Bees - Follow up

The sun was shining this morning, the wind had calmed down and the chill was out of the air so hubby and I went up to find out once and for all what was going on.  I want to thank Jen from  The Domestik Goddess  for her comment on my previous bee post  and her subsequent advice and help when I emailed her.  The kindness of strangers takes on a new meaning in the blogging world.

We took the opportunity to open both hives and the good news is that the queen is definitely in the strong hive - we found her - and there was evidence in the form of easily visible larvae that she is laying.  There were very little honey stores - the bees store honey in the frames and consume it as they need - but the fondant icing which I put there earlier in the winter has hardly been touched.  We know they are out flying and bringing in lots of pollen and the Oil Seed Rape crops are flowering in our area.  It isn't time yet to put on a super - a super is a second box with smaller frames which goes on top of the main brood box and this is where the bees put the surplus honey; in other words OUR honey! - but it seems, at least, that all is well.

The bad news, albeit not unexpected, is that the second hive is definitely no more.  It had plenty of bees from the first hive in there "robbing" whatever was left in the way of stores and honey and I can only say they've done a remarkably good job of emptying it out.  So we left it open and will go up later to collect the hive and the frames - we tried to brush the bees off but there always more to take their place so we decided to leave them to it.  Our consolation, and it's not much, is that the colony that died was the very aggressive colony so at least we no longer have that to contend with.  The remaining bees are so docile you can stroke them!

Our concern now is why did that colony die?  It has always been the weaker of the two and I am fairly sure that the problems started with my beginner's clumsiness.  I suspect that it just never recovered.  If that's the case then we can learn from our lesson and move on.  If, however, it was because of disease then the worry is that the remaining hive will be diseased also.  I don't think there is anything we can do other than wait and see.

Comments

[Jean]

I'll try the plastic - thanks Rebecca. At the moment though I am feeding them and I'm not sure I can do the plastic with the (rather basic!) feeding system I have.
I am certainly saving the frames. Three are of no use at all as they are SO old - the bees were delivered on them and I guess the beeman wasn't giving me his newest frames! The others are in good nick and mostly drawn out. In the meantime the bees have found where we put the frames and are busy enjoying the fruits of their ex-neighbours!

[Jen / domestika]

Well, I'm glad you have some good news there, anyway. This is a great example of why it's good to begin beekeeping with 2 hives! It's entirely possible that your queen simply didn't overwinter, and once the bees start flying in the spring it can only take a few hours for a hive to get robbed out.

Concentrate now on the health & well-being of your remaining hive, and think about making a split if/when it's strong enough. It's so exciting to raise your own queen! And that will get you back to two hives by the time you're looking at another winter.

Rebecca's tip about the plastic wrap is a brilliant one (I'm going to steal that!) - as the old saying goes, "It takes heat to make bees" so the more you can conserve heat in the hive, the better off they'll be.

There's another consolation here, too - save those drawn-out frames from the robbed hive, and you can give them to the bees when they're ready for another super: it takes an amazing amount of food energy for bees to make wax, so if you can save them the trouble of drawing out new foundation, they'll produce more honey with less stress and strain!

Do keep posting updates (and pictures? I love pictures!) - I'll be rooting for you! Beekeepers of the world must stick together... :)

[Rebecca (Sallygardens Smallholding)]

As you know I've about as much bee experience as yourself, but at our recent meeting we were told to watch v carefully this time of year as feeding may be necessary. Our training officer gave a fab tip ... put a square of clear plastic over the top bars, this means you can inspect without removing it thus conserving heat and keeping the bees calm, or peel back plastic bar by bar. Shine a torch down to check stores. If low take a large jar (gherkins for eg), fill half with sugar, top up with water. Shake. Use a nail to bash 30 holes in the lid, punching the inside of the lid so holes open outwards. Put this under a brood body over the bees for emergency winter feeding until spring flow starts.
On a hot sunny day you could look at some frames. Sometimes if they are empty of honey the bees won't move to outer full frames for food so you'd need to swap a full frame to beside the cluster.

Also your bees could have died from any of the diseases ... did you get them tested for acharine? I didn't but will from now on. This can cause death in spring build up, or it can result in nosema which will also kill in spring as they emerge from winter dormancy.

So much to learn my head is buzzing!