Contributed by Dewey Caron

This has been a mild, dry winter for our bees. Let’s hope it continues [BUT we had a saying in Vermont, my birth state, ‘When March comes in like a Lamb it goes out like a Lion!’ ]. With this mild weather, I am sure most of you have already had a look to check on winter stores. How are your colonies doing? While some beekeepers might see normal survivorship/loss levels (from survey respondents 15% is considered an acceptable loss level), others are experiencing heavier losses.

Greater survivorship will be good news. Last year, I surveyed 302 backyard beekeepers, mostly Willamette Valley individuals, but including 7 SOBA individuals. Losses were very heavy, 48% of fall colonies, up from a 41.2% loss rate of the previous year (the 7 SOBA members had a 46% loss rate). I hope to include more SOBA beekeepers this year in the survey.

At the April Bee School, I will handout a paper survey but I encourage SOBA members to submit your loss/survivorship information on line. It will only take 10-15 minutes. This year I am asking for your losses by hive type and hive origination and for a bit more information on your management, including varroa mite control (if any) activities. Access the online survey between March 16 and May 9th at the Pacific NW Annual Loss Survey (PNWals) 2015. You can also download and complete a paper survey form.

Picture by Mike Andre of BeeInformed

And please don’t neglect the BeeInformed National Survey. The Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) is a USDA/NIFA (U.S. Department of Agriculture/National Institute of Food and Agriculture) funded project. We want you to BEE INFORMED. Greater beekeeper participation means a better data base for comparison of information; last year 222 Oregon beekeepers managing 50,691 colonies provided information. The 2014 BIP survey will be available the entire month of April (as it was last year). IT IS VERY EASY AND WILL TAKE ONLY A FEW MINUTES OF YOUR TIME. If you have not yet participated, go to our website, www.beeinformed.org, click on the “Sign Up, Participate” button and sign up with your email address. You will get a reminder to fill out a survey during the April survey period.

And be sure to visit BeeInformed often to see what beekeepers, besides yourself, are doing to help reduce losses.