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I finished up the March 22 post with the proposal that we make the simple, essential, and far reaching goal of getting our bees through next winter, alive. In this post I will add to sub-goals that are equally simple, essential, and far reaching.
There is no formula, or trick, or set of steps that I can give that will guarantee without a shadow of a doubt that your bees will be alive next spring. Even the best of technique and experience cannot do that. But there are some simple things that you can do that can raise the chances of survival.
Getting your bees though next winter is the overarching goal. That could seem to be so far in the future here in April, that we could conclude that we do not need to worry about that now. Let’s get on with more near-at-hand issues and worry about that in September.
We are dealing with animals and a very specialized animal at that. Bees are not like cows and dogs whose survival depends more on the immediate health and wellbeing of the creature than it does reproduction. You can get a dog that does not reproduce to last for a decade. Just keep it healthy with an occasional visit to the vet and reasonable diet and survival is almost guaranteed. So with cows. But not so with bees. Their survival, particularly their winter survival is intricately tied to their reproduction or more simply, to egg laying and brood health.
Coupled with this is the multi-generational nature of their reproductive mechanism. A brood generation could be defined as the time from egg to emergence. A bee generation during the summer is about 5 weeks. Now, add in the fact that the new generation of brood and resulting bee population is dependent on the last generation of bees and that the amount and health of that population greatly determines the amount and health of the new generation that it produces. Which leads us to conclude that if there is a large population of healthy worker bees in the hive and the brood rearing is stimulated for optimal future population, the survival is pushed closer to a guarantee. If the worker population is small and/or not very healthy with results of poor brood and subsequent brood production, the whole colony spirals downward toward a guarantee that the colony will not survive.
You see, its pretty simple: The bees (amount and health) that will survive the winter are raised by the bees that are raised by the bees that are raised by the bees all the way back to the April and May bees. It’s true that you can salvage a failing colony in August and get it through the winter, but the chances are a lot lower.
What will it take to optimize the survival? Two equally simple, essential, and far reaching goals:
· Keep the mites under control.
· Feed the colony any time there is not a natural nectar flow.
It won’t be the equipment or the breed of bees or the amount of natural honey you leave on or the absence of small hive beetle or your love for the bees that will ensure that your bees will survive. They might help a little. But if the mites aren’t under control and you have not been feeding, it will be no surprise of the colony is dead by January. Concentrate on those two things right from the beginning and get those well mastered and the likelihood of winter survivability will be closer to guaranteed. Make those goals fixed and firm. Today.
-Jonathan Showalter | Beeline of Michigan
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JRockrohr says:
I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been keeping bees over 40 years. I’ve had as many as 100 colonies, and now down to 50, with winter losses always below 10%. I’m actually surprised when I lose one colony, I’m closer to 1-2%. Check hives often, keep mites in check, keep them fed and you’re good.