Beekeepers:

Several of the group wanted to go out to the apiary and check the winter survival out.  We arrived at about 1:30 Sat Feb 22.  The ground was covered up to the top of the hives.  It was difficult getting in as the snow would not support your weight and you would sink down to your knees.  We did go through the hives.  We started winter with 19 and now have 12 that are alive.  Two of them may not make until we can do some moving of bees and brood.  Most had sufficient honey but those that were light we took honey from the dead ones and moved it.  Most of the ones that died appeared to have queen related problems.  Usually the clusters were very small and showed  pollen supplement that had not been eaten.  Several had clear signs of queen problems: one with a queen cell that had not been sealed and still had royal jelly in it. Others that had lots of pollen which is characteristic of a colony that the queen was not working well in.  None of the hives had starved that had a large cluster of dead bees.  Most of the small clusters did in the end die of starvation as they cannot move being so small.  One hive that is still alive has a bad case of nosema.  Most of the hives that died had feces within the hive but it was likely that once the cluster gets so small they cannot go out for cleansing flights.  Some of the dead and alive hives had the inner covers placed on the hive upside down so the bees had a hard time getting to the upper entrance.  

It is likely that the snow will be on the ground for at least another month.  We will check and see when we could go out for the next inspection.  Right now it will be difficult for many to see as there is little parking and too much snow to do any work.  We will need to get out as soon as possible and get the old equipment removed and move bees around.  We will need to get some additional packages from the 5 planned.  My guess is if we want a full apiary we should plan on at least 7 packages plus splitting 7 hives getting us back to 24 colonies.  This year we will have to do a better job of requeening.

Regards.