2011 Questionnaire to Monitor Colony Losses (COLOSS Action Group)

Dear Secretary and Beekeepers,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the beekeepers who participated in the 2009/2010 questionnaire and the secretaries who provided invaluable assistance in its dissemination.

The response last year was excellent, with approximately 22% of Irish Beekeepers participating. The estimated Winter losses during 2009/2010 was approximately 22.3%, which when compared to other participating countries was relatively high.

The perceived causes of these losses were poor queens and weak colonies. More details of the survey’s results are presented in an Article in the April edition of An Beachaire.

However, to allow for seasonal variations and other factors which may influence winter mortalities, a similar survey is being carried out this year. I am enclosing a copy of 2011 Colony Loss Questionnaire. For those of you who completed this questionnaire last year you will see that it follows a similar format.

However, this year questionnaire aims not only to quantify losses, but also identify possible causes of the losses. To make it successful, I am totally relying on your cooperation and assistance and to date this had been very forth coming.

Please find below a few points which may improve clarity and if presented on the evening the questionnaire is being disseminated, it may assist beekeepers in completing the form.

In conclusion, I would again like to reiterate my gratitude to all beekeepers for their assistance and encouragement and hopefully together we will get a good response to the 2010/2011 Colony Loss Questionnaire.

Please return the completed forms to your local secretary or to me directly at the following address:

Dr Mary F Coffey,
Teagasc,
Oakpark Research Centre,
Carlow

Regards,

Mary F

Section 1: Beekeeper Information: The completion of this section is optional and if you prefer to stay anonymous this is perfectly acceptable, just progress to the Section 2 (Essential Beekeeper Information and mortality quantification). In this section you are asked for your county of origin only.

Section 2: Essential Beekeeper Information and mortality quantification: This is a very important section and last year the only term which caused some ambiguity was ‘production colonies’. In this questionnaire “a productive colony is a colony which could be used for honey production or pollination service”.

Section 3 and 4: Calculation of Summer Losses and Identification of Risk factors: I hope the questions in this section are self explanatory.

A print version (Adobe PDF) of the COLOSS 2009 - 2010 Questionnaire is available here

If you wish to complete the Questionnaire online you can use the Word document available here. Type your answers directly into the Word document and when you have answered all the questions, save the response file and attach it to an e-mail to Dr. Mary Coffey, e-mail address:- Mary.Frances.Coffey@ul.ie