1. Accidental queens.  One very strong hive, somehow lost it's queen.  Perhaps we accidently smooshed her but not sure, and they created another very strong and vigorous queen.  
2. Most years I let hives raise new queens after swarming, this year I did not split but had at least 1 hive swarm and raise a new queen
3. Not really raising them but use swarm cells to make multiple splits 

4. raised 7 queens by grafting and another 7 from swarm cells

1. Apivar in the Spring (before I knew it wasn't very effective any more)  Oxalic Sponges in August, kept on until mid October.
2. For nucs and non-production hives 3 consecutive weeks OA in April, same treatment 8/25-9/7.  For production hives, Formic in April and again in August.
3. Formic in spring before supers are added, oxalic in fall, after brood has all hatched out
4. I use drone frames in the spring and alternate formic acid with thymol every 6 to 8 week. I do splits in the spring as soon as the colonies have built up enough.
5. July:  Amitraz and Formic Pro  August:  Formic Pro  October and November:  Oxalic Vapor
6. OAE in May and July, Formic Pro in August
7. oxalic drip- spring and Oct.  Formatic acid- July
8. Splits and brood breaks in May, June, and August, OAV in June before supers, Formic Pro Sept 10-24 all hives except new combine Big Blue.  Formic pro on Big Blue 9/24-10/11.  Then OAV Oct 18, 23 and 29.

9. Varroxsan-8/7/25 4 hives  Formic Pro-2 hive 8/25/25 & 9/7/25  9/7/25 removed varroxsan and put in Apivar Life-4 hives  Oxalic Acid Dripple -10/27/25 all 5 remaining hives 

1. A few queen issues that may have been due to cold wet spring weather.  A few queens did not mate or mate well.
2. Bald brood in one colony. It lagged behind all summer, tested zero for mites all season though rebounded in the fall and bald brood decreased 
3. Bees were aggressive in all 7 hives all season, even bees that were calm last year
4. Due to the below average temperatures and wet spring, multiple swarms from single hives happened concurrently with individual colonies in June. 
5. Fall forage (both for pollen and for nectar) is poor in my location. Weaker hives are more subject to robbing.
6. Hives appeared strong, but needed feeding before closing for the winter.
7. life got in the way of monitoring/treatment
8. Many pests this year. Going to move bees this spring to see if that helps
9. More bears around than usual for my area this year…no trouble within electric fence but swarm traps were ransacked   Otherwise it was kind of a low key season, no major problems requiring intervention
10. My bees remained healthy & active, but produced less honey than usual. I suspect this was because of the drought. I harvested only once and that was in the fall.
11. One nuc expanded quickly but made little honey. Treated with Hop Gaurd in early August and Formic pro in late august. Started to feed with 2 to 1 sugar water.  If the colony makes it through the winter I will requeen in the Spring. 
12. Pesticide-Cornell bee survey team  All other observations were made during weekly hive inspections  Beltsville CLOSED
13. Poor mating of queens   Cold, rainy spring    Severe drought in the summer and fall 
14. Too many small hive beetles this year.  2 had late season swarms

15. The dry hot end of summer resulted in very low nectar/honey stores going into fall.  Hardly any capped honey in brood boxes.  For three of the six hives, I ended up consolidating to one deep and leaving them a medium full of honey on top.  Fed the other three with nectar I spun out of frames that were never capped.  I'm worried about them surviving the winter--I have not experienced this for at least the last six years.

1. 1/3 of my usual harvest. Thank goodness for golden rod
2. 170 lb/4=42.5 lb/hive. For me this is great. 
3. 170lbs for 3 hives.  Split left to themselves. Drought was hard
4. 50 pounds per hive for summer flow, fall was less, estimated at 30 - 35 pounds per hive, not all extracted yet
5. Below average this year, good basswood flow but poor spring and fall.
6. Given the drought, I am pleased with this year's harvest. Most of the hives made multiple boxes of Basswood honey and this saved my season.
7. Heavy rain in June prevented early yields. Severe drought, July thru October.
8. Poor late summer and fall crop, great early summer crop
9. They ate up most of the spring/summer honey, and didn't have time to cap much during the fall flow.  Last year I had four hives that produced about 270 pounds total.  This year I had six hives that produced only 200 total.
10. This year's honey crop was 90% of last year's crop
11. We had mite larvae in the honey.

12. We were 63# behind last year with same # of production hives. 2024: 1095# total, 2025:1032# total. Cold, wet May with no honey bees on apple or pear blossoms, our black locust blooms got frosted & we had a drought in summer.

1. I think varroa problem was very manageable this year. I have made it easier by harvesting earlier in August so that I can do my mite checks and treatments after removing supers, AND the bees keep more honey for winter so I don’t have to feed.   Suggest you could ask about hive management practices. I suspect that not a lot of people are treating and doing mite checks with supers on. It’s a lot of work. 
2. Rough summer for my bees. Hive swarmed and then numbers did not increase rapidly enough and SHB took over.

3. Bear attacks in spring 

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