WINTERING BEES..NEW

silkiechick · February 20, 2007, 02:24:58 PM

I am quite new to beekeeping and must have done something terribly wrong. I checked my bees this morning and found the entire hive had died. Would they have frozen? There was still honey in the hive and still some bees in combs that I left alone. There didn't seem to be many bees in total. I bought my hive from a gentleman last spring and they seemed to multiply most of the summer but it didn't seem there was much honey. Could there just have not been enough bees to survive the winter? There was activity last month when the temps got above 50, would they have left then?

Robo · February 20, 2007, 03:41:59 PM

Did you do any type of treatment for varroa? Do you see dead varroa on the bottom board?

Kathyp · February 20, 2007, 04:34:17 PM

how far into the hive did you get? maybe they are down deeper and you didn't see them? i know i have opened mine and it looked empty from the top, but they were in there.

silkiechick · February 20, 2007, 05:10:32 PM

I got all the way into the hive, the dead ones were at the bottom and a few clustered in the center frames. No, I didn't treat for anything, they hadn't showed any signs of disease and there wasn't any signs today either, just dead bees. The temps here have been crazy, it went from the mid 60's to the teens overnight, and windchills have been terrible. I emptied the dead ones out and put everything back like it was. Didn't really know what else to do. Any suggestions would help. Thanks!

Kathyp · February 20, 2007, 06:07:40 PM

i had the same problem with temps this year. big swings in short periods of time. there are others with more experience that can probably give you better ideas, but one question comes to my mind. are the stores of honey in your hive near the cluster?

i had to move mine in toward the middle some. there was plenty of honey in the outside frames, but they were not moving to get at it.

a couple of other things i did: my hives face east, but we had very strong, cold east winds. i closed the hive entrance down to just a very small hole. i left the 1 in vent hole in the top, back, open. when the temp dropped into the teens, i wrapped cardboard around the windward side temporarily.

i have treated with terramycin and will treat for mites as soon as the weather warms. even though our weather now is not great, i have put pollen patty on hive. we are getting enough warm days for bees to be coming out a few times a week, but nothing blooming yet.

Kirk-o · February 20, 2007, 06:46:42 PM

It is hard to say don't give up get some more bees
kirk-o

pdmattox · February 20, 2007, 07:48:27 PM

My guess is they did'nt have enough bees to survive the cold spell. Also as kathy said about the eratic temps this winter is hard on the bees. Varroa could also be a factor or part of a combination of things.

Michael Bush · February 20, 2007, 08:32:01 PM

I've seen bees survive -40 F. But the sudden changes are hard on them. I lost quite few that were trying to rear brood this last winter when it had stayed in the 50s F up until Christmas. Then it plunged to -12 F and the ones with brood perished because they wouldn't leave the brood to get to stores.

Another possibility is Varroa mites. You won't see them unless you check the bottom board for them. They are small and difficult to see until you know what they look like:

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespests.htm#varroa
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/Varroa2.jpg
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/Varroa3.jpg