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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I'm a total knowlessman here, but could you be looking at some kind of poisoning, e.g. from a pesticide? Someone would've had to trespass and spray my hives or they would've had to have gone and collected something tainted en masse; certainly possible, but I hope it's not probable. My neighbors have never complained about the bees.  Personally, the only thing I've sprayed this year is some insecticidal soap on an inside plant, and I can't think of anything new chemical wise on the property besides a coat of polyurethane on a seemingly unaffected hive. Of course the clouds have now parted and the hives that seem to be affected are having huge orientation flights...
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May 14, 2018 18:31
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Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest sabotage, more something along the lines of the bees getting some form of neurotoxin (which I believe most pesticides are) from their foraging.
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May 14, 2018 18:49
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest sabotage, more something along the lines of the bees getting some form of neurotoxin (which I believe most pesticides are) from their foraging. I appreciate it, it's definitely possible a bunch of the foragers all went and got into some weird poo poo. If so, then the problem should resolve itself soon... which would be okay. It sucks seeing the girls all weird and doing poorly like this. The top bar hive seems to be okay. I peeked in on them just now. Just one oddball on the ground and she didn't seem disoriented. No dead except some we stepped on this weekend during a checkup, oops. There was a little mess (and after I bragged about how they were getting on so well, how embarrassing) that required some work Friday so now there's a piece of comb with brood leaned up against the leaderboard. There just wasn't any good way to attach it to a top bar. Gonna give them another day or two before tearing them all up again.
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May 14, 2018 19:27
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This morning there were even more sick bees crawling around. It's the first warm day where it hasn't been pouring rain since I installed the nuc last weekend, so I cracked the hive open and it's a full disaster inside. Tons of dead brood, bottom board covered in dead bees, just decimated. Did the toothpick test, no stringiness, and there's no odor. Queen has moved into the upper box and everything there looks healthy so far, but the bottom is rough stuff. Not nearly as many bees as there should be. Talked to my mentor, he thinks it's probably poisoning picked up by foragers, then they just weren't strong enough to keep the brood warm during the cold snap. He's going to bring me more bees and brood on Wednesday to try to boost it. The hive right next to it has no outward signs of trouble, but I haven't opened it up yet as a storm is rolling in. gently caress, man.
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May 14, 2018 23:17
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I'm so sorry, that really sucks. I'm glad you've got a good mentor to help, at least. Sounds like the hive isn't a loss yet. Fingers crossed for you.
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May 15, 2018 00:13
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I really hope both of your bee hives get better. It saddens me to hear something like that :/ On a more cheerfull note: would anyone of all you beekeepers here actually be interested in selling some honey, when the time is right and you have enough? A friend of mine who is also a beekeeper and me are currently on a journey to try to taste honey from different countries and regions. Of course there are the well known things like Manuka and stuff, but if someone would pay you the shipping costs for one or two glasses of honey (plus the honey of course), would you sell and ship it? Or actually be interested in some kind of exchange? It's just a wild idea, but maybe some people would be interested in this? I recently got some honey from another beekeeper from sibiria in exchange for some of ours from last year, and I find it super interesting to experience the different tastes of honey from the different regions and bees of the world.
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May 16, 2018 17:24
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I think it would be cool as heck. I have a half pint or so left from two years ago with comb so there's that.
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May 16, 2018 17:31
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I'd bee in. That said it may be a year down the road. Haven't caught a swarm yet (checking again today up on the mountain). But when/if I do they will be some metal eskimo bees.
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May 16, 2018 18:02
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I'm afraid there's no good news coming from my nuc hive. My mentor came over today to have a look and bring me more bees, and it was even worse inside than on Monday. Just as many dead adult bees on the bottom board as there were 2 days ago, and now the upper box larvae was also totally sick. We both agreed it looked like EFB, though that doesn't explain the dead adults, so probably also Nosema or god knows what. Just a mess of problems. I had a deadout last year that we attributed to varroa, and I re-used all the equipment from that hive on both my new hives this year. Looks like some nasty spores and bacteria may have been in the old stuff after all, though the other hive is going gangbusters with no problems (knock on wood oh god). Or the bees picked it up elsewhere. Who knows. At any rate, we decided that despite the queen being a prolific layer and there being a pretty good number of bees still in the hive, my best solution was to just scrap it. I loving hate it, but I also don't want to treat it with antibiotics only to have it grow for a month or two and then get sick again in some lovely endless antibiotic-illness cycle. I also don't want my other hive contracting whatever combination of nastiness the other is dealing with, so... goodbye hive #2. Put all the brood comb and bees in a garbage bag, will attempt to sanitize the boxes, bottom board, and inner/outer covers tonight with bleach and acetic acid. Gonna do the same on all my other old boxes and frames, still debating whether or not I should trash all the old comb and honey. Any thoughts? Been reading up like crazy and there seems to be a lot of debate as to whether or not sanitizing this stuff without radiation is possible/necessary. Meanwhile, he gave me another nuc, which I've set up in mostly new equipment, though there are like 3 old frames in there. Fingers crossed for nothing like this last nuc, and that both these hives will thrive. He doesn't seem to think there's much danger. I feel like poo poo. Onward and upward, hopefully.
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May 16, 2018 22:22
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How are you handling the acetic acid for cleanup? Last year was my first time using it to fumigate. This year the weather has been too unpredictable. As far as the honeycomb, I suppose there's no reason not to keep whatever capped honey there is for your own use, and the same for refining the wax. Given the nature of the deadout, though, I think it's wise to follow the standard guidance not to give any of it to the bees. I'm very sorry for the loss of your girls, though. My own news continues to be mysterious I guess. I got through two of three hives yesterday before the storm rolled in. My top bar seems alright. Another leaf of new comb fell off a bar though so my partner and I mashed it onto another bar that has some of my silly attempt at foundation on it. For extra security, we also melted it on a bit more with the lighter we use for the smoker. Only time will tell if that worked. If anyone has tips about mashing stray comb securely to top bars, please share. Wiring doesn't seem to work well with such fresh comb. The brood comb we laid against the leaderboard last time still hasn't hatched out, so no change there. They haven't attached it everywhere though, which is good. Miss Beesibody, which is in a regular Langstroth style hive, got the full inspection treatment. To my surprise, we found the queen in the middle brood chamber. (This hive has 3 deeps, a super, and a quiltbox right now. They looked to be ready to swarm in April, hence BIG.) To my further surprise, they still have the original marked queen from the nuc. I thought for sure she was superseded because I failed to find her in my last two inspections of 2017 and my first inspection this year. Honestly, everything seemed fairly in order. The lowest chamber seems to have hatched out entirely very recently, but the second and third had a fair amount of brood. bees cover most of the frames in two of three brood chambers. Less honey than I expected though. I'd prefer not to feed when there's so much in bloom, but I'm wondering if it can't be helped. I also found I needed to replace the bottom deep, as it got so soft up top that when I was trying to pry propolis cemented frames up, the hive body walls bent. Always keep spare woodware! It served me well. The only one I haven't gotten to crack open is Jugular Vein, the second Langstroth. Late last year and early this year they were very aggressive, but when we cracked them open a few weeks ago, they had mellowed out. I suspect but can't yet prove that they superseded. Still finding dying and dead bees crawling around, mainly behind and to one side of the hives. I saw one instance of k posed wings, but that's like twice now. I can't find any clear visual abnormality besides disorientation and apparent inability to fly. After yesterday's inspection, I took care to spray the patio and ground down to take care of some spilled nectar and anything else that might be weird around there, but... no ideas. I'm sending a sample of dead bees in isopropyl to the USDA bee lab in Beltsville, MD. It's a free service for anyone keeping bees in the US. The lab doesn't test for viruses or poisons. Actually, Melicious, you might want to try this too. https://www.ars.usda.gov/northeast-...gnosis-service/
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May 16, 2018 22:46
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:How are you handling the acetic acid for cleanup? Last year was my first time using it to fumigate. This year the weather has been too unpredictable. Honestly, I have no idea! My mentor simply recommended bleach, but I've been reading all day about sanitizing methods and seeing a lot about acetic acid. No idea if it's going to be worth the fuss, though, I've never used it. Still researching... Ugh I was thinking I should send in samples for testing, but my mentor actually took everything we're destroying with him to burn it. I could maybe get like 100 bees off the ground, but that's probably not advisable.
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May 16, 2018 23:47
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I'm sending dead in the dirt bees as one sample; as long as they're not decayed, it should be okay! e: also I literally found one supplier of acetic acid at a usable strength. Duda Diesel. You have to dilute it. You'll need appropriate PPE. Actually the whole process is kind of a pain in the rear end, I can PM you about it? POOL IS CLOSED fucked around with this message at 00:48 on May 17, 2018 |
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May 17, 2018 00:46
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:I'm sending dead in the dirt bees as one sample; as long as they're not decayed, it should be okay! Please do, though I think I've settled on not bothering with the acetic simply because of the hassle. I figure I'll dip everything in bleach, then let dry, then torch, then freeze. Hopefully that will get rid of any lingering beasties. Gonna extract the 8 old frames full of honey for myself, then have a bonfire. RIP bees (and money)
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May 17, 2018 01:19
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Any advice for chalkbrood? I've got one hive with a bad case of it and there's not much I'm seeing that seems like a reasonable or efficacious treatment.
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May 17, 2018 04:50
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El Mero Mero posted:Any advice for chalkbrood? I've got one hive with a bad case of it and there's not much I'm seeing that seems like a reasonable or efficacious treatment. It's positioned the same as the others (regarding air flow etc.)? Is getting pollen and stuff from the same sources as the others?
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May 17, 2018 11:36
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Imo it would be awesome if we could get some honey trading going. I'm currently only seperating my honey between early spring and summer, so I can only narrow it down so much of what is in it. But imo it be cool to share some. Shipping costs of course will be awful depending on where everyone is (I'm in central Germany), but to me it would be worth it to try some honey from your little ladies. I currently have about 50 kilogramms from this year (spring), I assume the summer will supply less, as two of my three hives lost their queen (one was our fault I guess? still don't know what happened, the other one started creating queen cells in the middle of the frame, and the queen itself stopped laying eggs and shrunk to be even smaller than the adult bees....something was wrong with her, OR we were sold an old queen last year instead of a new one) After loving up the two splits last year (first one was on us by not adding enough bees due to inexperience, second one was murdered by wax moths), the splits this year develop fine, so I hope we can go into the winter with five or six hives. Fingers crossed.
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May 17, 2018 11:54
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Geez, my hives aren't even stocking spare honey yet. I'm rather jealous. Probably because of our late spring though. 
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May 17, 2018 19:14
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tuo posted:It's positioned the same as the others (regarding air flow etc.)? Is getting pollen and stuff from the same sources as the others? Yeah, I've got about 11 hives and they're all roughly placed the same way in the same location. The one with chalkbrood IS the only one that's located behind another hive and facing the back of that other hive (2-3 feet) away. Would that really be a contributor?
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Jun 3, 2018 16:01
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El Mero Mero posted:Yeah, I've got about 11 hives and they're all roughly placed the same way in the same location. The one with chalkbrood IS the only one that's located behind another hive and facing the back of that other hive (2-3 feet) away. Would that really be a contributor?  tuo posted:It's positioned the same as the others (regarding air flow etc.)? Is getting pollen and stuff from the same sources as the others? 
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Jun 4, 2018 22:16
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So a lot happened since I last posted, I think. Of all the hives, my top bar went queenless (or she stopped laying) and I was too slow catching it. I guesstimate that the hive wasn't queenright around the time of my last inspection where all was definitely well. Then I had a week gap and things looked a little slow (didn't see as much brood as I'd expected, but the hive was running up against the amount of comb it had produced). Weather and schedule kept me out of the hives for two weeks and then I found laying workers. Foolishly I thought I'd try saving the colony anyway so I took a two hour trip to the only local Carniolan queen provider. I figured I'd use some brood from my strongest hive (Miss Beesibody's Charm School) and let nature, uh, find a way. Well, I opened her up and found... just a little capped worker brood left. No larvae and no eggs I could see. To be fair, I have a very hard time seeing recently laid eggs. I'm getting a penlight and magnifying glass to help with my awful blindness. But no larvae? Well... So anyway Beesibody appeared queenless. There weren't as many bees as I would've expected based on my inspection of it a couple weeks earlier, and with the nasty unsolved die offs I'd suffered, I was concerned. Still, it was stronger and had decent honey reserves so I decided to put the queen into Miss Beesibody and let nature sort out the top bar. A few bees glommed to the queen cage in an interested but not hostile way. We checked a few days later and more were hanging out on her cage but they hadn't released her, so we carefully drilled a hole in the candy cap with a hilarious hand drill and put her back in. Then another gap in inspections for travel reasons. Finally got to check her again about three weeks from the initial discovery and queen installation and the workers had let her starve to death in her cage... but someone is laying eggs! There's capped worker brood and it seems like there was a big hatch of workers within the last day or two, because I saw lots of very fuzzy girls. The bottom brood chamber is honey bound, the middle is developed but appears empty, and the top is full of brood... Bees are weird. e: and I haven't seen nearly as many bees crawling around on the ground.
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Jun 21, 2018 22:52
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I was told you can't put a new queen inside a hive which already has a laying worker bee. The worker bee starts emiting the same pheromones when she starts laying eggs as an actual queen, thus the bees in the hive think they have a queen and won't accept the new one/feed her. Brushing them off a couple of meters away (like 20 or so) and putting a new hive where the other one was - with frames and a caged queen in - can work, because the laying worker normally is not able to fly back to the hive. But you still face the problem of having not many bees once the brood of the new queen hatches.
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Jun 22, 2018 12:19
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Yeah, I didn't end up requeening the laying worker top bar hive in the end, I put it in the stronger but also queenless langstroth hive, but they had their own plans. Downside is that their queen has a terrible laying pattern, as I discovered today. Hopefully they'll supersede her. I'm going to give them some young brood out of another hive tomorrow to maybe kickstart that process since I didn't notice any supersedure cells today. Have you all ever seen a langstroth hive make frames of all drone brood? The frame wasn't a drone foundation frame.   I brushed off most of the bees before taking these photos.
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Jun 22, 2018 19:50
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:Have you all ever seen a langstroth hive make frames of all drone brood? The frame wasn't a drone foundation frame. The only time I’ve seen anything like that was with a failing queen.
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Jun 22, 2018 20:24
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thought I'd share my favourite spot to relax after stupid IT days...
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Jun 25, 2018 20:36
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:
Eggs in center, single ones, at the bottom of the cell? Or more to the sides of the cell?
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Jun 25, 2018 20:47
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tuo posted:Eggs in center, single ones, at the bottom of the cell? Or more to the sides of the cell? They were all capped, but the drones that hatched while I was watching appeared normal. The laying pattern was nice and tight, a pattern you'd want to see worker brood in. I'm fairly confident that the queen laid these drones; I haven't seen any evidence of laying workers in that hive. (no more of that this season please.) Think I'm just stuck with a couple bad layers right now. Crossing my fingers that the hives will successfully supersede. Today I saw more queen cups in the odd drone zone hive, and there's more uncapped brood too. Not in great patterns, alas. Tomorrow I'm helping a friend do 13 splits so my back will be killing me. Cross yo fingats I don't end up at hospitlal or stung a whole lot.
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Jun 25, 2018 21:27
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Today went really well. Got stung on my palm, but at least it was only once. Think she got squeezed while I was picking up a big, custom frame. Anyone here keeping OHB Saskatraz bees? I got some from the RI queen grant program, which (with some stipulations) gives registered RI beekeepers free, fertilized queens. They gave em out this last weekend. It's a good deal as long as you can make a nuc.
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Jun 27, 2018 04:25
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My two top bars are doing great. One went from having very little stored nectar to honey bound in a week. Gave them some empty comb from the queen excluded area so she still has some room. I missed a local swarm last week while heading to the dump. Spotted the swarm on a tree but was not ready to collect them. Once I got back they had left, but I was able to find the location of the feral hive they came from. Left a swarm trap nearby in case they throw another.  This queen has been very busy.   
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Jun 28, 2018 01:14
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:They were all capped, but the drones that hatched while I was watching appeared normal. The laying pattern was nice and tight, a pattern you'd want to see worker brood in. I'm fairly confident that the queen laid these drones; I haven't seen any evidence of laying workers in that hive. (no more of that this season please.) Sounds like you got some drag queens going. That can happen in a hive that has no fertilized eggs to queen. A frame of eggs and uncapped brood from one of those splits would have set you right.
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Jun 29, 2018 14:47
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ShotgunWillie posted:Sounds like you got some drag queens going. That can happen in a hive that has no fertilized eggs to queen. A frame of eggs and uncapped brood from one of those splits would have set you right. Not if a worker bee is laying eggs.
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Jun 30, 2018 16:40
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So up in the mountains where last year this time I was seeing tons of bees, this year I saw a total of 2. Plenty of clover flowers and such. Kind of has me worried. These were the ones I was hoping to catch a swarm of.
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Jun 30, 2018 17:12
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That's a beautiful queen. (Also I'm very sure the hive didn't have laying workers as the queen is still in there. I found her on a subsequent inspection. No signs of laying workers like multiple eggs in a cell either.)
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Jun 30, 2018 17:59
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I wasn't doubting tuo. I just hadn't heard about ventilation/airflow being a cause or contributor to the development of chalkbrood before. It was a great diagnosis on his part. I've since picked up a couple of different beekeeping books that call that out more explicitly, so, thanks tuo!.
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Jul 1, 2018 00:58
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I've been being a lazy bee keeper (again) and today I decided to do a full inspection on both my hives. The west hive is super strong and produced a nice 10 frame super of honey. It was crowded enough that I added a second full super and removed the honey super. I did not use a queen excluder this year and this plays into the next bit. The east hive has been weaker since I brought it home. They expanded to just 7 frames and never touched the top box. I went ahead and removed three untouched frames. I decided to try replacing them with three frames from the other hives honey super that had a hundred or so brood mixed in with the honey. I'm hoping this both provides food and workers. Both hives have laying queens, but I might have to look at a replacement for the east hive. As dearth is here/fast approaching, I'm planning to start feeding next week.
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Jul 27, 2018 20:54
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We've been feeding since two weeks over here, some others already did Varroa treatment. Overall, nature is nearly four weeks too early in Germany....stuff that should bloom in August is already over. This will become a loooooong winter
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Jul 28, 2018 08:31
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Never managed to get a swarm this year so I have been simply enjoying the bees in our area feasting on the lavender and catmint we put in. The area where I was seeing bees up in the mountains last year where I wanted to catch a swarm, I have seen like a total of 2 bees on all my trips up this summer.  Kind of worried about the situation up there.
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Jul 28, 2018 16:06
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Wifey and I are house hunting for our first home. Gonna have a yard, and we're looking in a city that allows urban beekeeping. I'm so excited to finally have an opportunity to keep bees after a few years of reading, watching, learning, and planning - I'll have this fall and winter to get some gear and organize with a beekeeper to get going next spring. Bless up.
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Jul 30, 2018 17:43
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madmatt112 posted:Wifey and I are house hunting for our first home. Gonna have a yard, and we're looking in a city that allows urban beekeeping. I'm so excited to finally have an opportunity to keep bees after a few years of reading, watching, learning, and planning - I'll have this fall and winter to get some gear and organize with a beekeeper to get going next spring. You did the right thing! Either read up on everything, ask here, or (liken you are already doing) have someone nearby you can ask. Beekeeping in itself is rather easy, but there is all that stuff about Varroa treatment and of course preventing them to form a swarm, that is both important and a bit "non-intuitive". Still, It's a lot of fun. These critters are super interesting, and apart from them trying to kill you sometimes, they actually love you if you care for them!
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Jul 30, 2018 18:07
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Good to see a place on SA dedicated to beekeeping. I have 5 10 framers right now and 2 5 framers that are late splits. I plan to check in every now and again so I'll be around. Happy beekeeping!
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Sep 1, 2018 03:28
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Update: My wife and I closed on a house purchase, and get possession in 15 (calendar) days. Which means I get to spend the winter preparing, finding gear, and finding a mentor apiarist so I'm ready to rock in the spring. My city allows beekeeping in backyards with very very few regulations (the exception being that a first time beekeeper [me] must work with a non-first timer to learn, in their first season). I'll let y'all know how it goes.
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Sep 1, 2018 14:48
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