Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: lilprincess on May 12, 2017, 12:21:12 pm
-
I finally had a chance to look inside my two hives today. One hive looks good but I couldn't find the queen and I saw a couple queen cells that were empty. I saw capped honey and lots of drone cells but not much else.
The other hive is dead. It look alike the caps were scraped off. Bees and larva dead in the comb. There are a few bees but I'm wondering if they are the other hive robbing this one.
This is only my second year and I'm trying my best. Any ideas? (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170512/66f009a647796765ee68087594b04600.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170512/592cf2616db965426a0b19a529bc4e8a.jpg)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
-
That looks like the hive population went down so low that they could not keep it warm enough to keep the bees from freezing. Normally with bees dead, in the cells, it is from starvation but they are in the same area as the honey.
Jim
-
Am I not seeing it right? I don't see any honey in those pictures. It looks similar to a hive of mine that died this spring. The weather warmed early and they started to build up for the spring. Then we got a week long cold spell and they ran out of food.
-
Cao,
Look all across the top area of the frame. The bees are right up against it. That tells me they did not have enough bees to keep from freezing.
Jim
-
I have to agree with Cao. That's capped brood not honey.
-
If you say so!!!
-
When I first looked at that top photograph - I've have bet money that was a seam of capped honey above the starvation area immediately below it - and that scenario puzzled me too. It was only by enlarging the top picture that I could begin to make out the numerous thinnings and small openings of the cappings from young bees beginning to emerge.
Extraordinary - I can't ever remember seeing brood cappings quite so white before. At first sight that looks just like capped honey. Full marks to Cao for having such excellent 20/20 vision !
LJ
-
Cao and LJ,
Are you using a computer or an iPhone?
I suspect a computer. I am using an iPhone. I do see what looks like a few larvae that look like they are ready to be capped. Although I'm not sure that some of them are not head in bees.
Good eyes.
Jim
-
I'm using a phone as well and there's larvae showing through all over the top of the frame. As well as head in bees.
-
Hi Jim - iPhone ? - I've never even seen one. I'm still running Windows 98 on an old coal-fired DELL ... and I've never sent a text in my life - LOL
Here's an enlargement - hope you'll be able to see it ok on your mini-screen. There are maybe 2 or 3 dozen there on the point of emerging - I've just highlighted half-a-dozen at random
(http://i64.tinypic.com/5fp3dy.jpg)
But those bees should have emerged, and then starved to death. That they didn't even get to emerge suggests severe chilling - no doubt caused by the colony's collapse due to starvation. Helluva shame.
LJ (who remembers life before transistors, let alone before computers) :smile:
-
+1 on that being brood and not honey. +1 on starvation and freezing.
-
Thanks guys. It's been a strange spring for sure. I was giving them sugar water but I guess it wasn't enough. It was the emerging larva that really confused me. Almost as if something scraped the caps off.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
-
Same here, I thought honey until yall started discussing it.
-
Thanks guys. It's been a strange spring for sure. I was giving them sugar water but I guess it wasn't enough. It was the emerging larva that really confused me. Almost as if something scraped the caps off.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
Don't worry too much about this. Bees do way more weird things than the books say and there's no way to really prepare for what a specific colony wants. We don't have crystal balls. It's easy to beat yourself up over it. Don't.
Keep trying new things. Observe and ask questions constantly. After more experience, you'll be a fine beekeeper.
-
So the next step, what do I do now with the comb? How do I get it ready for another box of bees? I May be able to get another this spring, not sure yet.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
-
I'd put them in the freezer for a few days, then into garbage bags sealed good. Next time you have bees, just put the frames in the box of an established hive and they will take care of it.
-
I'd put them in the freezer for a few days, then into garbage bags sealed good. Next time you have bees, just put the frames in the box of an established hive and they will take care of it.
They ate currently fill of dead bees and dead larva. Do I leave them in?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
-
I'd put them in the freezer for a few days, then into garbage bags sealed good. Next time you have bees, just put the frames in the box of an established hive and they will take care of it.
They ate currently fill of dead bees and dead larva. Do I leave them in?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
Yes. The bees will clean them out and make them how they want them.
-
I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it but the hive is alive! They cleaned the dead bees from the bottom and are working on cleaning the comb. I gave then a quart of sugar water again and will keep it flowing. Waiting for another warm day to open it up and see if they saved the queen or if I need to get a replacement. Incredible!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk