Honeybees in the South

We have had quite a few days in the last couple of weeks near 70 degrees or more. So far, I have seen 2 honeybees.
I ran into the counties biggest beekeeper Friday and asked about it. He said people are calling him from here in NW SC and N GA and when he checks their hives, bees are gone but there is still honey in a super.
What are you folks seeing in the South?
By the way, this fellow lost a lot of hives to bear last year.
Richard

I think it was March 1st and right before the cold front that brought us about an inch of sleet and a freeze but I had several honey bees working over my royal apricot blooms here in North East Texas.

Wish I could still work with bees I enjoyed it when I still could be some how 150 plus stings does funny things to a person system

Richard, I also live in NW/SC, near the Glassy Mountain area. I can't give you an answer and I don't think anyone really knows. I can tell about my neighbors bee keeping experience. I had not seen bees here for years. I think the mites killed all most all of our wild hives and the bears repopulating probably hasn't helped. My neighbor started with a single hive a couple of years ago, by last Fall he had added three more hives. Over the winter two of his broods just disappeared. Same circumstances, honey in the super but no bees. As far as the bears go, his hive area looks like a prison, totally fenced in chain link and barbed wire. He also runs an electric fencer drop from his chicken yard. I have read about something called Hive Collapse but that will leave dead bees in the hive, his had a few dead ones in it but the rest just disappeared. My neighbor is a smart fellow, an engineer that works on nuclear power plants and even he's wondering what's going on too.

I live in western nc. I went to check on my one hive I have left and the same thing happened. There were no bees not even dead ones and the hive was full of honey. Yesterday there were bees robbing the honey already. I put some swarm lure to try to get another swarm in there as well.
Joel

Mysterious disappearance of honeybees has been around since the beginning of the history of apiculture....most recently (about 2006) there has been a global phenomona that is called "Colony Collapse Disorder" where LARGE amounts of colonies just disappear....no dead bees anywhere.

This is being blamed currently on pesticide use, but nobody is quite sure what is actually causing it. There are some great videos available that you can download or buy from Amazon that, in addition to being really interesting, provide both sides of the case for pesticide use being the culprit.

I started beekeeping in 2013 and have just completed my first winter season...devastating for colonies in MI, MN and WI. I do have some colonies that have survived up to now, but many beekeepers in my area lost all their bees due to the extreme cold this year.

We need the bees for pollination....with no bees, it is estimated that 50% of everything you put on your plate will not be available.

In one of the videos, a commercial beekeeper in Arizona, lost 1000"s of colonies of bees in one area...they just up and disappeared. A good colony will have 40-50,000 bees in it.

They are a very interesting critter....

Bee Good!

Tim

Its been a rough year for Honeybees and bees and wasps of all types have dropped way down in numbers.I rarely run into Hornets or Bumble bees and their numbers aren't close to what they were
20 or 30 years ago.Its a serious situation that doesn't get as much attention as it should.

Virolla mites are the culprits killing the honeybees. So far they have not discovered a way to eliminate the mites. Various departments of agriculture across the country have been working on this problem for the last 20 years.

Here in Central Missouri, I can't get to my hog feeders for all the bees. I sat and listened for a while yesterday while a pig ate. He'd eat and grunt, then every so often let out a sharp, quick squeal, then go back to eating.

SWMBO and I just attended a beekeeping workshop in Lowville NY weekend before last. Fascinating stuff! It's been a long, long time since anyone has been able to keep my attention on one subject for 7 hours, but they did it! We're looking forward to bees one day.

There seem to be a lot less honeybees around here lately.