Mid Jan Autopsies- Not Looking Good

 I've seen and autopsied far more November/December dead outs than I care to think about- some years dramatically bad, others years not so. For the first 20 years, it wasn't really an issue, and for a good 5 or more years I was managing 10-20 with no winter losses ever. 

Then something switched dramatically- around 2010 it took me awhile to realize how serious mites were- and how I was fooling myself in thinking I could treat 1 or 2 times a year and get by, as was the "official" program at the time.

Then it all fell apart- despite shipping bees to Beltsville, of connecting with Judy Chen and Randy Oliver to try to get some sort of handle or insight, and talking to experienced beekeepers in Whatcom County, north of here- all of that, a bazillion emails and discussions- and to date- though I have tired a hundred ways of improving, including all treatment programs under the sun, it's still random. I lose hives to mites. It totally sucks- as if I might as well do nothing at all. I see thousands and thousands of mites.

It's January,  I'm OAing, a little late -queens are laying for sure, and Hazelnut (those that are left!!! I was told they are all dying, like the Elms, and if that is true, say goodbye to PNW beekeeping! A big one in my neighbor's yard I depend on, is now dead entirely). 

In one hive,  two days after an OA treatment, I counted 200 dead mites. In another, 100, then 70, then a string of lesser counts. The five worst, I treated again (with similar drop), and again (which was today). It's insane. 

I treated "by the book" last year- the last treatment being I think in late October- Formic Pro. Maybe earlier. I held off on the insane amount of pointless OAV I shot in the year before with my Provap (a good tool, but as I've mentioned, needs some serious quality control). 

But I treated with OA starting on the 10th this year. One hive dropped 200 mites. I treated again, 100. And again- 75- and all of this means nothing, except a.) the hive is infested, b.) it's surviving, and c.) it's probably strong enough to sustain that many mites, but for how long?

For example, if you treat and get zero- what does that mean? If you see no cappings on the board, no mites, no activity at all- it can only mean one thing- they are dead.

So- it's mid January, and I've treated all my hives 1x, and if found a bigger drop than 10, 2x, and now for those real offenders, 3x.  What I found today shocked me.

Three roof hives dead. All in a row. All first year hives, new Carniolans, all with a ton of stores, all going gangbusters in Fall, strong hives, all treated multiple times with serious treatements (FP)- and now all dead, 100%. I

n addition- my late treatments showed very little drop from these hives, 5 to 10 mites- of course! The bees were all dead and I caught the surviving mites I guess. If one sees a low drop of mites after treatment- its actually not necessarily a good thing!

If this happens to you, I think there's only one thing to do to be sure. Do an autopsy. Get into that hive and figure out what happened- in particular, did they starve? Get wet? Or did mites take them out. For the latter option, you need to know some things that I've learned by hard experience. Firstly,  unless you look close, you won't know. 

Here's a typical dead out from today. Pop the outer cover, pull of the insulation- and I see no bees on the cover, and plenty of white sugar (which does NOT mean they had food- though in this case, they did). A few dead bees around.

Pop of the inner cover, and I see this, and this was pretty much exactly the same sight in all three hives. A tiny cluster. Usually this means starvation- they couldn't find food, and died en masse, heads in empty cells. So you pop out these frames to look. Was food nearby?

And in these three hives, indeed it was. Almost the same in each, plenty of capped stores, and all easily reached. Yet thousands of bees died, and there is just this tiny cluster left! The hive went from 20,000 (say), in October, to 200 in January- with hardly any indication from outside that this was happening so dramatically.

xxxx

I pop those two frames apart, and each side looks like this. 30 bees? And capped brood too?

Closer in- the final few, trying I assume to beat the cold we had with food all over the place, and yet?

Here's the second hive, with the  dead Carni queen front and center. And like they all went to sleep. Few heads in cells- all surrounded by stores. Some young bees even! Light brown, barely out of the box. What is going on here???

Part two of this entry happens tomorrow. Basically, I pulled the significant frames (with bees and or brood), and put them under the scope, looking for clues. What killed them? Why do we not see mites on the bodies? Why did this entire group of hives- all side by side- die together?

Mysteries for sure. I don't know for sure the answer. But I'll share one clue- plenty of the bees above were heavily infested- once you start turning them over, and pulling open brood cells. On a cursory scan, mites don't seem to be the issue ( even cells seem to lack guanamine), but once under the scope- what I've seen before when stumped, all comes back.

Mites, mites. mites. Three hives dead, that I though were well. Pushing 10. Fairly pitiful.

Next post, some stereo microscope images about what to look for.