Looks like to small of a cluster to stay warm enough and they froze. You will build back back up quickly with all that equipment and drawn comb. Sounds like you had a good plan going into winter. Hang in there and don't give up.
Sorry ole buddy about your bees. Looks like possibly got to small and maybe temps dropped to fast for them to cluster back up. Glad to see you driving a good truck.
I have lost at 5 colonies this winter. Hopefully that will be it . Tough losing the bees. Hang in there and don't give up. May the Good Lord bless your swarm traps and hives with thriving honey bees this Spring. May the Lord bless you, your family and your honey bees. Looking forward to this upcoming swarm trapping season.
Good to see you back, Tim. I'll join the chorus and say I believe the cluster was too small. Im not sure how strong they were going into winter, but if they were small maybe you could have put them in a smaller box, but thats just looking for something. Good luck this year!
Yes I agree, they were fairly strong in the fall and looking back, I should have combined that single with them. Live and learn I guess. Thanks for watching and good luck this season.
Quite unusual. Honey on the side is one thing, but when they have stores above, they can normally survive. I don't think they had the numbers to cluster big enough to keep warm. I also suspect they might have been sick and dwindled and then no longer big enough to cluster with enough mass to keep the warmth and then couldn't get to the honey. That's my best guess.
That is exactly what I was thinking to. In hindsight, I probably should have combined that little single with them in the fall, oh well, we will rebuild. Thanks for watching and commenting Mike, good luck this season and I hope your flow is back to normal this year.
I enjoyed your video, and the chatting about your family at the end. I'm in PA. a few hours from you, but probably close to the same climate and weather patterns. Looking forward to your next video.
I’ve had the same issue with weather. Beautiful weather when I’m and work and wet or cold when off. This weekend is great though! Hang in there man. Spring is just around the corner!
Hi Bruce, they got to small on me and couldn't handle that cold weather. I have been watching your videos, they are looking good. Good luck this season buddy.
There he is, haven't seen ya in a while. Sorry you are going through this, I've been there it's a difficult one, down 4 this winter myself. Food, food, food is about all we can do. One day closer to Spring, buddy hang in there. Blessed Days...
Sometimes the viruses that the mites vector can stay with the colony several months even if mites are under control. They may dwindle slowly even if they were strong. It appears the population dwindled and may have just been too small to keep them all warm enough to survive. At least you have some alive you should have no issues splitting and filling that equipment right back up. Good to see a new video from you. I hope you and your family are doing well. Thanks.
Thanks for the update, always sad to loose colonies but i am sure you can build numbers up again. Perhaps the queens were poorly mated and didnt produce many winter bees? Here in the UK we are getting very unpredictable winters, i have lost 2 out of 6. Have a great spring, your countryside looks great😊
Here is my wild guess. They may have been honey bound in the fall and the queen didn't have enough room to lay a good bunch of winter bees?? It looks like you have done everything else so well. Of course some will say Apivar doesn't work anymore so the viruses spread. But with your low mite washes that becomes doubtful. Look for that white frass of the mites in the brood area. Sugar specks can look like it so be careful taking off the sugar. Good luck this spring.
Not enough bees is why they froze...ive had to save 2 colonies this winter already that were dwindled down to nothing but they both had alive queens so i stole a frame for each out of 2 other colonies (risky move).. but i hated to see those queens die when spring is on the way..
Small cluster but what killed them was your set up with dry sugar. Warm air moves upward so all the open space with sugar plus your ventilation let all warm air escape. Your cluster just couldn't keep up with warm air production. If that feeding shim wasn't there I think they would've been ok.
We are all thinking they starved and or froze because they were small, but my question is why did they dwindle down like that. I had several swarms this year do bad because of the late freeze that killed the nectar flow and they couldn't build up. On a brighter note, those grandchildren are good medicine.👍
I had some do the same thing. I think it was the cold spell we had in the single digits and cold for a week. I think the cluster was so small they couldn’t move and starved out in that spot. Just my opinion but yours looked just like mine. I did a mite wash on all of them and didn’t have any mites. Good video sorry you lost bees.😢
You should do away with the upper entrance. You are canceling out the benefits of your insulation boards. The upper entrance allows cold air in under the insulation board canceling it out.
Yes that is true. I usually have that up there to get some ventilation to alleviate condensation. Most of the time, the bees will propolize the hole up or at least partly. This year, they didn't. Thanks for watching and good luck this season.
Looks like to small of a cluster to stay warm enough and they froze. You will build back back up quickly with all that equipment and drawn comb. Sounds like you had a good plan going into winter. Hang in there and don't give up.
I totally agree, they dwindled down pretty good looks like. Thanks for watching and good luck this season.
*Sorry about your bees brother. This year will be better. Keep it up! Have a good one Tim!*
It is just part of beekeeping, I am looking forward to this season. Good luck and thanks for watching.
17:28 Not enough bees to keep warm during that cold spell. I lost 2 out of 35. Same thing on those 2 I lost.
Yeah, they got to small on me and the weather went haywire. We will rebuild, thanks for watching and commenting. Good luck this season.
Tim, Is that Boone county Kentucky? If so, I'm just north in SW Cincinnati. @@theboonecountybeekeeper
@@Mackabees no, Boone County West Virginia, just south of Charleston.
Sorry ole buddy about your bees. Looks like possibly got to small and maybe temps dropped to fast for them to cluster back up. Glad to see you driving a good truck.
Yeah I think that is what happened to. Lucky that truck made it up there lol.
I have lost at 5 colonies this winter. Hopefully that will be it . Tough losing the bees. Hang in there and don't give up. May the Good Lord bless your swarm traps and hives with thriving honey bees this Spring. May the Lord bless you, your family and your honey bees. Looking forward to this upcoming swarm trapping season.
I hate to lose bees but it happens, Thank you so much for watching and may the Lord bless you as well.
Good to see you back, Tim. I'll join the chorus and say I believe the cluster was too small. Im not sure how strong they were going into winter, but if they were small maybe you could have put them in a smaller box, but thats just looking for something. Good luck this year!
Yes I agree, they were fairly strong in the fall and looking back, I should have combined that single with them. Live and learn I guess. Thanks for watching and good luck this season.
Quite unusual. Honey on the side is one thing, but when they have stores above, they can normally survive. I don't think they had the numbers to cluster big enough to keep warm. I also suspect they might have been sick and dwindled and then no longer big enough to cluster with enough mass to keep the warmth and then couldn't get to the honey. That's my best guess.
That is exactly what I was thinking to. In hindsight, I probably should have combined that little single with them in the fall, oh well, we will rebuild. Thanks for watching and commenting Mike, good luck this season and I hope your flow is back to normal this year.
Exactly, Mike!@@theboonecountybeekeeper
I know how much you loved those girls.. I'm sorry you lost so many. Wishing you better luck & honey galore this year. 🐝🍯
Thanks Francis, we will get back on track. Thanks for watching.
Sorry about your bees. I got one hive. I see bees. Hope thay make it two more months. God Bless. You all keep Praying.
thanks for watching and good luck this season.
I lost several too buddy. I think them being small size in fall and such warm weather it killed off a lot of bee numbers and cold snap done them in.
Yeah I think that is what happened to, thanks for watching and good luck this year.
I enjoyed your video, and the chatting about your family at the end. I'm in PA. a few hours from you, but probably close to the same climate and weather patterns. Looking forward to your next video.
Thanks for watching and good luck this season.
I’ve had the same issue with weather. Beautiful weather when I’m and work and wet or cold when off. This weekend is great though! Hang in there man. Spring is just around the corner!
Hi Bruce, they got to small on me and couldn't handle that cold weather. I have been watching your videos, they are looking good. Good luck this season buddy.
There he is, haven't seen ya in a while. Sorry you are going through this, I've been there it's a difficult one, down 4 this winter myself. Food, food, food is about all we can do. One day closer to Spring, buddy hang in there. Blessed Days...
Thanks DC, that is part of beekeeping. We will build back up, thanks for watching.
Sometimes the viruses that the mites vector can stay with the colony several months even if mites are under control. They may dwindle slowly even if they were strong. It appears the population dwindled and may have just been too small to keep them all warm enough to survive. At least you have some alive you should have no issues splitting and filling that equipment right back up. Good to see a new video from you. I hope you and your family are doing well. Thanks.
I agree, thanks for watching and good luck this season. We are doing good and I hope you and yours are as well.
Thanks for the update, always sad to loose colonies but i am sure you can build numbers up again. Perhaps the queens were poorly mated and didnt produce many winter bees? Here in the UK we are getting very unpredictable winters, i have lost 2 out of 6. Have a great spring, your countryside looks great😊
I hate to lose them but that is a part of beekeeping, thanks so much for watching. Good luck over there.
My youngest daughter just turned 9 months. She has me smitten. Good luck with your ‘24 season.
They are special for sure, thanks for watching
Sorry about the bees , buddy. Good luck with the spring and get some splits made and you will be back in business.
Thanks Brad, that is part of it. We will come back strong. Good luck this season and thanks for watching.
Here is my wild guess. They may have been honey bound in the fall and the queen didn't have enough room to lay a good bunch of winter bees?? It looks like you have done everything else so well. Of course some will say Apivar doesn't work anymore so the viruses spread. But with your low mite washes that becomes doubtful. Look for that white frass of the mites in the brood area. Sugar specks can look like it so be careful taking off the sugar. Good luck this spring.
Sounds about right, thanks for watching and good luck this year.
Not enough bees is why they froze...ive had to save 2 colonies this winter already that were dwindled down to nothing but they both had alive queens so i stole a frame for each out of 2 other colonies (risky move).. but i hated to see those queens die when spring is on the way..
Winter is tough sometimes, thanks for watching and good luck this season.
Small cluster but what killed them was your set up with dry sugar. Warm air moves upward so all the open space with sugar plus your ventilation let all warm air escape. Your cluster just couldn't keep up with warm air production. If that feeding shim wasn't there I think they would've been ok.
I have never thought of it that way, thanks, that is good advice. Thanks for watching.
Maybe it just wasent a large enofe to keep warm in the cold spell.
Yeah that is what I think to, thanks for watching.
Too cold for the small cluster to move over to the food , I guess.
Yeah, they got to small. Thanks for watching and good luck this year.
Small cluster…. Froze not enough winter bees …. That single digits did them in …. I had one like that….
That is exactly what I was thinking as well, thanks for watching buddy, good luck this season.
@@theboonecountybeekeeper thanks Tim you too
We are all thinking they starved and or froze because they were small, but my question is why did they dwindle down like that. I had several swarms this year do bad because of the late freeze that killed the nectar flow and they couldn't build up. On a brighter note, those grandchildren are good medicine.👍
Thanks for watching Joey, those grandchildren are special for sure. Good luck this season.
I had some do the same thing. I think it was the cold spell we had in the single digits and cold for a week. I think the cluster was so small they couldn’t move and starved out in that spot. Just my opinion but yours looked just like mine. I did a mite wash on all of them and didn’t have any mites. Good video sorry you lost bees.😢
Yes that is exactly what I was thinking as well, thanks for watching and good luck this season.
You have some good beekeepers around you! @@theboonecountybeekeeper
You should do away with the upper entrance. You are canceling out the benefits of your insulation boards. The upper entrance allows cold air in under the insulation board canceling it out.
Yes that is true. I usually have that up there to get some ventilation to alleviate condensation. Most of the time, the bees will propolize the hole up or at least partly. This year, they didn't. Thanks for watching and good luck this season.
Mine are dead too
We will get some more
To small of a cluster to move in those cold Temps that lasted for a week
Yes I agree, that is what I was thinking as well. Thanks for watching.
I had 8 down to 2
Sorry to hear that, thanks for watching and good luck this season.
they froze
Yeah, they got to small on me and the cold done them in for sure. We will rebuild, should have some good resources. Thanks for watching and good luck
Frozen to death
No doubt, thanks for watching
How old is Bozo now?
He is 80.