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Winter Loss & Making Increases

After checking all of our colonies we found about a 50% loss which is fairly high. Before we had problems with mites the typical loss was 10 to 20%.

We will replace most of these colonies by "splitting" them - by taking strong colonies , splitting them in half and make sure each colony has a queen.

We will very soon start raising new queens for our new splits. More info.....

 

In the spring weak colonies are made stronger by taking frames of brood from strong colonies & given to the weak ones. This also helps to prevent swarming which is sometimes caused by colonies being too big and crowded.
More pictures.....

Related articles:
A Year in the Beeyards
Installing Package Bees
From Flower to Flame

South Eastern Michigan Beekeepers Association