What killed my horizontal top bar hive?

[Oblio13]

I've never been able to get my horizontal top bar hive through a winter. I thought this would finally be the year, but no such luck.

I looked in on them last month, and the cluster was at the top of the bars, with no capped honey visible. So I put a couple sugar bricks on top of them, then covered those with several feed bags and the roof.

This is the first warm day since then, so I looked in again. They were obviously taking the sugar. They weren't wet. The cluster was a good size. So what do you suppose killed them?

[gov1623]

If there wasn't any honey just the plain sugar, they probably starved. Bees need some moisture to dissolve the sugar. Its hard for them to survive on dry sugar alone. I never used Top bar hives but from people I talk to that use them, if it gets real cold it is harder for bees to move sideways to get to more honey. They move to the top a starve. Solution is to have them absolutely loaded down with honey in the fall and they usually make it.

[Bush_84]

I used to keep top bar hives.  I enjoyed them, but I just don't think that they do well in cold climates.  They have a huge area over their head.  I found it very difficult to feed them over the top bars.  They also have a harder time moving laterally when it gets really cold.  What did the dead out look like?  That often tells you a lot about what happened.  Were there a bunch on bees head down in cells?  That means starvation. 

[Oblio13]

For some reason I can't figure out, that pic isn't showing up very large. I didn't pull any frames, what you're seeing is exactly what I saw when I peeled back the feed sacks: a dead cluster in contact with partially eaten sugar bricks. Presumably there are more dead bees between the frames and covering the base of the hive.

[edward]

What kind of roof insulation did you have?


mvh Edward  :-P

[Bush_84]

Have you had cold weather recently? 

[buzzbee]

Did you remove empty frames in the fall and condense the hive as much as possible? Or at least put a follower board between the full and empty frames?  Or have enough capped stores in early fall to make it through the winter?

[Michael Bush]

It's been a very hard winter.  Some of them don't make it.

[jayj200]

make them smaller to conserve heat. wrap them with foam.
jay

[Oblio13]

What kind of roof insulation did you have?


mvh Edward  :-P

On top of the bars I had four feed bags, then a gabled roof with an air space. There was about a foot of snow on top of that.