It has been a long while since I've posted anything about our hive. My last post, 'Early September Hive Check' showed signs of problems. The most obvious were the presence of Deformed Wing Virus, the beginning of spotty brood patterns (both indicators of varroa mite infestation), and the continuation of extreme drought conditions here in California.
I thought things were OK in late August and early September. There were some honey stores. And although brood patterns were a little spotty and there were a few torn brood casings, the overall population seemed to be up. There were no Drones as they had been expelled in July. This is how things looked in early September.
School had started and I was pretty busy with the beginning of the year. I would still go out and check on things. I began to notice the beginning of a decline in overall population. I didn't think anything of it at the time. It was Fall and this happens as hives get ready to over-winter.
This trend continued and I performed an overall inspection in early October. This is what a similar comb looked like then.
And what was worse, I didn't spot the queen. She was nowhere to be found. I also noticed that wax moths had begun to take up residence.
(Wax moth on the end of my spatula. I cleaned out seven or eight of the little buggers.)
The worker population had continued to decline. We decided to re-queen and found a source that was still selling mated queens. She came around the second week of October and we introduced her to the hive.
In the mean time, my friend Charles offered to bring over a Langstroth hive that was not doing well in the location he had it in. I began working on a hive stand for it one Sunday. I was using power tools and had just taken out my ear plugs when I head loud frantic buzzing coming from our hive. I looked over and saw dozens of bees flying all around the entrance. Robbers! I went over to check it out and observed bees wrestling and fighting on the landing board, bees where fighting in the air, and I could see major robbing activity through the observation window. It looked the the Battle of Britain.
I quickly blocked the entrance and covered the whole hive with a wet sheet. It was all to no avail. Three days later I check things out. All the honey was gone - completely wiped out. And I couldn't find the new queen.
Our hive was done in by a number of factors.
I thought things were OK in late August and early September. There were some honey stores. And although brood patterns were a little spotty and there were a few torn brood casings, the overall population seemed to be up. There were no Drones as they had been expelled in July. This is how things looked in early September.
School had started and I was pretty busy with the beginning of the year. I would still go out and check on things. I began to notice the beginning of a decline in overall population. I didn't think anything of it at the time. It was Fall and this happens as hives get ready to over-winter.
This trend continued and I performed an overall inspection in early October. This is what a similar comb looked like then.
And what was worse, I didn't spot the queen. She was nowhere to be found. I also noticed that wax moths had begun to take up residence.
Wax moth webbing found along the side of the hive (above).
(Wax moth on the end of my spatula. I cleaned out seven or eight of the little buggers.)
The worker population had continued to decline. We decided to re-queen and found a source that was still selling mated queens. She came around the second week of October and we introduced her to the hive.
In the mean time, my friend Charles offered to bring over a Langstroth hive that was not doing well in the location he had it in. I began working on a hive stand for it one Sunday. I was using power tools and had just taken out my ear plugs when I head loud frantic buzzing coming from our hive. I looked over and saw dozens of bees flying all around the entrance. Robbers! I went over to check it out and observed bees wrestling and fighting on the landing board, bees where fighting in the air, and I could see major robbing activity through the observation window. It looked the the Battle of Britain.
I quickly blocked the entrance and covered the whole hive with a wet sheet. It was all to no avail. Three days later I check things out. All the honey was gone - completely wiped out. And I couldn't find the new queen.
Our hive was done in by a number of factors.
- I did not have a varroa mite management plan in place -
- I should have started feeding sugar syrup starting mid to late July. We were in the midst of a major nectar dearth due to our extreme drought conditions. Our bees were starving.
- High numbers of varroa mites coupled with a lack of nectar and pollen weakened our hive. A condition known as Parasitic Mite Syndrome had taken over.
- A stronger hive was able to find, and then take advantage of the weakened state of our hive. The robbers cleaned our hive out.
Charles did bring over a Langstroth hive soon after ours was robbed. Robbers tried to take over this hive as well. I reduced the entrance to one bee space and as this was a much stronger hive than mine, it was able to fend off the robbers and survive. It is doing quite well.
