Author Topic: How are your bees doing? (Read 45721 times)

brooksbeefarm · « **Reply #80 on:** February 23, 2014, 12:15:09 pm »

Well i checked 42 hives yesterday and found 8 deadouts

,haven't went through them yet it was late when i got home. I seen two of them with bee poop all over the front of there hives so i'm pretty sure what happened to them.Jack

Woody Roberts · « **Reply #81 on:** February 23, 2014, 01:18:47 pm »

Rod maker
Our seasons are obviously different but what I do is just what you did. If they don't build queen cells in a couple days I combine them with another hive and start a nuc in their spot.
When bees reach a certain age they get reluctant to raise a queen. 4 or 5 suitable frames of young bees will not have any qualms.

If its too early for raising queens then I'd combine now and start the nuc when it's time.

Jen · « **Reply #82 on:** February 23, 2014, 01:38:01 pm »

Perry- ""Do you have any drones flying or soon to be?""

How would I know if I have drones flying or soon to be? would that be equivelant to drones hanging out on the porch?

G3farms · « **Reply #83 on:** February 23, 2014, 01:40:51 pm »

Jen, weather permitting of course, you can look for drone brood cells.

Ray · « **Reply #84 on:** February 23, 2014, 02:07:31 pm »

Lost one! Looks like they got stranded away from their stores. Plenty of honey just not where the bees were :-(

Bakersdozen · « **Reply #85 on:** February 23, 2014, 02:27:16 pm »

Quote from: Ray on February 23, 2014, 02:07:31 pm

Lost one! Looks like they got stranded away from their stores. Plenty of honey just not where the bees were :-(

So sad.

Jen · « **Reply #86 on:** February 23, 2014, 02:34:09 pm »

Dang! That's a lot of dead bees

G3farms · « **Reply #87 on:** February 23, 2014, 03:37:29 pm »

Dang that sure is a sad sight!

How much honey did they have left?

Slowmodem · « **Reply #88 on:** February 23, 2014, 05:08:20 pm »

Looked in the hives today. Two that I started from nucs are strong and roaring. I didn't take the inner covers off. They came out to greet me when I took the telescoping cover off.

The third one is dead. It was from a package I started last spring. Here's what I found.

On all my hives, I was determined to give them the (what I thought) was the best chance of survival: Two deeps and a medium and feed them until they couldn't take any more. All hives last fall were too heavy to lift.

The dead hive today had a medium super full of honey/syrup that weighed 50 or so pounds. There were a few dead bees on the frames, but they didn't have their head stuck down into the comb like they were starving.

The top deep weighed around 30-40 pounds. It had some honey/syrup and some empty comb. Both those boxes are now in the freezer.

The bottom deep was full of comb with some pollen and liquid (syrup or honey) (pictures below). The comb looks great to me, just empty. There were some bees on the bottom screen. I had used the screened bottom with beetle trap tray on all the hives. Dead beetles in the tray, but not much evidence of beetles in any of the comb.

I'm scratching my head on this one. Maybe the queen died? Maybe it was just a weak hive as far as numbers go? Too much honey for starvation, IMO. I had even put some sugar on top of newspaper a couple of weeks ago because I thought they might be weak (although there seemed to be lots of bees flying in and out at that time).

Or is it just one of those things?

Here's the pictures:

Bees on the bottom screen:

Some of the frames from the bottom deep:

I apologize for the quality. All I have is a phone camera.

G3farms · « **Reply #89 on:** February 23, 2014, 05:20:26 pm »

I always dig through the dead bees to try and locate the queen.

Sounds like they broke cluster on a warm day and the cold snap got them before they could recluster

Or

It was too cold for too long and the could not move as a cluster to the honey.

ablanton · « **Reply #90 on:** February 23, 2014, 06:05:50 pm »

Well, I got a chance to go through 6 of 10 hives today. Started cooling off before I could get in the other four. Some were stronger than others, but all had laying queens and I was happy with what I found.

Oh! Got my first sting of the year, too! Got popped in the left wrist, which has been aching for about a month. Curious to see if the aching goes away now.

Slowmodem · « **Reply #91 on:** February 23, 2014, 06:25:12 pm »

Quote from: G3farms on February 23, 2014, 05:20:26 pm

I always dig through the dead bees to try and locate the queen.

Sounds like they broke cluster on a warm day and the cold snap got them before they could recluster

Or

It was too cold for too long and the could not move as a cluster to the honey.

Thanks for those thoughts. I looked and did not see a queen. Maybe that's what was wrong. I thought they were ok last fall.

Well, I have comb and boxes for splits or a couple of nucs.

riverbee · « **Reply #92 on:** February 23, 2014, 08:45:58 pm »

slow, that's all the bees you found dead in that hive? how many dead bees were in that hive? a large cluster, or just what you found or are showing in the pictures?

Slowmodem · « **Reply #93 on:** February 23, 2014, 09:32:16 pm »

Quote from: riverbee on February 23, 2014, 08:45:58 pm

slow, that's all the bees you found dead in that hive? how many dead bees were in that hive? a large cluster, or just what you found or are showing in the pictures?

Just what was in the picture. I don't know if they absconded, swarmed, died, or what. There was a lot of activity week before last in that hive. And it's been cold for the most part here.

crazy8days · « **Reply #94 on:** February 23, 2014, 09:55:23 pm »

I was able to pop the lids last week and feed fondant if needed. All hives look good but one. Bees were all dead and were around the inner cover opening and bottom entrance. Kinda odd.

riverbee · « **Reply #95 on:** February 23, 2014, 10:01:31 pm »

"Just what was in the picture. I don't know if they absconded, swarmed, died, or what. There was a lot of activity week before last in that hive. And it's been cold for the most part here."

slow, if that's all the bees you found dead in that hive, the activity week before last was 'robber' bees. so that hive perished a very long time ago. hard to say what happened without a 'history' of them since you started them from last spring, could be anything, slow.

Jen · « **Reply #96 on:** February 24, 2014, 01:19:04 am »

Bummer Slow... I haven't had to deal with beetles yet, just mites. Are there mites on the bottom board?

tecumseh · « **Reply #97 on:** February 24, 2014, 06:42:24 am »

I am now onto a massive spring time splitting effort. At this time I am half way thru my second batch of 50 queens from Hawaii.

Perry · « **Reply #98 on:** February 24, 2014, 06:47:06 am »

I'm inclined to agree with riverbee. What you saw were robbers, especially if that's all the bees there were. In one picture it looks like there was a bit of brood that died as it was hatching out. Open those capped cells and see what's inside.

Slowmodem · « **Reply #99 on:** February 24, 2014, 07:46:17 am »

Quote from: riverbee on February 23, 2014, 10:01:31 pm

"Just what was in the picture. I don't know if they absconded, swarmed, died, or what. There was a lot of activity week before last in that hive. And it's been cold for the most part here."

slow, if that's all the bees you found dead in that hive, the activity week before last was 'robber' bees. so that hive perished a very long time ago. hard to say what happened without a 'history' of them since you started them from last spring, could be anything, slow.

I wondered about that too. But if it was robbers, they were dumb robbers. There's 100 lbs of capped honey in the top two boxes.