BBKA Forum

British Beekeepers Association Official Forum 

  • Winter colony survival

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #6538  by MickBBKA
 18 Apr 2020, 01:57
I was really tempted by Finmans use of reptile heaters and something I may consider in the future as its a way to mitigate the changing environment. We have had more frosts in April than we had in the whole of Nov, Dec, Jan. Winter is now an extension of Autumn and Spring is now more like Winter. Nigel is right when he says that its not possible to test the true thermal properties of poly hives under our usual Winters. I have 1 poly hive that died, and 1 that has 9 frames of brood but I also have a wood hive in the same apiary that has 10 frames of brood. So go figure...?

Rather than try to calculate so called ' winter losses ' maybe it should simply be how many colonies alive say 1st October compared to how many on 1st May which would cover most of the country.
 #6606  by AdamD
 21 Apr 2020, 13:26
I did use a reptile heater under a mini-nuc one year. The colony survived that year. Whether it would have survived in any case, I don't know. If it's a cool winter it's touch and go. I got two through the mild winter this year although they were quite small by March. Now doing well and ready to split and discard the old queens.
 #10441  by AdamD
 01 Apr 2021, 14:22
The BBKA is carrying out it's usual survival survey here https://www.bbka.org.uk/2021-winter-survival-survey
However I can't open it. Is it just me?
 #10447  by AdamD
 02 Apr 2021, 09:44
I've emailed the BBKA office to let them know.
 #10456  by Steve (The Drone)
 03 Apr 2021, 17:13
A good, well designed web sight is one that can be navigated by idiots. What does that make me. I’ve tried all ways to get into the survey. Via the members pages I get transferred to google who refer me back to the survey owners. If I try via the published webpage I get ‘unable to open page’. Never did like the web page design but now it seems not fit for purpose.
Steve.
Oh- no answer to comments either.