Not sure what caused your hive to collapse this winter? Leave it in the comments and me and all the wonderful, knowledgeable beekeepers watching can help you figure it out!
Great to hear you speak about benefits of an open screened bottom board. Here in the UK I have not heard of a beekeeper using a top entrance or top ventilation in winter. But, it seems to be a popular idea with some American TH-camrs.
Mine were pretty weak and then got robbed out and died. Probably varroa. Will test more next year. I was relying on mentor to tell me when to test but it probably needed to be done more.
I found our hive dead on Saturday. I know they were alive a couple of weeks ago. I went to put up a wind break before a big storm and I could hear them and a couple of weeks before that, we had opened the top on a warm day to put some emergency sugar out and there seemed to be a lot of bees. This was before a huge temperature drop and 3 weeks of super cold days. Like not getting above freezing for 4 days at one point. We are in north texas. So some really cold days in winter and usually a crazy hot 110 degree summer. This is our first year and I’ve already ordered two packages for spring, but didn’t think I’d be starting over. We did treat for mites in the fall but I did not test to make sure it worked. Something that seems off is that the comb is wavy, like looking down in the frames. Is it possible there was too much honey and/or comb. The last time we opened it completely up it had so much honey I was worried it might be honey bound but it was fall so someone told me not to worry. I’ve joined the beekeeping classes so hopefully next year will be better. We had so much fun this year with them. Maybe we will do it right this time.
Ok, disregard my whining about loosing our bees. We went to autopsy the hive yesterday. It was 70 degrees and they were flying everywhere. And our other hive that we thought had been dead for weeks, also had bees. I guess they were more in the bottom. Mostly we just don’t know what we’re doing! 😂
What a relief!! You can get a tool (my brain cannot remember what it's called at the moment!) but it will show you the temperatures inside the hive when you point it to the outside of the hive.
I live in N. California and have 3 hives at one location. In October when I checked, 3 of the hives had lots of bee's, honey, eggs and larvae. When I checked in November a month later, 2 of the hives the bees were gone but there was still honey in the hive. The 3rd hive was going very strong. I treated in August with Apiguard and treat with OA every month after. I didn't have any dead bee's. Any ideas on what happened?
Did you test for mites in the summer? Absconding is really common when a hive is overly infested with varroa mites. There are few occasions when a hive absconds without a varroa infestation. Bees might abscond if there's a small hive beetle infestation, but then you would have seen slime. Bees will also abscond if there's an environmental issue, but it has to be pretty disturbing for the bees and the stronger hive stayed, which makes me think that wasn't the issue. I ask if you tested for mites in the summer, because if the hives had a high mite level in the early summer, then by the time you treated in August, the mites levels may have been too high to prevent their absconding. Even if the mites were killed by the Apiguard, the effect of the mites - a lot of viruses - would still be present in the hive. Were these hives new colonies you purchased last year? Did you treat for mites in the spring? Unfortunately, when you buy bees, those bees might not be incredibly healthy. Not all apiaries sell hives with low mite levels and you never know what you'll get in terms of how healthy the colony will be when you purchase bees. You may have purchased colonies that were weak in the spring and they just continued to decline over the months.
Thanks for asking! I only sell my honey to one place these days, Big Island Bees. You can find Laryssa's Honeycomb at their farm store in Kealakekua. They also give tours and have a beekeeping museum - a great stop on the way to a beautiful beach and nice snorkel spot - Manini Beach and Honaunau Bay (also known as Two Step).
@@BeekeepingMadeSimple We're familiar with Big island bees. We've been kicking around the idea of offering a similar beekeeping experience at our home in the San Juan Islands of Washington state.
@@beehivewithaview9760 Their tours do very well. They get a lot of people signing up. It makes a good income, but also exhausting having to bring in the extra help & have so many people stopping by. It also generates a lot of "buzz". It was pretty easy to get press from the local papers and TV stations when they started the tours.
Not sure what caused your hive to collapse this winter? Leave it in the comments and me and all the wonderful, knowledgeable beekeepers watching can help you figure it out!
It depends on the type of hives you have...
What do you mean?
Great to hear you speak about benefits of an open screened bottom board. Here in the UK I have not heard of a beekeeper using a top entrance or top ventilation in winter. But, it seems to be a popular idea with some American TH-camrs.
Interesting! Thanks for the comment. Do beekeepers in the UK use a screened bottom in the winter? What do they do for ventilation?
Your videos are very informative and well done. And you don't have any dead air, just useful information. Thank you.
Thanks! I am a very slow-moving beekeeper, so I speed up those parts.
Great video! Thanks
Mine were pretty weak and then got robbed out and died. Probably varroa. Will test more next year. I was relying on mentor to tell me when to test but it probably needed to be done more.
Sorry to hear that. Robbing can really destroy those weak hives before winter even comes.
Very informative,thanks!
I found our hive dead on Saturday. I know they were alive a couple of weeks ago. I went to put up a wind break before a big storm and I could hear them and a couple of weeks before that, we had opened the top on a warm day to put some emergency sugar out and there seemed to be a lot of bees. This was before a huge temperature drop and 3 weeks of super cold days. Like not getting above freezing for 4 days at one point. We are in north texas. So some really cold days in winter and usually a crazy hot 110 degree summer. This is our first year and I’ve already ordered two packages for spring, but didn’t think I’d be starting over. We did treat for mites in the fall but I did not test to make sure it worked. Something that seems off is that the comb is wavy, like looking down in the frames. Is it possible there was too much honey and/or comb. The last time we opened it completely up it had so much honey I was worried it might be honey bound but it was fall so someone told me not to worry. I’ve joined the beekeeping classes so hopefully next year will be better. We had so much fun this year with them. Maybe we will do it right this time.
Ok, disregard my whining about loosing our bees. We went to autopsy the hive yesterday. It was 70 degrees and they were flying everywhere. And our other hive that we thought had been dead for weeks, also had bees. I guess they were more in the bottom. Mostly we just don’t know what we’re doing! 😂
What a relief!! You can get a tool (my brain cannot remember what it's called at the moment!) but it will show you the temperatures inside the hive when you point it to the outside of the hive.
I live in N. California and have 3 hives at one location. In October when I checked, 3 of the hives had lots of bee's, honey, eggs and larvae. When I checked in November a month later, 2 of the hives the bees were gone but there was still honey in the hive. The 3rd hive was going very strong. I treated in August with Apiguard and treat with OA every month after. I didn't have any dead bee's. Any ideas on what happened?
Did you test for mites in the summer? Absconding is really common when a hive is overly infested with varroa mites. There are few occasions when a hive absconds without a varroa infestation. Bees might abscond if there's a small hive beetle infestation, but then you would have seen slime. Bees will also abscond if there's an environmental issue, but it has to be pretty disturbing for the bees and the stronger hive stayed, which makes me think that wasn't the issue.
I ask if you tested for mites in the summer, because if the hives had a high mite level in the early summer, then by the time you treated in August, the mites levels may have been too high to prevent their absconding. Even if the mites were killed by the Apiguard, the effect of the mites - a lot of viruses - would still be present in the hive.
Were these hives new colonies you purchased last year? Did you treat for mites in the spring? Unfortunately, when you buy bees, those bees might not be incredibly healthy. Not all apiaries sell hives with low mite levels and you never know what you'll get in terms of how healthy the colony will be when you purchase bees. You may have purchased colonies that were weak in the spring and they just continued to decline over the months.
Where do you sell your honey? My family and I are on the Big island for the next week and we'd like to pickup a jar.
Thanks for asking! I only sell my honey to one place these days, Big Island Bees. You can find Laryssa's Honeycomb at their farm store in Kealakekua. They also give tours and have a beekeeping museum - a great stop on the way to a beautiful beach and nice snorkel spot - Manini Beach and Honaunau Bay (also known as Two Step).
@@BeekeepingMadeSimple We're familiar with Big island bees. We've been kicking around the idea of offering a similar beekeeping experience at our home in the San Juan Islands of Washington state.
@@beehivewithaview9760 Their tours do very well. They get a lot of people signing up. It makes a good income, but also exhausting having to bring in the extra help & have so many people stopping by. It also generates a lot of "buzz". It was pretty easy to get press from the local papers and TV stations when they started the tours.