On Sunday (70 F weather for New Jersey) i did look inside hive only to find all my bees dead.they left 7 frames of honey...................sucks.Don't even want to check 4 other beehives.
RIP bees.
So what were the conditions inside the hive? Nice and Dry? Wet and Moldy? Plenty of dead bees, or MIA bees?
Just couple hundred bees on the bottom board nice and dry inside very light color honey they left(bottom board seems wet)
Sounds like too small a winter cluster. Little or no fall buildup of winter bees. Failing or failed queen in the fall.
Falls back to the old saying, It is better to take your losses in the fall by combining.
sorry. i lost mine this year too for other reasons. it sucks. consider it a learning experience and carry on. spilt milk, and all that....
Atri,
Sorry for your loss. My bees in NJ were flying and there was the expected amount of winterkill on the ground. About 100 dead bees. Start again in the spring, you already have the drawn comb. Consider it a head start.
Rick
Bergen County
Sorry for your loss! I agree with the previous posters - small cluster due to either a failing queen or possibly too heavy of a mite infestation
Two more gone in hunterdon county.I have 2 more left ( hearing buzz ) .One of them had little cluster that didn't move they just starve with no honey in lower box .Why the cluster wouldn't move up ?There was plenty of honey and packed pollen left.Lost 3 hives this winter...my 2ND year in beekeeping.One of the hives was the old one(overwintered). No luck this year...thinking of Russian bees.Long time ago I heard (back in Poland) about bees from Ukraine trying think of their name maybe was Krainka(not sure)very gentle breed.I'll post more soon about.I remember local beekeepers didn't wore bee suits ...LoL ( did little reaserch Ukrainian bees fly away from hives 8 miles radius)
(http://s24.postimg.org/g2h5fgo8x/image.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/g2h5fgo8x/)
(http://s29.postimg.org/bthk9hcs3/image.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/bthk9hcs3/)
I am sorry for your loss, Atri!
Sometimes a small cluster just does not have the resources to keep warm. Did you notice if they were on brood? That could explain them becoming "stuck".
Bummer on the loss. Incidentally, I too am in Hunterdon. I have 4 hives overwintering and thus far they're hanging in.
Were they Styrofoam hives?
One styrofoam and 2 wooden are gone so far.
Impressive that your bees haven't chewed into the uncladded foam of your insulated hive! I've built many out of foam and the bees have always started chewing into the unfaced foam once they needed more room.
In my little bee yard, a small cluster normally means too many bees have succumbed to varroa and flown off to die (long before now) leaving too few bees to keep warm in the winter. There is no doubt that a small cluster WILL freeze out in cold temps. Cold kills, especially when the ball becomes too small.
I have saved colonies that have been reduced to fist sized (due to varroa) by adding electric heat in the winter. The electric heats prevents the cold from killing the cluster off, and since there isn't going to be much varroa left (they die out without brood), sometimes the colonies roar back in life in surprising size by mid spring.
Quote from: Atri on December 28, 2013, 01:08:57 AM
One styrofoam and 2 wooden are gone so far.
Top vent? Top entrance?
2 of them had notch in inner cover(entrance)