keep an open brood nest.  Number 1 priority.  The queen must have enough room to lay as many eggs as she possibly can.  The beekeeper must ensure that there are enough honey supers in place so that the bees can spread out the nectar to reduce the moisture. If they have to store the honey in the broodnest, there will be no room for the babies.   If you don't, surely they will swarm and the queen will not have enough room for egg laying.

Great day. Cindi

[newbee101]

You must keep an open brood nest.  Number 1 priority.  The queen must have enough room to lay as many eggs as she possibly can.  The beekeeper must ensure that there are enough honey supers in place so that the bees can spread out the nectar to reduce the moisture. If they have to store the honey in the broodnest, there will be no room for the babies.   If you don't, surely they will swarm and the queen will not have enough room for egg laying.

Great advice Cindi !

[Finsky]

That will happen in better families. 5 years ago I had 18 hives. Next spring I had 6 normal and 4 coffee cup size. One reason was dry autumn but fluvinate resistant mites was one reason.  However I got with few hives more honey than with 18 hives.

The disaster was finally  blessing to me. I was obliged to take intp use all what I knew. I renewed whole my system and my average yields have rised 80%. I was obliged to take into use oxalic acid too. I did not believed that there are so easy treatments.  Now I am in a big trouble. Hives do too well  :-P Hard job to find new customers.

[Cindi]

Finsky, well, OK, that makes me feel a little bit better.  But my losing so many hives is not acceptable in my eyes.  I want to keep healthy hives and that was not accomplished last year, that was obvious.

This winter coming up, I have every intention of having strong, robust colonies that will go through winter and be STRONG for year of 2008.  That is my agenda in my life, to keep my girls strong and healthy.

that was my agenda last summer too, but just did not have enough knowledge and experience at my fingertips to get me and my girls there.  Good year coming up.  Great day.  Cindi

[TwT]

Cindi, its not just you, alot of people have losed alot of hives this year even commercial guys, there is something going around they are calling the Dwindling Bee Disease.. I have heard of one guy that had 1200 hives and hopes he has 200 when spring hits, there has been alot of loses so for,,, there has been alot of talk about it on beesource, here's a map drobbins made to report loses....

http://www.drobbins.net/bee's/bees_dying/input.php

[Cindi]

Cindi, its not just you, alot of people have losed alot of hives this year even commercial guys, there is something going around they are calling the Dwindling Bee Disease.. I have heard of one guy that had 1200 hives and hopes he has 200 when spring hits, there has been alot of loses so for,,, there has been alot of talk about it on beesource, here's a map drobbins made to report loses....

http://www.drobbins.net/bee's/bees_dying/input.php

Oh brother!!!  So I typed in all the information and tried to post it to the site, but it could not find my zip code.  Of course, I am in Canada, so I guess that my information will not be passed on to the site.  But I did try.  Great day.  Cindi

I don't think that my problem was the Dwindlilng Bee Disease though.  It was my obvious neglect of colony build-up.  But one never knows.  Great day.  Cindi

[Finsky]

That "dwindling desease" has happned only to nomadic beekeepers which have moved 2 times last summer.

[Cindi]

So, any guesses what happened with the nomadic beekeeper and the Dwindling Disease?  Sounds like a bad story.  Great day.  Cindi

[Trot]

That "dwindling desease" has happned only to nomadic beekeepers which have moved 2 times last summer.

Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:14:24 EST
From: "Jerry Bromenshenk" <BeeResearch@...>  Add to Address Book  Add
Mobile Alert
Subject: [BEE-L] Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)



Good Morning

Yesterday, a group of us formalized a working group and named the
current bee loss syndrome being seen in the U.S. As of this time,
I have reports that major losses have been seen in the U.S.,
starting in the spring in places like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
Its still ongoing in Florida, with major losses occurring in Oklahoma,
and a number of reports from California over the last few days.

We are no longer calling this Fall Dwindle Disease -- its not a fall
phenomenon when looked at across the nation, its a rapid collapse
(often in less than 2-3 weeks), and it may or may not be a disease
in the strictest sense. So, we're terming it Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

We, a group of researchers, extension agents, and regulatory officials
have formed a group to investigate this problem and will call ourselves
the CCD Working Group. This group represents a diverse number of
institutions including Bee Alert Technology, Inc. (a bee technology
transfer company affiliated with the University of Montana), The
Pennsylvania State University, the USDA/ARS, the Florida Department
of Agriculture, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
We're planning on adding Eric Mussen to the group torepresent California.

CCD Symptoms

Based on initial visits to affected beeyards, the CCD drew up a list of the
following symptoms, typical of the disorder:


1) In collapsed coloniea,
a. The complete absence of adult bees in colonies, with no or little
build up of dead bees in the colonies or in front of those colonies.
b. The presence of capped brood in colonies,
c. The presence of food stores, both honey and bee bread
i. which is not robbed by other bees, and
ii. when attacked by hive pests such as wax moth and small hive
beetle, the attack is noticeably delayed (days, weeks)
2) In cases where the colony appear to be actively collapsing
a. An insufficient workforce to maintain the brood that is
present
b. The workforce seems to be made up of young adult bees
c. The queen is present
d. The cluster is reluctant to consume provided feed, such as sugar
syrup and protein supplement
Initial results from the online survey (_www.beesurvey.com_
(http://www.beesurvey.com) ) has revealed that beekeepers think that
this started at least 1-2 years ago, in its present form. As this list
has mentioned, similar syndromes have been reported in the U.S.,
dating back to 1896. It certainly looks identical to the disorder
reported by Oertel in 1965 (from bee losses in 63-64).
Finally, if you've experienced this, please fill out the survey -
regardless of how convinced you are that you know what caused
it in your bees.
Too many factors, too few returns to sort this out without the help of
the nation's beekeepers.
Thanks
Jerry

P.S. We'd like to hear from beekeepers who HAVE not ever had this
problem -- where are your bees, what are you doing different? So, again,
fill out the survey, just be sure we know that your bees haven't had the
disorder.

[Finsky]

Maarec report: http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/pressReleases/PrelimReportFallDwindle.pdf

1. All were migratory beekeepers. All had moved their colonies at least 2 times in
the 2006 season, with some colonies being moved as many as five times over the
2006 season
''

[Kirk-o]

Keep going Cindi catch some swarms use small cell use unlimited Brood nest it will get better
kirk-o

[Cindi]

Maarec report: http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/pressReleases/PrelimReportFallDwindle.pdf

1. All were migratory beekeepers. All had moved their colonies at least 2 times in
the 2006 season, with some colonies being moved as many as five times over the
2006 season

I read this article, the research that is being on the the Dwindling Disease is going to have some very interesting conclusions I am sure.  One part that I found particularly interesting was the crystalline formation being discovered in the thoracic muscle area, along with the pictures, they are doing great work and I hope that they find out what is happening in the field.  Great day.  Cindi