A couple of weeks ago, after I published my Empty Hive post, I posted links to it in a couple of different places in the hope that I would get some feedback and gain some insight from others experiences. It worked! I had several comments on my NM Beekeepers Association post on Facebook. Here’s a little of what I learned:
Commenter #1 – It has been a tough winter for the bees. Most of my bees survived the winter but not the spring.
Commenter #2 – I lost 1 out of 3 hives. Happened in April. There was no honey in the hive so I suspect they starved. Other 2 are taking 1:1 sugar water like crazy. Its a very bad drought here; very little blooming yet.
Commenter #3 – lost 2 of my hives this Spring here in Sfe with exactly the same conditions. Lots of honey and lots of bees dead in a cluster partially in the cells. I had this exact type of loss about 5 years ago. I figure they froze due to drastic temperature drop after they had started to forage and uncluster…..?
Commenter #4 – I had two hives going into winter completely packed with honey. One hive was very strong going into spring, the other quite weak so I combined them and pulled off about 30 pounds of honey.
Commenter #5 – All 3 of my hives are right next to each other and it was the middle hive that died off. I don’t think it was a temperature drop that did that hive in but I suppose its a possibility.
Commenter #6 – All four of mine, going ‘great-guns’ strong in late June, had rapidly succumbed to an indeterminate brood disease by late July. (Even Joe Wesbrook couldn’t definitively identify it.) At the April 2013 meeting of ABQ Beeks, one speaker (Kate) labeled the symptoms & outcome as a “parasitic mite syndrome.” I surmise that my colonies were weakened by the hot, dry weather.
Commenter #7 – 4 out of my 10 hives in Taos had the exact same conditions that you describe. My hypothesis is that due to the extreme prolonged cold the bees clustered together and weren’t able to break cluster to get honey. I only insulated the top of my hives. Next winter I will insulate the sides and will put an insulated false back in the hive to reduce the amount of space they have to heat.
Commenter #8 – I had one hive abscond because the queen froze, mostly because I removed their Winter packing too early. 1 out of 16 – not a bad ratio. Still have Winter sugar in some of them because it is so dry.
And then a conversation broke out between two commenters (with a response by a third) that broke my heart:
Commenter #1 – While out in California for Pollinating almonds a few months ago, most of the comercial beekeepers I talked to, claimed super high losses. One I know, he had 1500 on the summer but could only take 220 to pollination, most of them died or where weak and dieing. Another of the big ones I talk to, said he brought back from making Ohio honey, 1200 dead hives that were full of honey and dead animals at the end of summer. He used to have 12000 hives and now, he only has over 3000. It was the same Sad story and hard times for commercial and sideline beekeepers. I just do not know if beekeeping has a future the way it is now. If laws do not change in regards of pesticides and agricultural practices, there is no future for commercial or sideline beekeepers.
Commenter #2 – My mentor of 35 years ago sold his 5000 hives and became a Pastor. I fear for our commercial folks, this may be a lifestyle that is going away without hardly a whimper. It is probably more tragic than we now realize, the repercussions have yet to be felt in our society.
Commenter #1 – Yes, people do not realize how extreme this problem is, or how it potentially can impact the survival of our human race. We run several orphanages in Mexico, and have tried to teach children who to be a beekeeper, but drought, pesticides, and God knows what, have taken a toll into our stock. Now, from 50+ colonies we had dedicated to teach children at the orphanages, we are down to 12 and 8 of them just surviving. It is terrible, but 42% of the agriculture land in Mexico is not being cultivated for lack of rain, and here, in Anthony New Mexico where I live, the situation is not better. There is no water in the river, there is no irrigation, no rain, no wild flowers to feed our colonies -just bad. I hope I am wrong, but it seems like there will be massive famine at the copper canyon of Chihuahua. Last year, several Tarahumara Indian families committed suicide rather than face starvation. Families were jumping from clifftops in desperation- sad.
Commenter #2 – May you and your missions be blessed.
Folks in Mexico live closer to the food supply than we do in el norte, we tend to say “ah the poor bees” and not realize the interconnection that our pollinators have with our ecosystem and our food supply. We may have some real issues if we can’t keep bugs alive on this planet, this is the canary in the coal mine.
Commenter #3 – I have heard something on the lines of greater than a 60% loss this year for commercial beeks. The rumor has it this may the the last economically viable bees season for them. The cause has roughly been attributed to neonics used on Sunflowers in their wintering grounds – and lack of forage. So sad about Copper Canyon. That is a unique place in the world. I would like to go there someday.
While we are still not sure what happened to our hive specifically, I’ve been pouring through articles and reading everything I can to try to get a handle on what is happening to all of our bees (you can read a couple of the most recent articles here, here, here and a different perspective here).
What I’m learning is not anything new, and it is truly heartbreaking. Our way of living on this planet has to change. Truly, our bees, our food and our lives depend on it. We, as people on this planet, must find other ways of growing and producing food. Not only is what we’re doing now not producing enough food for the all of earth’s people, but it is killing our environment. Bees are the canary in the coal mine. If we don’t listen and change our actions very quickly, we will be in a world of hurt before we know it.
xoxo,
M
Enjoy this space? Please vote for me by simply clicking here. Thank you!
My heart sank reading about your loss and all of these other accounts. We watched “Vanishing of the bees” a few months back. You’re right – there is such a disconnection between our food source and nature. We continue to dilute and pollute, frack and drill, poison and kill our generous planet.
We are going to have a go at it here on our property in Alabama. When would you say is a good time to start? Do they like to be in a sunny spot, near the garden or a shady place? Did you have a good experience with the top bar hive?
Oh yay! I always love to hear that someone is planning to start keeping a hive or two of bees!
First, check your area codes and make sure you *can* keep a hive (you should be able to, but it’s always best to check first). The bees need sun, but not all day baking sun, so somewhere that they will get some shade too. They should be a bit sheltered, like tucked back along a tree line. Get them in the spring and try to order them early from a local beekeeper. Local bees know your climate and are more likely to survive. We love our Top Bar Hive. It is closer to their natural habitat but it does not encourage them to make an over abundance of honey (enough to harvest several pounds, but that’s not a lot, considering). So, if you’re in it for the bees, Top Bar Hives are the way to go. Bees travel several miles to collect their pollen, so don’t worry about them being near a garden…they will find your garden if it is within a 5-7 mile range 😉
How did you “hide” your hive? I read somewhere that you mentioned a screen. As a fellow urban farmer considering bees, an issue we would face is neighbors. And I have the “out if sight, out of mind” stance. Thanks in advance!
We used three pallets that we turned into vertical growing space 🙂 Here’s a link: https://evergrowingfarm.com/2012/03/bee-relocation-prep.html
Also, if you search “pallets” on my blog, you’ll find more updates and pictures 🙂 Good luck!
I’m so glad you got some responses to your post. We don’t have hives yet, but are doing our research and plan to start them next spring. Last spring and summer there were very few bees here, which made us make the decision to become bee keepers.
Thank you, Tori! And welcome!!! I do hope you get your hives and have great successes with them! Bees are amazing little creatures and can use more people like you to watch over them 🙂
I am so glad to read what you learned. My children and I do not actually keep bees, but we are very aware of them. For several weeks, we have been trying to count them on our property. Many days, we have only seen ONE bee–usually a bumble bee. One day, we only saw TWO, one a bumble bee and one an unknown native bee.
I have numerous plants planted simply for the bees–thyme in flower, passion fruit (that they usually go crazy for), native honeysuckle, milkweed,etc. Not a single bee in over an hour of four of us out there looking for them.
It’s very worrisome, but most of my neighbors, friends who garden, and friends in general don’t see what I am so worried about. Sigh.
Oh, I forgot to say that I live in South Alabama near Mobile. There has not been a drought here, but the weather has been unseasonably cold.
The whole thing is incredibly sad and tragic. I fear that our friends and neighbors are unconcerned due to our general disconnection that has been created between our food sources and nature…which really boggles my mind! Please keep looking, keep talking and keep planting for our bees. Something has to shift, I just hope it shifts before it’s too late.