On a cold sunny afternoon we had an excellent turn out of 20 people for our first Apiary meeting of the year, all showing an interest on how our bees have faired over the very cold winter.
We went into winter with 5 hives –
Hives 2 & 4 are on Nationals Brood Boxes Hives 6 & 7 are on 14x12 Brood Boxes Hive 3 National (Double Brood Boxes)
As it was so cold no bees were flying. The varroa trays were taken out so that the mites could be counted – all showed debris and a few mites, except for Hive 3 – the tray was empty which caused concern - the Hive was opened up and all the bees were dead clinging to the frames in the bottom brood box – after a thorough inspection it was decided that this Colony of bees died of Isolation Starvation - bees die surrounded by an area of empty comb, seemingly unable to cross over to neighbouring combs or areas of comb that still contain stores. This Colony had plenty of stores in the super below the brood box – the brood box where the bees were found (in the outer frames only) and the brood box above was full – giving the beekeeper a false impression on what was really going on in hive itself by hefting the hive. It cannot be stressed enough if you have a hive that has died to do a post mortem on the bees before dismantling the hive for disease control measures to commence.
The varroa trays had been put into open mesh floors the previous Saturday giving 7 days of mite drop – we were pleasantly surprised that all the hives were showing well under 2 mites a day (which is the recommended guide for action if over this number for this time of the year) – but in saying that the weather is still very cold which means the bees are not so active to make the mites drop off – so monitoring will continue on a monthly basis.
As the cold weather is destined to continue for a few more weeks we decided to give each Colony a Kilo of Fondant just in case they get short of winter stores. Hopefully see you all again at the next Apiary Meeting on Saturday 3rd April 2010 at 1430hrs - when we intend to open up all the hives for a good assessment of the bees – plus tea and cakes!!
Thanks to Carole Brown for sending through this report.
16 September at 1930
07/03 : Saturday 6th March 2010 Apiary Meeting
We went into winter with 5 hives –
Hives 2 & 4 are on Nationals Brood Boxes
Hives 6 & 7 are on 14x12 Brood Boxes
Hive 3 National (Double Brood Boxes)
As it was so cold no bees were flying. The varroa trays were taken out so that the mites could be counted – all showed debris and a few mites, except for Hive 3 – the tray was empty which caused concern - the Hive was opened up and all the bees were dead clinging to the frames in the bottom brood box – after a thorough inspection it was decided that this Colony of bees died of Isolation Starvation - bees die surrounded by an area of empty comb, seemingly unable to cross over to neighbouring combs or areas of comb that still contain stores. This Colony had plenty of stores in the super below the brood box – the brood box where the bees were found (in the outer frames only) and the brood box above was full – giving the beekeeper a false impression on what was really going on in hive itself by hefting the hive. It cannot be stressed enough if you have a hive that has died to do a post mortem on the bees before dismantling the hive for disease control measures to commence.
The varroa trays had been put into open mesh floors the previous Saturday giving 7 days of mite drop – we were pleasantly surprised that all the hives were showing well under 2 mites a day (which is the recommended guide for action if over this number for this time of the year) – but in saying that the weather is still very cold which means the bees are not so active to make the mites drop off – so monitoring will continue on a monthly basis.
As the cold weather is destined to continue for a few more weeks we decided to give each Colony a Kilo of Fondant just in case they get short of winter stores.
Hopefully see you all again at the next Apiary Meeting on Saturday 3rd April 2010 at 1430hrs - when we intend to open up all the hives for a good assessment of the bees – plus tea and cakes!!
Thanks to Carole Brown for sending through this report.