Welcome, Guest
Login or Register
Home
« previous next »
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Large decline in bee's  (Read 1790 times)

Offline Aubrae Alt

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 8
  • Gender: Female
Large decline in bee's
« on: July 22, 2018, 12:56:15 am »
I am a new beekeeper and I am looking for some advice. I have got 2 nuc's this spring. The first one seems to be thriving full of honey and some brood but more honey and pollen than brood. But tons of bee's. While the other one does not seem to be keeping up with worker bees. We have noticed a decline in bees for the last couple of weeks. We did a have inspection one week ago and saw several stages of brood. So we thought they had a break in brood cycle from all the rain. We did another have inspection yesterday and the bees seem to keep getting less. In June the hive was doing good and we added a second deep. They filled it out and then the decline. Right now they have part one frame in the larva stage and very little capped. They seem to have plenty of honey stores in there though. Any thoughts? I'm afraid they are not going to make it being so week. I ended up condensing them to one brood box because two was too much space with to little bee's.  Any and all advice welcome. Thank you!
Logged

Offline BeeMaster2

  • Administrator
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 13532
  • Gender: Male
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2018, 06:21:31 am »
Welcome to Beemaster.
It sounds like your Flow has stopped and the queen is shutting down during the death. If there is no nectar coming in, that is a good thing.
Jim
Logged
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline G3farms

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 1598
  • Gender: Male
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2018, 09:31:56 am »
Welcome to Beemaster,
The bees could be drifting from the weak hive to the other hive making it look like it is booming.
Are the hives sitting next to each other?

When you did your combine, did you find the queen in the weak hive and pinch her?

How did you do your combine, newspaper?

The brood you saw in the weak hive, was it worker or drone?

Are things still blooming good in your area?
Logged
those hot bees will have you steppin and a fetchin like your heads on fire and your keister is a catchin!!!

Bees will be bees and do as they please!

Offline Aubrae Alt

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 8
  • Gender: Female
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2018, 10:50:40 am »
Yes my hives are right next to each other. We live in Montana and I have to fence for bears so I put them together. Is this a bad thing? We are having another bloom starting but the first one is definitely dying. I did not combine hive I just condensed from two brood boxes to one. They have so few bees I didn't think they could keep the brood warm (our night are around 50 degrees) or defend the hive in such small numbers. I didn't do anything with the queen. Should she be replaced? All the brood seems to be worker. 
Logged

Offline cao

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 1692
  • Gender: Male
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2018, 12:22:00 pm »
Welcome.  :happy:

Having the hives together is normally not a problem.  If there is drift to one hive then that might be a sign that one queen is not doing as well as the other.  Remember that no two hives will act the same.  If you are worried about the difference in bee numbers then you could pull a frame of brood(preferably capped) from the strong hive and put it in the weaker one.  Just make sure that the queen is not on that frame.
Logged

Offline Aubrae Alt

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 8
  • Gender: Female
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2018, 01:32:59 pm »
Thank you for the info. Maybe I need to re queen this hive. As a new beekeeper my observation is that she has not layed well from the beginning, but again I'm new. Her laying pattern is not as consistent as the other hive. I will try moving a frame from the stronger hive. Thank you again for your help.
Logged

Offline Bush_84

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 813
  • Gender: Male
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2018, 09:23:21 pm »
One thing I wanted to confirm. They have gradually dwindled or did they suddenly seem to drop?  Seems that this is either a swarming issue or queen issue.
Logged
Keeping bees since 2011.

Also please excuse the typos.  My iPad autocorrect can be brutal.

Offline Aubrae Alt

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 8
  • Gender: Female
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2018, 11:52:07 pm »
They definitely have gradually dwindled. When we would do hive checks she was laying way less.
Logged

Offline Hops Brewster

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 724
  • Gender: Male
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2018, 12:28:46 pm »
What does the brood pattern look like?  Is it a good, solid mass of various stages of brood (albeit a small mass)?  Or is it spotty, with lots of empty brood cells.  Are you seeing any dead larvae outside of the hive?  are you seeing any dead, black dry larvae in the cells?  Are you seeing any light colored frass in the cells?  Sunken cell caps?  Partially open cell caps?
Have you treated for mites?

Pictures please.
Logged
Winter is coming.

I can't say I hate the government, but I am proudly distrustful of them.

Offline Aubrae Alt

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 8
  • Gender: Female
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #9 on: July 24, 2018, 11:19:38 am »
The brood pattern is spotty. There is larger larvae mixed with smaller larvae sporadically on a frame. There are not many empty cells they have filled most of them with  pollen and nectar. But there are 4 empty frames not even drawn out. I will take pictures today. There has been no dead black larvea in the hive or dead larva outside the hive. I just learned about the light frass on the cells so I'm not sure if that yet. I will check today. No sunken cell caps that I noticed either. I found only one partially open cell caps. I did treat for mites early spring. I do not see any on my screened bottom boards. And there seems to be no drone cells present in the hive right now. I will post pictures later today of the frames. Thank you!
Logged

Offline Aubrae Alt

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 8
  • Gender: Female
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #10 on: July 24, 2018, 03:50:37 pm »
Here are some pictures of my frames!
Logged

Offline Aubrae Alt

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 8
  • Gender: Female
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #11 on: July 24, 2018, 03:51:57 pm »
More pictures.
Logged

Offline fadder

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 18
  • Gender: Male
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #12 on: July 24, 2018, 09:35:02 pm »
Are you certain that there is even a queen in that hive.
Logged
Some days it aint worth chewing through the restraints.

Offline Aubrae Alt

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 8
  • Gender: Female
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #13 on: July 24, 2018, 10:51:15 pm »
Yes we found her again today. We went ahead and re-queened the hive. And added a couple brood frames from another hive. We will see where this takes us.
Logged

Offline BeeMaster2

  • Administrator
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 13532
  • Gender: Male
Re: Large decline in bee's
« Reply #14 on: July 24, 2018, 11:42:01 pm »
If that is all of the bees in that hive, they were really weak and in trouble. Adding a frame of bees was a good move. They need it.
Jim
Logged
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin
Pages: [1]   Go Up
« previous next »