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ocba - Re: [ocba] One hive dead, one hive thriving

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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com>
  • To: Phil DeGuzman <phil.deguzman AT gmail.com>, ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] One hive dead, one hive thriving
  • Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:10:26 -0500 (EST)

 

Phil,

What was your mite load in Aug, Sept, October?  Mite infestation level is a great predictor of collapse.  See http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.0032151 

 

Lewis  


On February 27, 2013 at 7:41 PM Phil DeGuzman <phil.deguzman AT gmail.com> wrote:

I have two first-year hives side by side (I started them last April so this is the first winter). I fed them right up until November when both hives stopped taking food. I did a light check on them about every two weeks (opened the top cover and looked for signs of life) through December/January/February. Last weekend I went in for my first deep inspection of the year. One hive was very active, lots of action in the brood chamber and workers galore throughout the hive. Everything looked better than I had expected.
 
However, my second hive looked like...well...it looked like what I've heard CCD hives look like. There were no living bees in the entire colony, only about 200 dead bees throughout the hive. There was plenty of pollen and honey (heck there were two fully capped frames that we went ahead and extracted). There are still two mediums of fully drawn comb with a mix of honey, pollen, some brood. The creepiest thing was two gianQuestion 2:t roaches in the bottom of the brood chamber surrounded by the heads and tails of a few dozen bees.
 
Question 1: has anyone else seen this- a seemingly well stocked hive with no bees remaining? No signs of carcasses in/around the hives. No slime, fungus or foulbrood signs. I saw a couple of signs of mites, but nothing excessive. All the CCD documentaries describe hives that are empty of bees and no carcasses...could I be victim to that? I thought perhaps they might have swarmed, but there were no signs of queen cups or anything like that.
 
Question 2: Dare I try a split off of my healthy hive? Should I wait and try a new package in April? EIther way, is it a good idea to reuse the drawn comb and capped honey in the dead hive box? Concerned that if there is some ailment that affected the bees that it might transfer to any new bees I introduced.
I would like to have two hives to help pollenate the orchard and garden...and as insurance in case one hive dies overwinter.
--
"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” - Helen Keller

 



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