If it has two (or more) queens have no inhibition about splitting them. I have done that without any harm done, indeed a year later had two very thriving colonies that I split again.
Thanks Zoe
I have mummified brood and lots of dead Bees with a handful of live Bees on the frames. Yes, I can cut out the wax, so will clean frames and re-use. It is possible I can split one of my other colonies, but it is only a year old and I was thinking it may be too young a colony to do that.
Hello Alan,
Are you saying it's inside the hive and that your frames are full of mummies, or that you've been seeing dead larvae outside? I suppose if thr queen is not in, you'd need to requeen, but I'd change the frames and let them start fresh.
Cleaning up all those frames wastes their energy. Also, have you a way of cutting the affected wax out and just putting fresh wire and foundation on? There is really no need to dispose of the wood (in my book-but you know every beekeeper has their own little set of rules).
We are changing out the frames damaged from the flood, full of dead larvae and mould. They go straight onto the new frames once we have given them.
Sorry to hear the bad news from Zoe. Up to two weeks ago all my hives looked good. suddenly, the one that lost it's queen last summer has nothing but a handful of bees in it and evidence of Chalk Brood. Do I destroy the hive or only the frames? Not had any real problem wit weather, just rain and cold. Now however, we have 28°c and a week of good weather predicted
Dead right, bl**dy weather. Sorry to hear that bad news.
I have all of my hives back but two, having had some queens to recolonise hives with and, perhaps some had gone into stasis without me finding them despite looking really well, two hives mysteriously recovered themselves.
Hi all....just checking in...accacia has started to flower here in the 74. The majority of our hives were damaged in a freak flood last week. we have managed to save about thirty odd from that apiary, but we lost three quarters, and some of the hives have no queen since the floods. i will try post photos of the carnage later.
if the varroa don't get you, the apocalyptic weather will.
Welcome Elaine, good to see new people popping in. Very exciting times, preparing a hive, and installing the bees in their new home!!
Oh yes, we have had a -4° already, but two days later was when they were very busy. I have insulation in above the crown board too and straw as ever. In fact, one of the objectives of strimming was to replace it with fresher cut grass because it was dry at the time and I have always found that changing helps avoid fungus, slugs and all other unwanted things.
Hi Brian
My hives have also seen some activity. We have had a couple of nights of -1°c, and I have had winter feed in for two weeks. However, little feed has been used. Hives are tilted slightly forward, and insulation is in place between the Crown Board and the roof. Also I have put some straw under the hives to act as insulation from the ground. Now its fingers and legs crossed.
How is it going everybody? This week on a sunny, reasonable warm day I wanted to take the strimmer gently round hives. No chance because they were very busy. We have plenty of wild and garden flowers around in our field and garden, plus the fact that gorse, winter jasmine and some hazel are all flowering. Looking closely this morning, in amongst the wild thyme and marjoram there are lots of flowers and in the forest some heather is in flower in patches. There is foraging for them, I have put winter feed in which appears little used and it is now late enough that we may have a short winter. That is never a bad thing!
Oh dear.
Chris
I know, Brian, a very close friend has left MSF/doctors without borders because of the insane grip pharmaceutical companies have on the org. Prior to that, she left the Irish health board, for the same reason. She thought moving to MSF would be more about helping people and less about helping big companies, and after two years, she was fed up enough to leave. same, nothing to do with bees, but these people have their fingers in ALL the pies.
Nothing to do with bees, but the big pharmaceutical companies you name have their finger in things that affect my work even. They are pulling too many strings and when I looked at a 'study' on hybridisation of of rape (colza) at least 15 years ago it included the fact that insect pollinators would not be needed in the future and I nearly burst a blood vessel. I talked to a couple of science characters in college and they did not want to know because of the risk to their careers if they got involved. Corruption is very scary anyway, but big corporations make camorras look quite civilised. So yes Zoe, with you 100%.
Chris, no, you really don't understand, if that's the case.
Corruption is bigger than I am, and is definitely bigger than my local vet inspecteur. I would never risk having 200 hives confiscated, or destroyed on the basis that I might be putting big business at risk.
There is a lot more to corruption than a brown envelope being passed around, and I have seen first hand just how dangerous companies like Dow, Bayer, Monsanto can be when joe public tries to grind against them.
That's all I have to say on the matter. Look into it for yourself.
I really don't understand. Any OGM trials in France are overseen by INRA specifically to study and record everything such as yield levels, effectiveness for controlling European Corn Borer and especially any adverse effects on other non target species. Honey bees are at the top of the list and if you think you are being intimidated you should take the matter to the directorate of your regional INRA or if the threats are seen to be of a more physical nature then to the Gendarmourie or even directly to the Procureur.
Why aren't your tests being conducted by your Directions des Services Vétérinaires?
Chris
Last year the lab we used told us not to be too open about it till there were more people gathering evidence. They seemed to say that I would get into deep water with certain people in power.
I hope that INRA are involved if this trial is killing bees, what do they say about it?
Chris
Chris, the Bt was traced, and I have approached the farmer concerned... he has decided that even though he cannot buy the same seed he used last year, we should "go further afield" with our hives. He nicely told me that if I left my hives in the same place as they were last summer, they would be destroyed. It was a "trial".
I cannot see a situation arise where a keeper would kill their own bees. I don't know what to say. When your whole lifestyle is devoted to keeping bees alive, what would be the point? It would be heartbreaking.
Just like Brian, I know that the keepers I keep in contact with in unfarmed areas are not really seeing problems. In saying that, we're all using euros, caucasians, buckfast, and whatnot... I know people using apis dorsata, no issues. I think we are breeding the strngth OUT of our bees.
for this reason, we have bought pure caucasians from Slovenia this spring, full blooded, hopefully they'll be able to stick up for themselves.
I use no treatments whatsover, not varroa strips or anything else, I have had some problems a few years ago but found the bees recover. Like last year I found them ganging up on the Asian hornets who hovered around the hives and found a fair few in their last twitches of life. So stay in the dying breed.
However, yes we hear lots about California and Oregon where bees have been massively done in by agrochemicals, so after our recent disagreement on the matter I tried a few people I know here and there. In Portugal they have had losses, a Portuguese keeper referred me on to a Brazilian, even translated my email for me, to which I have had a reply saying that agrochemicals are killing a lot of bees there. So I asked around Peruvian friends, having worked there for spells for almost two decades I know a few people who farm as well as having their academic city lives. Two of them responded saying that in the low agricultural areas there are problems but then people rarely keep them in the Andes or Amazon so nothing to say. I asked a friend who has nothing do with agriculture in any form but happens to have several projects in rural Senegal, he asked around and said that there are no problems. So sure it is perhaps patchy but I also think that the peer reviewed academic papers need to be taken seriously. So yes, perhaps keepers are sometimes responsible but the manufactures and sellers of agrochemicals have a great deal to answer for before we get to bees, so it is not to be dismissed. I'm all right Jack, but it doesn't mean I will shut my eyes and ears to what people are saying in other places.
Can you say where has the BT toxin been traced to?
Incidentally without getting into a peeing contest I am also in contact with keepers all over the world so let's try and keep things normal eh? I haven't been rude or insinuated anything although there is no doubt that there are plenty of grounds globally and locally for suspecting that some keepers are responsible for their colony deaths.
Just a question, are you saying you, like me, don't use any treatments what so ever on your hives? We are a rare but growing species these days and I don't think I'm lucky at all, my losses over time are exactly what I would expect in a natural situation, much in line with the INRA study.
Hope you find out the cause and source of your colony deaths.
Chris