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I believe the members of the Minnesota Honey Producers Association since 1907 would respectfully disagree.
I am not so sure, my mentor belongs to that. He actually killed his bees last fall. He said they survive once every 7 years and it was cheaper to buy the new bees. He got to have 50 pounds of honey, I got none.
My brother in law has 5 hives. He as had them for 7-9 years ( my guess). He makes it over winter with about half. This year he lost them all early. He thinks he had colony collapse disorder because he lost his hives in November.
He also has a lot of trouble with mites. However, he uses purely local over wintered nucs. He has a 85 year guy near him that has had bees forever. They never go south. He loses some but he makes nucs for a few people in the spring.
I am looking for over wintered local bees with no luck. My bees came from California through a local bee shop.
Read this; https://www.beepods.com/113957-2/
It says just what I thought about being too cold to break cluster.
I had Saskatraz bees which are suppose to be mite resistant. I did not have any mites when I checked using the sticky boards 3 times this summer. The bottom of my hives are screened during the summer.
Looking at the picture I posted you can see capped honey mixed in with the dead bees. I am going with the extended nature of the 20 below temps did them in.
I am thinking of a heater next year in each hive with a limiter thermostat, if the hive hits 70 degrees inside it shuts off. I know they keep it around 95. But I don’t want them to break cluster. And the thermostat will not be in the cluster.
My thoughts right now.
Edited to add: the stores were running low but they were not out yet. They only needed a few more weeks and I could have started feeding them.
