We examined all our colonies this week, we had 70 all in. After the inspection we are left with 53 viable colonies. Meaning we lost 25% so far this winter, disappointing considering the varroa treatment and pollen both given before the winter last year.
The losses were worst on our mildest site at 400 ', sheltered from the NE winds. One thing that struck us was that from the 9colonies we moved on Dec 16 and subsequently fed have all survived bar one. Our best site for surviving colonies, it is possible that giving liquid stores in the winter enabled the bees to survive better than those relying on crystalised stores.
All colonies had another treatment for Varroa hoping to kill any free living mites before breeding starts in ernest.
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