Q- One of the hives I had going into fall I did not expect to make it. It was a late structural – a way to account for this would be good.
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A – Thank you for filling our a survey. Appreciate the input. You had comment regarding why your late colony start from a cut out survived. Just as we often can’t diagnose reason for a colony loss we may not be able to explain why another survives against what are surely great odds of it not having much chance to survive. It was a mild winter and that helped – our loss rate right now is running about 50% lower than last winter (i.e. double the survival rate of last winter). It was lucky I guess. Other than that I really don’t know. Sorry I can’t offer a better guess.
In our survey this year we do have a section on origination of colonies that are overwintered. You would be able to indicate it there and to record the survival