Topic: Wintering bees

[Robert_Brenchley]

Some of you may remember that I lost a colony at the end of last year, almost certainly due to an influx of mites from collapsing hives, which overwhelmed it. I've now lost another. A couple of weeks ago, it looked fine at a casual glance, with plenty of bees. Today, there were only a few dead bees, and no sign of brood. There were still stores in the broodbox, so they didn't starve. This is typical of the winter losses I get, and as there is never any brood, I put it down to failing queens.

The last colony has a small cluster of bees, and a patch of brood the size of the palm of my hand. It looks as though that one has made it.

[flossie]

Really sorry to hear about your  bees Robert. 

[Robert_Brenchley]

These things happen nowadays, since the arrival of varroa. They really have multiplied our problems a hundredfold. my big one is getting queens mated, but at least I'm not the only one, and I know why. That's halfway to finding a solution. meanwhile, I either need to find some more bees, or forget honey for this year and concentrate on building numbers back up.

[bombus]

Sorry to hear of your lost Bees Robert. My Bees have all been on the wing a lot this winter with it having been so mild. I have been hefting my hives weekly.Some are very light, even though i always feed heavily at the back end. I have put dampened bags of sugar over the feed holes on the hives that felt the lightest. All are bringing loads of pollen in when the weather allows,and this is always a good sign. It is possible that your Bees worked away from stored feed and starved, this does happen.
If you cannot find any Bees locally There is an auction of Bees and equipment on Sat 31st March at the Lincolnshire showground, the bees have as a rule been treated for varroa, but you are at liberty to check them over on the morning of the sale.

[triffid]

Poor you, Robert. Fingers crossed that the surviving colony starts to build up fast now.

I must say I'm looking forward to a bit of proper spring weather so I can have a quick peep at mine rather than just watching activity at the hive entrance.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Thanks for the heads up, but I don't have transport, and I hate sneaking bees onto the train! My bees hardly fly in winter at all, and won't really build up till the willow's out. When they do start, they build up fast, which is the important thing. They're also very frugal over winter, which is just as well after last season! I don't want to lose themn, and I don't want to make a trip to Cornwall for replacements either. So let's hope I can get queens mated satisfactorily, since that's my biggest prblem.

[bombus]

Hi Robert, have you thought of buying queens in? it could be a way for you to get over your problems in the short term. another idea would be to let your Bees produce swarm cells and use some of these to add to mini Nucs stocked with a cupfull of bees in each. You would then have a few bites at the cherry so to speak.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've certainly thought of buying a couple of queens; Micheal McGiolla Coda has excellent ones if I could get a couple; I might contact him and see. I can raise cells very easily; the problem is getting virgins mated satisfactorily. The cause has to be to do with the drones availabele; either there aren't enough of them, and I can't see what I can do about that with only a few colonies, or there's something wrong with them. There have been suggestions that parasitised drones may not be able to fly fast enough to catch a queen, so I've really walloped the mites to see if that makes a difference. All in all, I'd rather raise my own queens, since imported ones are never so well adapted to local conditions.

[triffid]

Cor, Robert, Mr McG C's native black bees? Fantastic!

I played with the thought of buying some a couple of years ago but I fear it'd be impossible to keep them even remotely pure-bred. The bees round here are predominantly carniolan or carniolan-crossbreeds. My bees are all mongrels...!
I suppose the only way round would be to buy more replacement queens in due course from Micheal.

[Robert_Brenchley]

You'd be surprised just how selective bee mating can be. Most bees round here are hybrids, and I felt the same way at first. But there's been very little change in my strain, which averages about 10% of bees in a colony with a slight stripe.

[triffid]

You'd be surprised just how selective bee mating can be.

Trouble is, there are a couple of fairly commercial-minded beekeepers within a mile of me who have an undisclosed(!) but large number of colonies -- and they're all pure-bred Carnolian bees. So I'm not sure that a native queen would have any choice of drone.

You've got me all fascinated now, though. Do you know how much M McG C charges for native queens?

[Robert_Brenchley]

You can contact him here, but he's out for this year.  http://www.galteehoneyfarm.com/ .
Alternatively you might get a queen here. http://www.peakbees.co.uk/ . There are other sources.

[triffid]

Thank you Robert! They aren't as expensive as I thought they'd be.
It's ok that Michéal's out of stock: it wouldn't be for this year anyway (all my queens are 2006 girls so I'm really hoping they do ok this season.)
But for 2008, it'd be a fascinating avenue to take.

Did you manage to get a queen or two from Michéal for yourself?

[Robert_Brenchley]

I didn't try in the end. I may get one from Peak Bees. I really need to find a way of resolving the local drone problem.