Yesterday afternoon I spent some time researching the bees problem. Trying to work out how my two hives died over this winter. I checked all the links you sent me (thank you) and these links took me to other links, I made notes and collated information and a miserable picture has appeared. After playing colour by numbers for a few hours I came to this preliminary conclusion. It was my fault. And it seems I am not alone this year.
I think it went like this. A long hot very dry summer caused a shortage of flowers, even the clover in the fields gave up early on. By September the hives had two full supers of honey each and strength in numbers, big numbers but no flowers at all by then.
The beautiful warm autumn was also long, but food was scarce so the bees began to eat their own honey much earlier than usual. 
I fed sugar water for a while but I really try not to. (I don’t believe refined sugar is good for their overall health.) So once it became cold I stopped. Mistake number one.
Anyway winter came after a while and we plummeted and rose and plummeted and rose and then rose some more then plummeted to ungodly cold then rose again until very warm and then plummeted again .. and still I did not feed them. Mistake number Two. Well you get the picture. 
I did not check to make sure they were close to their own honey. Sometimes for no reason they will die of starvation only inches from a full super. So the bees will have joined into their ball to get warm, pulled apart when the weather warmed up, huddled together to get warm again, then pulled apart again. And every time it got cold it was so fast that bees who had pulled away got lost and froze to death. 
Thousands of them. Why they did not move up to the honey is a mystery. But they died in the first half of the winter. If their Queen died early on often this would have exacerbated their problems.
And in both hives I have found the majority of dead bees clustered over empty frames. 
Human error. I should have checked them in each of those warm spells and considered feeding more, I usually only start feeding again in February/ March. I was too late this year. 
So far this is where my research is pointing me. I stumbled and they fell. But I have learned an important lesson and if I am able to buy two more colonies I will be more liberal with supplement feeding especially in any winter that has such frequent warm spells and such terrible cold on its heels.
There is no sign of disease or intruders. Everything smells sweet. Mites could have been a problem but my tests did not show any during the summer. So most all the signs point to human error compounded by bad bee weather.
My job now is to take the hives apart, scrape them and clean them, saving the honey. I shall dry them in the sun and cold. When I am sure they are spotless I shall reassemble the hives and introduce two new colonies in May. I have some work ahead of me. Ah well.
One thing I know for sure is that failures are the best learning experiences as long as we can look our failures in the eye and say: my fault. If I do not own the problem I cannot fix it. The misery is that two colonies of bees died to teach me to be more vigilant in the winter.
Of course, I am always grateful for any help and advice. There is a wealth of experience and knowledge within the farmy readership. So do speak up if you think I am missing something.
Soon it will be dawn and off to work I will go trying to grow our own food and trying to live a self sufficient life in a sustainable manner using organic methods. It is a challenge.
I hope you all have a lovely day. Do you think my new header is too bright? I am getting desperate for colour. I bet most of you are too.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
84 responses to “Human Error Kills Bees”
I’m so sorry about the bees. That is awfully bad luck. What a difficult lesson. At least you have worked out what caused it so you know what to do in future xx
Hmmm, let me see–do *you* think *I* would object to a lot of color in the new header??? 😉
Sad about the bees, but that’s nature for you, with or without human participation. I’m grateful it doesn’t seem likely there was any infectious agent that would affect any of the other creatures. Be well, you and all of yours! xo
I love your new header, c.. you’re the second blogger I’ve met who’s changed headers (I did as well). It’s these lackluster, cloudy days I think. I feel bad for the colonies, but worse for you because I know your heart is sad to think you might have had anything to do with their demise. Still, our weather patterns are so unusual and unpredictable, it would be difficult to run all of the different aspects of a farm(y), never mind working out the details of bee colonies. You’ll triumph this year, I’m sure of it! xx
Sorry you lost all your bees I have a neighbor who is so into his bees and knows EVERYTHING if you need him yell he is on my FB list 🙂
Loved your photos too
He went away to FL for 6 or 8 weeks I noticed he surrounded his hives in that think insulation to block the wind and cold I suppose I know he had over 200 pounds of gooey goodness last season I add just a bit to afternoon pick me up tea got to watch my POINTS but it is so good and they visit my clover and wildflowers so I help in a little way to make it delish 🙂
Have a great February and don’t fret Mother Nature is having a hard time keeping them alive as well with nasty poison and seed companies and our Wild Weather
So sorry, Celi, to read this but I knew that you would find out what caused the loss of your bees. I’m sure you won’t allow this to happen again — and I cannot wait to read of your trip the the Post Office to pick up your new bees. 🙂
Your new header is perfect for this time of year. We need to see some real color.
Oh, crud. I am sad along with you. All those lovely buzzing bees! And that wonderful bee picture of yours of a bee on the marbles. Bother.
Hindsight is always clear. And I love the header. 🙂
I am so sorry to hear that you lost your bees, Celi. I know you will try again in the spring.
Oh I’m so sorry to read about the loss of your bees. Live and learn as they say. Human error is rough, but you thought you were doing what was best and now you know a different way to do it.
I have no doubt you will take the lessons learned and your new colonies will thrive. Like you said, as long as we own up to our mistakes and make a move toward changing things, we’re doing our best. The new header is fabulous! My favorite.
Good on you for facing up to the problem, and being prepared to learn from it. You will never make that mistake again. The good news is that it wasn’t mites or disease. Human error is more easily corrected.
I love hearing stories from my sister that follows your blog so now I am going to follow your blog as well. Also I love your peacock he is very beautiful 🙂
Celi, I immediately thought of you and your poor cold bees when I saw this – did you see this beautiful bee house? http://letterfrombritain.com/2013/02/09/quiz/
Glad you found the bee problem. Don’t be too hard on yourself, you were just showing your human side. Love your new header, no it is not too bright.
That’s sad, but I’m glad you worked out what happened and it’s not due to the general, rather scary bee problem that’s going on. If these bees had been wild, what would have happened? Or were these kinds of bees never wild but reliant on human intervention?