Beekeepers’s Notes: Colonies Not Making It Through The Winter

Published on: 1 Feb, 2020
Updated on: 31 Jan, 2020

Hugh Coakley keeps bees in Worplesdon

I had a quick look at my hives on a mild day in January and found that a couple of my hives, out of the seven that went into the winter, didn’t make it.

Talking to a well informed Guildford beekeeper, it seems to be a common tale this year in Surrey.

A strong hive in April with plenty of new bees being made by the queen to keep the colony population strong. There is some concern that queens are failing and hives are petering out. Click on the image to enlarge it.

In my case, the hives were completely empty. Both of them had looked reasonably strong before the winter. One of them I had fed with a sugar solution in September and October as I thought that it hadn’t enough stores to last the winter. So the problem wasn’t a lack of food.

One theory is that queens are failing sometime in the autumn and, with no new bees being produced, the colonies just fade away. It seems feasible as it would be quite easy not to notice that the queen wasn’t laying any eggs at that time of year. Not sure why the queens would be failing though and it is a worry if queens are becoming less robust.

Anyway, it’s good to see the bees from the other hives flying again.

Even though it is still winter and generally cold, the bees take every opportunity to get out when the weather gets a bit warmer. They forage if they can but they also need to get out to poo.

If they can’t get outside on a ‘cleansing flight’ because of the weather, they will defecate within the hive. That not so good. As you can imagine, it could spread disease in the hive but with the mild winters, it hasn’t been a problem.

Bee poo is one of the few, perhaps the only, bee product that is not used by man. We use the honey, wax, propolis, royal jelly and even pollen. But not the poo. Am I right?

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