The Problem Index → Stock
My bees keep dying over winter
Two causes dominate, and a scale catches one of them months in advance. The other one a scale will never tell you about, and pretending otherwise is how people lose colonies twice.
What actually works
◇ Plausible
The hive scale
$25 of load cells. 60–90 lb of stores going into winter — weighing in October tells you to feed while feeding still works.
~$25 in load cells◆ Proven
Mite counts, by hand, on a schedule
A heavy hive can be loaded with varroa and doomed. The scale will not say a word about it. That's a sugar roll and a count.
◆ Proven
Bear fence if you have bears
5,000–7,000 V, bottom wire 6–8 in, fence 4 ft out from the hives, and bait the wire so first contact is nose-to-wire.
Also searched as
winter bee losses · hive starved · colony collapse winter · hive scale · beehive winter stores · feeding bees fall · bees died