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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Rachel Watersong <rachelwatersong AT fastmail.com>, ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Learning from hive failure
  • Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2016 18:20:38 -0400

Rachel,

I've (hopefully) become wise enough through experience to not attempt specific diagnoses via e-mail, especially without any photos. But I can provide some general thoughts for some of your questions.

First, small hive beetles don't typically kill colonies. They are like vultures -- they come in after a colony is already on its way out from some other cause. It is like when I see a wake of vultures eating a deer on the side of the road. I've learned not to jump to the conclusion that the vultures killed the deer. It is the same with hive beetles. The article <here> talks more about this. (Yep, "wake" is the word for a group of  vultures who are eating! When they are resting in trees, they are a "committee" and when flying they are a "kettle". Imagine that!)

Second, yes, it is quite possible that the colony starved. This is prime starvation time for colonies that aren't plump with honey stores. The fall flow won't start until at least mid/late August in my area, and won't really get going until September. Until then, we must be vigilant and feed liberally if needed.

Third, yes, one colony could have been in fine shape with regard to honey stores and then it was robbed out by another colony, quickly changing its prospects for survival. That's why we must check stores periodically --- lifting from the back is an easy way to do it any time of year.

This is also prime time for summer varroa-related collapse of colonies. This often happens to our biggest and most productive colonies if effective varroa management hasn't been implemented (see the article <here> for more about this). I wouldn't expect that to be the case with your brand-new colony, although never say never.

The attacking/wing pulling could be due to a number of things, including viral illness of the bee that was attacked. So without more details I won't speculate.

Are you a member of one of OCBA's first-year mentoring clusters? Contact Dave Eckert if you are interested (daveckert AT gmail.com). That's a great way to get another set of eyes on issues and hands-on advice.

Does any of this help?

Randall Austin



On 7/23/2016 4:12 PM, Rachel Watersong wrote:
1469304766.1841773.674804673.3D46C00B AT webmail.messagingengine.com" type="cite">
Hi beekeepers,

I'm a first-year beekeeper, and one of my 2 hives just bit the dust.  I
went to inspect them and the hive has absolutely no bees, brood, honey,
etc-- pretty much all just empty comb with plenty of shb larvae through
it (though I think the hive died at least a week ago, so the shb could
be just now getting going??).  No big gobs of adult hive beetles, or
really hardly any adult hive beetles that I see. No evidence of AFB or
chalkbrood. There are some bee exoskeletons, some inside comb and some
littered on the screened bottom board.  And on the cement blocks under
the bottom board there is some stuff that looks sort of like rich brown
sawdust, but each piece is a little brown string.  ????

Possible hypotheses:  
--Could small hive beetles have killed the hive?
--Could they have starved? Both my colonies have been very weak in honey
stores all year (started late May with nucs) despite continuously sugar
feeding them.
--Could they have been robbed out by my other hive?  The hive that died
was stronger at the beginning of summer, so I had them with no entrance
reducer while I had an entrance reducer on my (now alive) hive.

My living hive is looking OK, though still with not much in the way of
honey stores or eggs/larvae but a fair amount of capped brood and LOTS
of bees.  

One other random tidbit-- I have observed some bees in the living hive
doing a weird thing where one bee appears to be pulling the wings off
another bee, then the wingless bee just drops off onto the ground. I saw
this today when I inspected the good hive (the two bees were both inside
when I lifted the top box).

Any insight would be greatly appreciated for this total novice!

--Rachel Watersong





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