We visited five yards today and found 25% winter loss. Much higher than I expected. No specific smoking gun, a little starvation, some looked to be queenless, some large clusters dead, some splits from early July were clearly not strong enough for such a cold winter. Thats the down side, the upside was that it was superb day to be out in the field. Will be easier to judge causes when we unpack and can see the code pins on the front of the hive. The live hives looked very good for this time of the year. Many bees were flying. Looked like they were in the feeders, but on close inspection they were just sunning themselves. Snow is only a fraction of last year and the Argo worked well. The pallet that was totally covered in a snow drift turned out to have 4 strong live hives when we dug it out. Under the bank the winter pack had 6 inches melted out on all sides. Leads one to think that snow insulation does help survival. Checking more yards in the next few days and will keep you informed.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 03:35:55 +0000
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