Mailing list for the Person County Beekeepers Association, Roxboro, NC

[Kim Buchanan <kimcbuchanan AT gmail.com>]

I have had ALOT of Yellow Jackets this fall, and in addition to the entrance reducer, I have set traps and caughtkilled hundreds, (no exaggeration) of yellow jackets on the outside of the hive. I have watched diligently, and I never saw a yellow jacket make it past my guard bees, but they sure wanted to. 

I am relatively new, but don't remember seeing a yellow jacket problem last year. Is this year particularly bad? Thoughts?

Kim

On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 3:49 PM, James Latimer <pipesnc AT live.com> wrote:

Hey all,  I went by my hives to see how they are doing in this cold weather.  I added top feeders and could tell the hives are still full of bees.  But I saw quite a few dead bees in front of both hives.  I did notice a dead yellow jacket among the bees in front of 1 hive.  Is this just the hive cleaning house, kicking out the drones and the weak?  Or do you think they are dieing trying to defend the hives?  Is this normal or something to check into?

Both hives also have the reducer on; 1 hive it has been on since September and I added it to the other (stronger) hive just a few days ago.  At that time we had 70 degree weather and all looked good.

Thanks,
Jamie 

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