New beekeeper with problems

[Butteredloins]

Hi Everyone
Long story some what short, always wanted to keep bees and have done tonnes of reading and research. Finally got some bees about 4 weeks ago. After getting a nucleus box with 5 frames in it. I placed them in my single 10 frame hive box. After letting them settle for 1-2 weeks I wanted to do a full inspection to see how things are going. Staright away I saw mummies outside the front of the hive and knew I had chalkbrood. I checked the frames and the laying pattern was scattered and patchy. After reading a few websites and my books I decided to place a banana sliced in there and kill the queen and replace her with a young hygienic queen. Right after this about three days later I found a whole bunch of bees dead outside the front of the hive and discovered they had been poisoned due to my next door neighbour spraying lantana. I don't know what to do. My hive was already weak due to being new and having chalkbrood and now to be hit with this. I have given them sugar water which attracted other bees and it was a free for all. I don't want to open the hive because I want the new queen to be released from her cage and settle in. Any ideas of where to go from here.

[BeeMaster2]

Do nothing. Let the bees be bees. If there are enough bees to cover the drawn comb they will probably be fine.
Jim

[Acebird]

You have to speak to your neighbor or you can't have bees there.

[Butteredloins]

My neighbour unfortunately doesn't have a phone, so can't tell me when he sprays, but he will only spray twice a year. Surely there is enough lantana else where that they can forage, maybe they were just on his unfortunately at the wrong time.

[beepro]

You can try to move the bee hive to another location away from the poison spray.
You can also give your neighbor an organic spray that is harmless to your bees.
First you have to know what he is spraying for. 
In the current situation it is best to just move the hive if you can.  This will allow them
more time to recover from the poison and chalk broods.   Also, don't feed them syrup because
it will cause robbing.  Instead, give them the sugar bricks or dry sugar.  I  made sugar bricks for
them in the early Spring time build up.   If I feed them syrup then I will only give them enough in
the night time so that by daylight hours the jar is already empty.   No extra syrup to cause any robbing.  If
possible you can even give them a frame or 2 of bees from another hive since the queen is still inside her cage.

[Butteredloins]

Don't have another hive at this point, so can't give them extra brood. Cant move the hive either, besides on my property which will still give them access to my heights place even though he is 2-3km away. He is just spraying lantana so am presuming he's just using roundup (glusulphate).

Does dry sugar a actually recipe or you just pour white sugar inside the hive ?

[BeeMaster2]

You can do either one. If you pour it in the hive, put a piece of newspaper down then the sugar and a little bit of water to get it to cake.
You can add a little bit of water to sugar, mold it to a patty and put it directly on the top boards.
Jim

[Acebird]

He is just spraying lantana so am presuming he's just using roundup (glusulphate).

Round up that far away should not be a problem.  If it is poison is must be something else at a time flowers are present.  I would guess seven.

[Butteredloins]

I've got a top feeder coming so hopefully that will help when I need to use it. Leaving the bees alone for now, I'll do a thorough inspection this weekend to see if they have accepted the new queen, and to see how things are going. I saw a hive nettle at the entrance of the hive though. So that's going to be another hit for them. But going to install traps this weekend same time. Hopefully all goes well.

[beepro]

I have almost 100 lbs. of sugar bricks made early last winter.  Both the loose sugar and sugar bricks they will take when
brooding up.

For the loose sugar I just poured it inside the hive on the solid bottom board where the frames have contact with the sugar.
I did not use newspaper or water.   My bottom board is clean enough and the hive moisture is too high (from the rains) that will dampen the
loose sugar.  Bees like dry hive than a high moisture hive.  So the loose sugar is helping them along fine.

As for the sugar bricks, I mixed in 50/50 water and ACV (organic apple cider vinegar) in a spray bottle.  I use a powder machine to
grind down the loose sugar into fine powder first.    Then put layers in a shallow 2" aluminum pan alternating with a layer of powder and wet
mixture spray just enough to dampen the powder.    No need to pack them in.   Then use a pizza cutter to cube them into 3x4" bricks while they're still
in the pan.   The final step is to put the pan inside the oven at low heat.  Over night the sugar bricks are ready to use though still a bit damp.  The bees
don't mind that.   
For long term storage I have them out of oven into a small fridge homemade dehydrator.   After 2-3 days on slow gentle circular air and heat at 90F they are fully cured and ready for storage.   This is how it is possible to make up 100 lbs. ahead of time when there is nothing to do in the winter time.   Good for emergency feeding!

[yes2matt]

I've got a top feeder coming so hopefully that will help when I need to use it. Leaving the bees alone for now, I'll do a thorough inspection this weekend to see if they have accepted the new queen, and to see how things are going. I saw a hive nettle at the entrance of the hive though. So that's going to be another hit for them. But going to install traps this weekend same time. Hopefully all goes well.

When you do this inspection, keep your phone/camera handy. A picture is worth a thousand words, especially in this forum. ;)

A pesticide kill is usually indicated by a pile of dead bees on the bottom board and in front of the hive.

Sent from my SM-J327P using Tapatalk

[Butteredloins]

Thanks for the recipe beepro. I have done the full inspection, but didn't take photos sorry forgot. Things were looking better more bee activity coming in and out. They were starting to build comb on the second to last frame from the end so they are slowly getting there (10frame hive). They have accepted the new queen I put in there. There was very little capped brood and it was very patchy but it looks like it was still from the old queen. Because I can see loads of new larve curled at the bottom of cells but the haven't been capped yet. Which tells me the new queen must be laying and looks to be in a good pattern. I opened up to exposure the bottom board but there were no dead bees just some crumbs of wood it looks like near the entrance in the corner. Also the whole front panel of the hive seems blackish with mould is this normal. The whole hive looks brand new just the front inside panel. I have the hive tilted forward so I can see that's where the moisture will go but just looks strange.otherwise no more chalkbrood evident. And I trimmed some trees so they get sun from 7am to 4pm. Which should be plenty.

Should I install this circle hive lid vent I have or leave it. Because just worried about winter coming don't want to much air flow. Also no more dead bees in front since that incident because I covered them with dirt that day and no more were found on top. Should I just feed them 1:1 sugar water untill they finish building comb on all frames or longer. Just thinking because winter is approaching?

Thanks for all the help.

[Bamboo]

Right after this about three days later I found a whole bunch of bees dead outside the front of the hive and discovered they had been poisoned due to my next door neighbour spraying lantana. I don't know what to do.

Butteredloins I don't think your bee kill was caused by your neighbour spraying Roundup, it is glyphosate which is a herbicide not a pesticide. Glyphosate does not kill bees. At worst one study found that it may affect the neuro system which would impair their ability to fly back to the hive.

[BeeMaster2]

If he only sprayed Roundup I agree with Bamboo. If he or another neighbor also sprayed a poison they your bees got into at the same time, the results can be devastating. Thousands of hives were in the almond or horde were killed last year when a worker mixed the 2 together and sprayed while the bees were still on site. It took 2 weeks for the hives to die.
Jim

[beepro]

Mold is a signal of high moisture inside the hive.  Give it more ventilation so the high moisture will not drip back to kill your bees during the winter time.  You need better ventilation for sure.  Don't put the circle disc yet until you've solve the high moisture problem.   Using a disc will restrict the air flow.

How many months before the real winter time?   For Autumn feeding before the winter, you need to give them 2:1 not 1:1 syrup.   This is because the 2:1 will be cap faster which will further reduced the high moisture inside your hive.   We're officially in the Spring time but still cold and rainy at times here.  Over this winter I did not get any mold inside my hive because the 100 watt ceramic bulb dry out the hive moisture.  A high moisture will also contribute to the chalk brood situation before.  This will usually happen in the early Spring time build up (or rainy Fall time) but as the weather warm up more the chalk brood issue will disappear.  The chalk brood situation will also help kill many of the varroa mites if you have them there.  Then requeen with better chalk brood resistant genetics later on.  Keeps the mite level down to not interfere with the Spring/Autumn build up.