Tualatin Valley Beekeepers Association - Early Spring Hive Opening

Back to topics

Early Spring Hive Opening

Show oldest replies on top

Subscribe to topic

2 Apr 2021 8:26 AM

Quote

Reply # 10265232 on 10262109

Anonymous member

Hi Dennis,

I reviewed your post this morning about your dead out hive which is very disappointing. It's hard to have a complete insight into what has happened with just pictures of only one frame, but a few things do seem clear. It seems that they had enough stores for a winter season. EFB or AFB do not seem to be involved from the photo shown, but mites are likely with the accompanying virus infections (PMBS).

Take a frame (holding it upside down) and look into the top of cells for white specks. Not the sugar on the bottom of the cells but in the middle of the top surface where they poop and mate. From what you have said it is likely that mite numbers were high in the early fall when the winter bees or Fat Bees need to be raised and virus infection compromised them so much that the bees were not able to over winter and died out. I noted that the few capped cells remaining were partially chewed open which indicates attempts to remove sick brood that died in their cell. This is a classic system of PMBS

The mold is not unexpected when a colony fails as mold will grow when there are not bees to tend to the hive and keep it warm and dry. The frames can be re-used in a new set up since the bees will clean up the mess and welcome the stores

James Hagerman

1 Apr 2021 5:00 PM

Quote

Message # 10262109

Anonymous

On Saturday 3/27/21 I opened our overwintered 2020 TVBA NUC hive (8 frame - 1 deep and one shallow). The girls did really well last year and we took only a small amount of honey. We did two MAQs mite treatments, the last bee-ing in Early November. I did not check mite levels after that treatment. In this first inspection, I found the Queen but almost no brood. There was a blue tinged mold on one frame of mixed nectar and capped honey. which made me so nervous, I did not go all the way through the hive as I wanted to do some research. I asked a question about this hive at the recent TVBA meeting.

All winter and spring, there were lots of dead bees on the ground outside the front of the hive.

Went back in today and found the whole two boxes almost full of mixed capped & uncapped honey! Not as much mold as I recalled (and I kept that frame out today to show it to the more experienced of you. I do not think it is AFB, thank goodness.) I didn't see the Queen today but the two faces of brood on just one frame with very small amount of capped and some uncapped larval brood were against the outer wall. She may have been on that wall instead of the frame.

For my rescue attempt, I moved the frame that had brood into the middle of the deep bottom box and over that box added a deep of 6 frames of new yellow plastic foundation and two frames of old drawn comb. The old comb was not too pretty, but could be ready for her to lay in. (Now that I think of it, maybe I should have added the drawn comb next to the brood frame instead of above it.)

I never thought they could have too much stores. Maybe that is why they never seemed interested in granulated sugar over the last few weeks.

I attach pics of both sides of the frame. with mold. I can't see scale in the cells and the pupas that had not quite emerged were intact, not like AFB goo. Also, there is sugar in some of the cells that may have fallen there from the top bars. I'm thinking this frame should go back in so they can clean it up and she can start laying in it again quickly.

Thoughts?