They might do better in some sort of barn or shed with slightly larger entrances & a decent windbreak in front of the entrances.
With a larger entrance, the bees should block it to the size they require. My native bees do that.
Thank you John, I recently saw that thought provoking talk. After watching that I came to the conclusion that beekeepers themselves are in decline.
Imagine if the number of beekeepers doubled & they all had the number of hives as the average number, the figures would be double & look much better.
Then imagine if all those beekeepers split every hive. The figures would look REAL healthy.
Hi Michael,
It is very hard for us in Australia to even imagine the temperatures you talk aboutā¦they just donāt happen here. I ask the question, why not house them over winter.
In Europe and other places animals are housed inside over the winter and pastured when the cold goes. I have seen some hives inside buildings with a small entry hole in the wall but these in the main are for educational or promotional purposes. If you housed them in a well insulated shed/outbuilding which had good ventilation would this not solve or minimise loosing hives in winter.
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Thatās very interesting Michael, as Jeff previously said the wild bees in Australia are declining and this has been backed up by our agricultural department. No varroa here however SHB and AFB are having a serious impact on wild colonies. God help us if varroa was to get into the country.
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Indoor wintering is not impossible, but it is much trickier and more likely to fail than outdoor. There are just too many things that can go wrong. Too warm. Too much humidity. Not enough sun. Or if you are trying to keep them from flying (probably best) then too much light. People often cellared bees here at the turn of two centuries ago but it was very labor intensive and very prone to disaster if things donāt go perfectly. The 1886 bee journals are full of articles and letters on the topic and any in that era give or take 20 years as well. I have considered some kind of cellaring or some kind of climate controlled indoor wintering, but that is both expensive and problematic.
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With my glass half full approach. I look at the numbers. Just say for argument sake 50% of the hives survived & 50% died out. I would be looking closely at why the 50% survived. What was it that made 50% survive, & 50% die out?
Once you find the answers to that, you should be able to achieve close to a 100% survival rate.
Iām kind of wondering if the entrances you are using are too small which doesnāt allow the bees to get rid of condensation. If you give the bees a larger entrance while they are still foraging, I canāt see why they wouldnāt use propolis to reduce it.
I guess in a wild situation they donāt have someone reducing their entrance for them, theyād have to do it themselves, if they chose to.
Pretty sure that if the solution was visible as simply as all that we would no longer be loosing hivesā¦ Because trust me there has been PLENTY of ālookingā doneā¦
There isnāt a single cause for CCD.
As with many ādisordersā it is a collection of symptoms, not a single disease.
We have used natural treatments for our hives, but at the end of the day we found that the incidence seemed unchanged, long term, by treatment and come spring some hives make it some donāt. And oddly, the less we mess with them, the more they make it.
All current hives are self queened swarms.
We leave plenty of stores in the hives so they donāt run out in the spring before the flow starts.
The bottom boards are solid, year round.
The reducers are about 2", year round.
We donāt poke at them all the time.
They suffer the occasional 110Ā° summer day and the even rarer 32Ā° winter night just fine with no fashion statements.
They throw the occasional swarm and soldier on.
Strong hives throw off the mites and the moths. Weak hives may founder no matter what you do for them. At the end of the day Darwin is the safe bet.
I think you are missing the point. I overwinter nucs to replace any losses. I donāt treat so I can select for the ones that can survive without treatments and have what it takes to survive. My full size colonies did survive. Some of the nucs always die in the winter. How many is directly proportional to how cold the winter is. My nuc survival rate is at the national hive survival rate. My hive survival rate was far above the national rate.
From my way of thinking the national hive survival rate is too low. Itās a great strategy to have nucs to replace any dead hives. However, if you donāt get any dead hives & you achieve a much higher nuc survival rate, youāll have a lot of nucs to sell in the spring.
If your nuc survival rate is directly proportional to how cold it gets, well that means the better you insulate your hives, the higher survival rate youāll achieve.
It would seem that way. But often it works out differently. Wrapping and insulating also keep them from warming enough for the cluster to move or for the bees to move stores and sometimes even keeps them from warming enough for a cleansing flight. Insulation works both ways. It also seals in moisture.
Yeah, well that probably reinforces what Iām saying about giving the bees a slightly larger entrance while they are still foraging & let them reduce it themselves. I can see a lot of merit in having that slightly larger entrance with a baffle in front of it.
In winter they āNormallyā donāt fly - this winter has been exceptional - we have to close the entrances down in winter to keep mice and other rodents out.
Opening and closing an entrance is a seasonal thing not a daily thing - mice will get through any space they can get their head in
FYIā¦beekeeping in parts of Australia are so successful as they have year round flying with plenty of nectarā¦their colonies are very strong. Here in the UK bees struggle through the winter and often through the summer tooā¦so perhaps not the best of climates for them. Bees are not indigenous to the UK eitherā¦neither do we know everything there is to know about beesā¦even though British beekeepers have written lots of books about beekeepingā¦and some beekeepers are āknow allsā ā¦itās important to recognise the expertise in other countries. Beekeepers in the UK used to be in the warmer partsā¦now we hear of beekeepers everywhere. I lost 3 colonies this winterā¦so I have a particular interest in why colonies succumb during our winter lockdown. As yet the actual cause remains a question. I think possibly queen failure for 2 of them but the 3rd hive was a big colony and should have come through without problems. It was treated for varroa and so far I see no signs or it might be Nosema Cerana.
Hiā¦there are some beekeepers who advocate much more insulation than this. Especially over the crown board. They believe that when the insulation is sufficient then the condensation is greatly reduced. Some moisture in the hive is useful, of course, for condensing on the uncapped honey to allow the bees to consume itā¦but too much condensation makes for a damp hive. Next winter I am going to increase the insulation on all of my hivesā¦although we have just had a very mild winter hereā¦but very wet.
Hi HHH, thank you for your support. However I can understand someone thinking I keep my bees in the āideal climateā with āstable weatherā & that probably has the biggest influence on the degree of success Iām enjoying with my bees with a relatively minimal degree of āstrugglesā. It seems strange that several people will engage in a 5-6 hr. car trip (one person 3 times) just to pick up a colony of bees from me in a place with the āideal climateā & āstable weatherā with a minimum of āstrugglesā. One would think that a person would only need to take a short drive to pick up a colony of bees in such a place.
Hi again HHH, would there be any merit in a quilt like they use on warre hives for over wintering? just a thought, cheers:)
Hi Jeff
Each climate has its good points and bad points. I hang my tongue out over all your forageā¦but that in itself can cause problems if you are not watchful of your hives.