State of colonies this spring

[Jon]

May be a bit early to ask but what is everyone finding?
I have very few losses, just a couple of nucs I did not expect to overwinter anyway.
That's the upside. The downside is that colonies are smaller than I would like for the time of year.
I have lots on 3-4 frames of bees and very few on 6+ which would be ideal for March.
My nucs in particular are a lot smaller than I would like.
Only one drone layer out of 35 checked which is good and the rest all have some brood.
I would expect most of these colonies to be built up to decent strength by mid May.
No oil seed rape that I know of in the area this year so the sycamore late May is usually the first decent nectar flow.

My colonies had high mite levels early on last summer so I imagine this is a knock on effect from that.
I treated with Thymol/Apiguard in August, and Oxalic mid December.
Mite levels were high in mid July when I sampled colonies.

[prakel]

Quite similar here. I know for sure that our queens started laying later than I've seen in previous years -quite different from what I've been reading on the net about other's colonies which didn't have a brood break at all... We had solid slabs of capped drone brood (in good colonies) in early April last year; nowhere near that this time around as far as I can see.

But then, last year, those early drones combined with the bullish approach of some others persuaded me to start queen rearing before the end of April (something I wouldn't normally do) and we paid the price with a very poor show when, as normal, the weather went downhill in May.

Seems to me that there's been a bit of inhouse compensation going on at the end of what's been a rather odd winter. Interestingly we're seeing the best conditions for an early start that our coastal colonies have had for years with the Alexanders in full flower a month early.

Overall I'm pleased with the uniformity that I'm seeing.

[mbc]

Some weak colonies I was expecting to die have made it, some nucs are looking close to needing bigger boxes, most mini plus colonies will probably make it, production colonies are mostly a week or two away from needing supers and overall I'm very pleased with how things are looking.
Dandelions, willow and blackthorn are flowering, osr coming on quick in the last few days, still ankle height but once it starts you can watch the stuff grow, and we're only really waiting for the weather to start warming to kick off the best season in history.
My optimism gnome is in overdrive.

[Emma]

All alive & kicking here, raiding smelly water in the neighbour's garden and flowers everywhere. No info on brood areas yet... not until we've had a few consecutive days without gales or hail!

[madasafish]

Six traditional , one TBH hives and one Lang nuc with very low mite drops, OA vapourised December..(still low drops<40/hive) except TBH.

All in rude health = feeding fondant to two nationals (no supers availbale to house liquid feeders) and lang nuc., 1:1 sugar the rest. Weather is typically lousy ..no inspections planned before mid April.

[Lancs Lad]

Based on the Lancashire coast, not opened any hives yet, but checked all hives 30+ on Friday and all were flying well and bringing in lots of pollen, included are eight five frame nucs.
My varroa treatment was 8gms of Thymol crystals on two consecutive weeks in late August and oxalic vapourisation in late December. I also converted 12 hives to the Ian Craig method of 8 frames over 8 as a test and all appear to be strong. All stocks are AMM.

[Bumble]

I had three colonies flying a week ago in one apiary, the other colony elsewhere is also still alive, but haven't been able to get near them since because the weather has been so poor. Hailstorms today, and torrential gales.

[fatshark]

All colonies flying well on the warmest part of warm days ... those in the bee shed are looking particularly good. Went through one of the latter last Friday and it has ~5 frames of brood. All still have fondant but are bringing in bags of pollen and water from the nearby stream. Varroa levels look pretty good with the two indoors each dropping 1 mite in the last month. I know that mite drop is spectacularly inaccurate but have reasonable faith in these as the floors were built by Pete L. (so are a darned sight better made than mine) and have a sealed tray that is more-or-less critter proof. Colonies outside have a higher mite drop, but still perfectly acceptable. I won't be inspecting these for 2-3 weeks. Only Varroa treatment they've had is by vaporisation - late August/early September and midwinter.

OSR is still only calf-high (and, frankly, I'm using the calf of a vertically-challenged person to make it sound better than it is) so there's a chance some of these colonies may be strong enough to exploit it if the weather behaves.

[gavin]

OSR is still only calf-high (and, frankly, I'm using the calf of a vertically-challenged person to make it sound better than it is) so there's a chance some of these colonies may be strong enough to exploit it if the weather behaves.

Colonies looking good here too. Losses look like being low but I shouldn't mention figures until I've had a proper look inside in a couple of weeks. I'm doing more crownboard feeling than before and haven't found any that feel too cold to be brood rearing. There could be drone layers of course.

Colony strength varies. There are fewer spectacularly good colonies compared to some years and the average strength of the Paynes nucs is a bit lower than I had hoped. One site - the one with most colonies - had colonies shedding bees at various times since late summer. I'm suspecting CBPV there. Some of these converted from strong to weak colonies but most have survived.

That last site, near Forgandenny, has an OSR field half a mile west which is almost knee high and looks like flowering quite soon.

[mbc]

Good point, I think the unit of measurement should be called a gavin, iirc up past my ankle is roughly 1/4 of an almost knee height gavin.

[gavin]

Lovely images ..... but sadly Getty Images have a fierce policy towards the use of their pics, as Adam from the BBKA forum can testify. Would you mind taking it down? I can see a tag on it so I'm sure they will find it soon enough.

Ankle high for most of the OSR round here. Ruffled rosettes that are just starting to extend upwards. You get the odd field that was sown earlier or has a variety that does its stuff early. The field I mentioned has a fair length of stem exposed and platforms of buds visible on top. A week of decent weather will see it in flower. Or several weeks of poorer weather.

[fatshark]

Hmmm ... uploaded images stay 'attached' even after deleting them via an edit. That's a bit of an oddity. I had to wield the erase button. Here's the mouse again ... I've included my subtle digital mark so anyone copying it can be traced ...

2649

[mbc]

Ankle high for most of the OSR round here

Do you mean 1/8 of a gavin high?

[gavin]

Do you mean 1/8 of a gavin high?

Roughly the same a 1/10 of an mbc if I remember correctly.

[Greengage]

The good news here are that all three hives are still alive, That could be luck or my great skills, but I would not be counting my chickens yet as I have not opened them up. It is still very cold here at 8deg for the past few days. When the sun shines they are out bringing in pollen from Crocus and Willow. Dandelion has started to come into flower and when the sun was out they were open and I saw bees forageing on them, but now the sun is gone they have closed up. Flowering current, and Berberis are out while Blackthorn is starting to put on a show, No great signs of OSR being growing in local fields maybe Ill do a drive around. Gorse in flower too. Bumblebees are flying while away for a week I saw one cross the summit of a mountain at 3000ft not bad for a little bumblebee.

[madasafish]

T. It is still very cold here at 8deg for the past few days. .

Hmm... snow and sleet here overnight for two nights here.
Interesting to see that when it does warm up, my two AMM mongrel colonies have far more foragers than my buckfast and carniolan mongrels..

[Calluna4u]

All in all they are looking far better than expected.

To have whole apiaries with zero losses (and talking over 40 per group here) is really rare. Can only surmise that the very late heather flow had the same effect that the September feed has when given on the wintering grounds, made them raise a fresh cycle of brood, that was not expected. Better varroa control this season may also be a factor. Biggest group with zero losses is a set of 98 of the Aberdeenshire bees, where the winter loss looks like being 3 from 197 put into winter and most are 6 to 9 bars of bees in Langtroth.

Looks like one of these winters that make folk think its easy.................but always lurking round the corner.......

The nucs are in great order, and the best set of the three has only 3 apparent duds from 92, and the worst has 10 from 84.

The few sets of full hives I expected to have 30% losses are generally showing at this time around 15%.
The sets expected to have 10% losses are showing at about 5% overall. Two groups only from 38 showing as worse than expected.

Poly again outperforming wood, all the zero losses sets are in poly.

Queenless colonies and drone layers that made it through to spring yet to be found.

The home bred queens and the Italian and NZ origin carnica have best results. Date home from heather and feeding date appear irrelevant this year.

With the very late heather flow I expected (and flagged the warning up) things to be a lot worse than this. Its not over yet though. Spring dwindle has plenty time to set in, but for sure will not be severe.

[mbc]

Roughly the same a 1/10 of an mbc if I remember correctly.

2650

Mmmh!

[Calluna4u]

FWIW....Guys just came back a few minutes ago from a full check of the English bees. total loss from ALL causes is 49 from 454. Almost all of these were queen failure, and the few (8) that were not were bees that never took their syrup in the autumn, which indicates a deeper malaise, most often nosema or a paralysis virus. I know some of you will be thinking that to be ridiculously high, but it roots out all the drone layers and queenlesses as well. This will be the FINAL total, as we call these defectives losses, no matter whether many of you will go to unusual lengths to save them. They have just been shaken out. All the remainder have active worker brood in them and are on the cusp of crossover day.

[madasafish]

Eventually turned sunny - stiff breeze but 10C.
Took temperatures of all crownboards using IR thermometer..(have to be quick after insulation is removed as breeze and 10 seconds loses approx 2C.:
Langs:
#1 MB poly. 24.1C Clear crownboard so will be frame top.
#2 Wood with cosy 20.1C
#3 - ditto- 16.1C
#4 -ditto- 20.4C
Nuc -ditto- 21.8C (bolshie.. 7 stings)

National all wood with cosy and eke
#1 18.9C
#2 20.1C

TBH heavily insulated 16.2C


Conclusion: all brooding.

[Calluna4u]

Guys came in from first proper check on a local group. Near Blairgowrie.

Big group in a wood, a dark and dingy spot on he face of it yet they winter well there.

133 fine and carrying good amounts of pollen..........willow, crocus, butterbur from what they could see. 6 dead. 4 more alive but not carrying pollen, not all the 4 were small. So looks like 10 duds from 143. One of the best outcomes we have seen for years.

Now the 'everything must be local' people will be saying how easy it is again.....................but its not. This time we just got lucky.

[Bumble]

They have just been shaken out.
How far away do you shake them?

[Calluna4u]

How far away do you shake them?

No particular distance. Not right beside another hive for sure, but its nothing like 10 yards away. We are FAR more particular about that if we are putting a split down on the site of a previous drone layer in summer though, as if you don't do it right (which involves killing the DL if possible) you can find it takes over the split, so all you have is a refreshed DL.

[Calum]

They have just been shaken out. All the remainder have active worker brood in them and are on the cusp of crossover day.
hi
would you not just gas them ? If they have nosema shaking will just help spread it (sickness/spores) to other hives?
At least thats what we are advised here in Germany.
You are right they are never worth saving - however much it pains me I have to let nature take its course and accept survival of the fittest.

[mbc]

Mite levels were high in mid July when I sampled colonies.

I pulled some brood frames for the first time yesterday, I'm not sure if it was instinct that made me pull these or whether this colony was generally indicative of the rest, but it was riddled with varroa with signs of dwv and a shrinking brood nest. This apiary got oav in february and I'd hoped to have caught the mites out of brood, obviously not on the one I inspected though. I re treated the lot with oav and a thymol pad, too little too late I'm afraid for the one I looked at, still strong in bee numbers, as were the rest, but if the nest is shrinking at this time of the season it would be some turn around if they make it.
This has obviously raised concerns over the rest and what I'd like is a description of your sampling protocol and maybe info on where to get the kit. Ta in advance.

[Calluna4u]

would you not just gas them ? If they have nosema shaking will just help spread it (sickness/spores) to other hives?


We just get stuck into it and do the deed. To many apiaries and too much distance to cover to do anything fancy. The only bees we will actively kill are if we are destroying an EFB colony. There is no sign that any of these have any abnormal levels of nosema. At this time of year we work on the assumption that most will have some level of it, and from here on in it gradually reduces away. The hives are clean, mostly the ones shaken just have a couple of patches of drone brood or none at all. Its March and still cold at night. The morning after was white frost with ice on the roofs. The assumption is that most of the shaken out bees will be tit food rather than recover into hives.

Any indication of nosema and the hives are brought home for sterilisation, we keep acetic acid in stock at all times. These were all just queen failures with no apparent other problems. There are always some, and we possibly see more of this than others as we do not do an autumn sort out, they all go into winter after the heather and we don't have time to examine them all. By late September it can be hard to tell a dud from a good un anyway as there is normally no brood until the late cycle they do with the winter feed back of the low ground. Makes us have apparently higher winter losses than others, though the net effect is just the same as doing a pre winter cull.

[Jon]

This has obviously raised concerns over the rest and what I'd like is a description of your sampling protocol and maybe info on where to get the kit. Ta in advance.

This is the protocol (http://nihbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Breeding-for-Varroa-resistance-in-Ireland-Instructions.pdf)

[mbc]

Thanks Jon, I knew I'd seen it somewhere.

[Bridget]

Looks like one of these winters that make folk think its easy.................but always lurking round the corner........

1st April last year .....http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160401/71d35e792641c1708b45b1e749fb1404.jpg

[Calluna4u]

1st April last year .....http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160401/71d35e792641c1708b45b1e749fb1404.jpg

Yes indeed....our colleagues in the Midlands got a taste of that on Monday while we were having a great day up here.

[Calum]

Yes indeed....our colleagues in the Midlands got a taste of that on Monday while we were having a great day up here.
22°C here tomorrow, this spring is crazy.
Very very dry winds, so the bees are only getting pollen - so keeping a stern eye on their stores still.

Selling 14 colonies this weekend, about 2 weeks earlier than I'd like but the buyers are clamouring for them...
Oh and setting up the herb garden for the trainee beekeepers site aswell- with our first meeting- all 10 of them - Lucky me, Friedrichshafen have 60 in their course, Wangen im Allgau 40, so our course is really small!

[alancooper]

West of Ireland - Fermanagh: all my hives (7) and my first over-wintered poly nuc are busy and pollen loads coming in (willow, alder and gorse mainly). Plenty bees and stores, no varroa drops at all so far. Spring is late - blackthorn not flowering yet - too cold so far for a quick inspection.

[Neils]

Not a great winter for me, again. I built up last year basically from swarms taking 4 in the end into winter. In december I had 3 still going and taking fondant, as of last weekend I've got one sad little nuc still going. As with last year the hive I would have put money on in December as being fine has bit the dust come March.

I tried rebuilding on the cheap with swarms nobody else wanted last year, so this year I'm swallowing my pride and ordering a couple of replacement colonies to try and get things moving again and try and supplement with any passing swarms if possible. I'm just don't want to write off another year's beekeeping hoping on a half decent swarm again.

[fatshark]

Neils ... sad to hear that. What was your Varroa treatment regime? I'm just reading something by Tom Seeley about the proportion of mites lost with swarms (35% if you're interested). Although there are lots of reasons swarms might not flourish, if they're laden with pathogens they're bound to struggle ... particularly in mid/late winter. I always hammer mine with miticides soon after hiving them ... the worst thing that can happen is that it's a cast and the virgin doesn't get out to mate (or can't stand the pong and never returns!).

[Neils]

OA when they were hived, Thymol in late summer. I didn't OA as well again over winter, maybe I should. There were no obvious signs of Varroa, counts were low but part of the issue I think is that they were never strong enough going into winter to begin with at one point I had 8 swarms, by time we got to thinking about winter I combined them down into 4 half decent coloinies. All had to be fed because they missed the spring crop and there wasn't a summer one, this wasn't topping up hives; if that hadn't been fed they'd all have starved.

[fatshark]

OK. If it's any consolation I doubt the missed (omitted) midwinter OA treatment would have made a difference.

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Neils
I looked at the Somerset Beekeepers Newsletter
http://www.somersetbeekeepers.org.uk/pdfs/Spring2016.pdf
No bee suppliers though that's why folk buy online

[Neils]

Indeed, I know someone nearby who used to put nucs together for later in the year, I might well give them a ring and try sort out another one for later. This year can't be as bad as last, surely! There seem to be a lot of people round this neck of the woods who've lost most if not all their bees this winter. That's not much of a consolation but it is somewhat reassuring that it isn't just me. For only being 15 miles up the road, it's a very different environment round here and some things I took for granted in the city just don't apply; Year round forage (well spring/summer) is just one element that's very different.

[Bumble]

Neil. We're off to the right of you geographically, I think. One of our association members has a good number of overwintered nucs for sale. He's honest and reliable. If you're interested I can give you their contact details.

[The Drone Ranger]

so far one hive gone out of 25 or so
two nucs gone out of 22
8 keilers gone out of 14
theres a pattern there somewhere :)

[Neils]

Bumble,

Cheers would be appreciated, over wintered nucs always a better option I feel.

[Bumble]

I've sent you a personal message