Sunday, June 2, 2013

Oh oh...Hive #1 in trouble - there's a list of issues

I've been observing hive #1 over the past few weeks.  Prior to that I had been happy they made it through the winter.  But something is wrong.

1.  I think I have more drones than worker bees
2.  Some of the frames in one deep hive didn't look right.  They were spotty and what was there looked too dark.
3.  Only saw a couple of eggs but even they didn't look right because there was more than one of them in the cell.  I think that's the same overabundance of drones issue.
4.  The new hive has worker bees coming in with bags of pollen. I saw none go into the old hive today.
5.  None of the bees in the old hive were drinking the sugar water. I think they had enough honey already in the hive so they didn't need it....hopefully that's why.
6.  The bottom board has some fine brown powdery stuff  on the floor.
7.  I don't believe there's a queen anymore.  There WAS one because several weeks ago, I saw eggs and brood and thought everything was fine.  So now, given I just spent $130 on another Nuc, I will wait for the bees to make a queen. It can take up to a month.  I suspect they've been without one for a few weeks.  Now I am wondering if I didn't ruin things by trying to make my own Nuc from that hive.  Maybe, by mistake, I sent off the queen. Clearly, something happened.  I hope the hive is strong enough to even be able to make a queen. 

I don't know yet what is going on is really bad or if I'm overreacting to some of the symptoms above. I think I'll copy this entry and send it off to my beekeeper mentor to see what she has to say.

What I'll do or have done in the meantime
  • Give bees some patties I made to help with varroa mites that is made with Crisco and sugar.  It helps bees shed off the mites.  You just place a patty on top of the frames and it'll take them about a month to eat it. I put one in each hive as a preventive measure.
  •  Removed the bad looking frames from the hive and replace them with frames that were drawn out and clean. 
  • Clean that bottom board of that brown powdery stuff by hosing it down...scrubbing it with a brush.  I'm hesitant to disturb them again so soon after disrupting them over the weekend, replacing frames, etc. but will do this task later on this week.
  •  Removed both the top hive feeder and the super from Hive #1.  I don't need either at this time. 
  • Think about medicating bees for mites now. If I decide to medicate the bees, now is the time...IF they'll go for the sugar water. I'd need to remove all the honey from the hive, I think, in order for them to go for the sugar water (with medication). 
  • Watch Hive #1 very closely and monitor the activity while I hope and wait for them to make a new queen.


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