My Colony Losses
Here I record my colony losses and compare them with BBKA data on the UK and South West winter colony losses. I also record reasons for my losses and national losses in these years.
The BBKA survey of colony survival is conducted annually amongst its members and measures the numbers of their colonies that survive the winter between 1 October and 31 March the following year.
The BBKA states that winter colony losses should be 5%. I understand the main causes of colony losses to be starvation, disease, cold and queen failure
Note on table below: I use the same timeframe as the BBKA, i.e. 1 October to 31 March, but I also include other relevant losses. E.g. a colony starved in September 2013, and I have included this in the 2013/14 losses.
| My total | My percentages | Reasons for my loss | UK | South West | Reasons for national losses | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018/19 | 2 (out of 3) | 67% | One hive lost to wax moth in October 2018. The other had a 2017 Queen who started laying drones. Will buy new Queen. | |||
| 2017/18 | 0 (out of 6) | 0% | No losses. | 25% | 21.7% | Beast from the East. Spring and forage delayed by a month. |
| 2016/17 | 0 | 0% | No losses. Nearly lost one that needed emergency feeding in early April. | 13.2% | 12.5% | Queen failure, starvation, lack of forage and cold weather restricting foraging activities and forage availability. |
| 2015/16 | 0 (out of 3) | 0% | No losses. My 3rd weak hive is weak and has been so since Aug/Sep 15 and still is in May 16. I expect it to die. | 16.7% | 15.7% | Unfavourable spring / summer weather, effected bees ability to forage and provided poor conditions for mating of virgin queens. Thus starvation and queen failure were frequently reported. Wasps were also noted in some areas. |
| 2014/15 | 4 (out of 4) | 100% | I am concluding that the two major contributory factors to my loss were: (A) that I overfed them in Autumn. 20Kg of sugar per hive. I found walls of stored sugar syrup in these failed hives. (B) No insulation with open mesh floor, and ventilated roofs would have led to a cold winter. Other reasons: 1 hive had old, failing queen 2 hives were moved over rough ground which would have disturbed colony and possibly killed queen | 14.5% | 12.1% | |
| 2013/14 | 1 (out of 2) | 50% | I didn't feed new colony early enough. | 9.6% | 8.6% | Lower loss due to mild winter. |
| 2012/13 | 1 (out of 1) | 100% | Hive swarmed. New Queen did not get mated due to rainy summer. | 33.8% | 52.9% | High loss due to harsh winter plus queen mating issues |
Read More
- 2014/15 losses: Nosema – Advice Required (old Queen, leading to weak colony & Nosema)
- 2014/15 losses: Colony Post-Mortem (probably due to high varroa and cold)
- 2013/14 losses: Starving Bees
- 2012/13 losses: Laying Workers Killed My Queen
- How-To Guides (they are all relevant as they all play a part in reducing colony losses)
