Autopsy 1 – Italian

My Italian hive had survived the winter of 2014-15, but didn’t make it through this last winter, dying late February. They had worked their way from the bottom box to the top of the top box and didn’t move from there, even though there was plenty of honey stores around them.  As you can see the cluster was about the size of a softball and they could have died due to their population size and their inability to keep the colony and queen warm.

Just below them is capped brood and perhaps with our teeter-totter of a winter, where it went from warm to cold and back again, the Italians began brood rearing.  When this happens the cluster will not move from the brood for food.

Within this small cluster I found the queen, frozen in time.

As shown in the frame below, I found evidence of varroa mite feces. The white specs found lining the cells are from the mites. I treated this hive late in the fall with OAV, 2 times in August and 1 time in Sept, with one week intervals between. I find that even after treating, a very populous hive will struggle with mites.  I believe I might need more experience with using the OAV method.

Observations:

1. The colony was unable to reach the honey around them
2. They may have started brood rearing during late December/ early Jan, which would of caused them to not leave the brood area
3. Varroa mites may have weakened the hive.
4. It appears to me that they became small due to Varroa, they reached the top of the box and were unable to move to honey, thus ultimately starving to death.

My plan from this analysis is

1. to research more on using the OAV method, and to figure out a good method for determining it’s effectiveness.
2. consider adding a medium super of honey to each hive.

Have you had success with using OAV?  What process do you follow to determine if it is effective?  Do you retreat again in December or January?

Would love to hear from you!

~ May all your wandering take you to many wonderful places!