Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: kingd on February 13, 2017, 07:11:03 am
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I have had a couple of odd deadouts lately,
The one that really got me was basketball size with eggs, brood and emerging bees. It was clustered and looked like starvation and froze.
What bothers me is they were within 3-4 inches of food and 2 full boxes of honey on top.
I did ask around my area and was being told of the same thing happening but no idea why.
Also,A hive that was near this one is doing very well even though I would have put money on it of not surviving from the beginning.
Anyone else have this happen?
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Sounds like it "cold starved". When a colony exhausts it's fuel supply in one area and then doesn't get a bit of a break with a warm spell, the cold can trap it in place with stores only a frame or 2 away, but the cluster cannot break to move onto it due to the cold.
Are your hives wrapped with tar paper? I do that so that even on cold days the sun warms up the hive just enough for the cluster to shift if needed, it works most years for me.
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One or two winters ago I lost a similar size colony. They had worked themselves into a corner and starved. It's heartbreaking. The weather has a lot to do with this type of colony kill. Long periods of cold spells where the cluster can't move or won't move because of brood. As Mark Twain once said, "Everybody complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it."
I am sorry for your loss. I have been there.
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Thank you Bakersdozen And Perry
I did not wrap this yard so that most likley doomed it,now that you said that Perry.
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kingd, i wouldn't say that because you didn't wrap, that you doomed it. i have lost hives to cold starvation even when they were wrapped.
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Hi Kingd, just wondering if you put any sugar cakes or fondant on the top bars?
I did early last winter because we had such a long fall with nothing in bloom so the bees ate up some of their stores even before winter set in. I've been feeding all winter. First time ever.
I have also lost two nucs, one late fall, and one mid winter, even tho there was extra food for them.
Such a bummer :sad:
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jen, it wouldn't have mattered if kingd had placed sugar bricks/cakes on top........from his first post kingd said there were two boxes of honey on top above them, and they were inches away from honey stores. ;)
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Suppose to be 62 degrees on Monday and fifties this weekend.
Great time to check your bees for feed additions.
We don't get this kind of weather around here.
Strange with no snow on the ground in Michigan.
Saving only one hive, pays for that whole roll of felt paper.
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Thats what I hear,I have been seeing bees flying in the past couple of days.
On wrapping, I usaully wrap but for some reason I did not do this yard and I am paying for it.