What happened to the Bees?
Some bad news I’m afraid. Our final colony of bees has died.
We lost the other colonies going into winter as they didn’t manage to re-queen last summer due to the terrible weather and then weren’t strong enough to get through the winter. The one colony we did have left was strong and looked healthy though. They had been looking good all winter as well and when we checked on them a week or so ago they had plenty of stores, were quite busy and looked good.
However, we had a quick look at the weekend and all was not well. The super was still full of honey and they hadn’t touched the fondant we’d given them in case they needed it, but the brood box below was not a happy sight. All the bees were dead. We have no real idea why as there were plenty of bees and they had plenty of food. The hive was in good condition there don’t appear to have been any problems and they wouldn’t have starved with so much in the way of supplies. They had been strong and healthy a week or so ago, but now they were all dead. It’s a real shame as they had been doing so well.
I’ve just cleaned all of the dead bees out and as well as a super full of stores which oozed all over the place as I removed it, the brood box had plenty of honey stores in it too. It does look as though the bees were hungry though as some of them are head down, deep into cells looking for food. Unfortunately it looks as though they moved away from the main stores, probably while the weather was nice a week or so ago, and then couldn’t find it once the weather got cold again. Such a shame.
So we are back to square one and will have to buy some more. We started out with two nucs a couple of years ago, but probably can’t afford to buy two this year so will soon order a single nuc and see what we can do with that. We have all of the hardware now though so will just have to wait until about May when nucleus colonies will be available and start again.
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- A Dead Colony
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- Oozing Honey
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- Hungry Bees just inches from Food
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- Plenty of Stores Elsewhere
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- Bee Cemetery
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- Dead Bees
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Oh what a shame,our weather is so unpredictably.Let’s hope the weather is kinder to your next lot
Really sorry to hear this – so many people seem to be losing their hives this winter. 2012 was a very difficult year. Could varroa be the culprit? The National Bee Unit inspectors always say the mites are the number one cause of colonies dying out.
It’s a possibility I guess but I did have a good look at the corpses and there weren’t too many of them with Varroa mites on them.
Mind you, as I’m sure you know, it isn’t the varroa mites themselves that kill the bees, but the viruses that they carry.
Al.