Inactive hive-what could problem be?

[bron]

I have a 6 month old hive, live in hot Alice Springs. Noticed very little activity around the opening of the hive, so opened it up. Inside the bees were busy, but absolutely no capped combs or honey. have recently cleared hive of wax moth- found no evidence of a reoccurance. Bees have water source close by. we have experienced a very hot and dry summer. I put some sugar syrup out on top of hive, but have seen very little, if any bees attracted to it. I didn't see queen bee when opening hive- but didnt want to open it for long-what action should I take now? what could be wrong? would it just be the heat??? cheers!

[Kathyp]

but didnt want to open it for long

was there a reason for this?  until you get in there, you will only be guessing.  

oh...and if you want to send some pictures for us to look at and maybe help, that would be great.  we are board on this side of the pond anyway.   :evil:  because you only have a few posts, you'll have to send them to a moderator for posting, but it usually doesn't take to long....

[Michael Bush]

If you had wax moth issues recently, then the colony was weak then.  It takes a while to recover, assuming they are on the road to recovery...

[Finski]

.
One possibility is that hive swarmed. That drops the activity very low.
But it is easy to see if there is queen cells.

You need not to see the queen if you see all age of larvae and eggs.

[hardwood]

They may not have sufficient population to grow...at least not rapidly. If you have other hives add a frame of emerging brood to turn them around.

Scott

[kanga]

When you opened the hive was there any brood present, this would give some indication re the presence of a queen. When looking for the queen I find it a lot easier if I use the minimum amount of smoke, usually a little in the front and a little when I lift the lid.

As for feeding starving bees, "absolutely no capped combs or honey", there is a good article written by the DPI in Victoria "Feeding Honey Bee Colonies to Prevent Starvation" that may be of some assistance. I am not able to post the link due to my limited number of posts, but if you do a search on Google for (Honey Bees DPI - you will locate a site from the Victoria DPI and if you scroll down you will find the above publication).

Hope everything works out okay for you.

Kevin

[bron]

Thank you one and all,

I have put some sugar syrup inside the hive in a bag with holes and on top in inverted bottles- and bees appear more active. I am thinking maybe they did swarm because I cannot see queen- but some one did say that if she has not laid any eggs and hive was potentially on survival mode due to extreme heat/pending starvation the queens abdomen would have shrunk considerably and she would be much harder to find.... Do I now buy a new queen?? There is NO capped combs.

[kanga]

Before thinking about introducing a new queen you need to establish if there is an existing queen.

As advised by scott, if you have another hive it would be  good idea to add a frame of emerging brood. Generally speaking when introducing a queen to an existing hive you do so by placing the queen cage as close as possible to merging brood so that there are mainly young/nurse bees around. This would give the introduced queen the greatest chance of survival.

If there is no brood in the hive (capped or uncapped) then I do not believe it would be a suitable environment to go introducing a new queen.

Kevin

[Lone]

Hello Bron,

Did you check for eggs or just capped brood?  Eggs are the first thing I look for if I query an absent queen.  Capped brood is a bit older and she may have disappeared in the interim.  How much pollen are they bringing in?

I'd agree with kanga that introducing a frame of emerging brood will be good to boost numbers, but I'd make sure there were eggs in the frame so the hive can make another queen if they don't already have one.  If available, then add 2 such frames.  Different stages of brood will ensure new bees over a longer period of time.  I'd then shut the hive for about a month then check again for eggs.  Repeat this process if it didn't work! I had to do this recently.  After a while the only bees left were from the introduced frames, but the second time I added eggs they did make their own queen.  If this is your only hive then hopefully you can find another beekeeper who will help you out.

If getting too weak then reduce size also to a single.  Feeding certainly won't hurt.  Just be wary of buying a queen in case you do have a queen after all.

Are you in the town?  If bees have to live on red dust I bet they'd be a little hungry  :)  But I bet they are the only bees you ever saw that can play the digeridoo.

Lone

[Lone]

Addit..re the heat..it gets pretty hot here and bees tend to work the cooler ends of the day.  Heat/dry might affect what is flowering and how much nectar it contains but it shouldn't affect ability to forage too much. Stronger the hive, the greater foraging range and strength and they are more able to find anything that is out there. Like Scott said, there is that population hump a hive needs to get over before it can devote bees to do the foraging work.  You can go round in circles..not bringing in much, queen stops laying because of this, population drops, leads to less foraging and not bringing in much...But there could be many reasons for the hive to get this way..eg poor queen, post swarm, disease etc.  Are they italians?  They cope with heat pretty well here. 

Lone

[bron]

Thank you one and all, read DPI doc on supplementing bees Kevin- yes- great doc-thanks. It is certainly a 'learn as you go' this bee keeping business! I will open hive soon- have had a week of feeding on sugar syrup and getting more and more active so at least now I know they are not starving.Would like to report back after opening and seek your fab advice with more knowledge of what I need to be looking for. Lone, when you say 'reduce size to a single' do you mean take top super off??

thanks again, Bron

[Lone]

Lone, when you say 'reduce size to a single' do you mean take top super off??

Yes.  Until they build up strength.