Bees in trouble – Mea Culpa!

BEE UPDATE – MAY 23^rd, 2010

Mea Culpa!  I opened the new hive today… and they are starving to death…I think.

They were just lying around on top of the frames, or hanging to the frames, holding each other up, and had no energy even to hardly move; in all it was the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen during a hive inspection.

My excuse is that I haven’t done a split or gotten a nuc in years, & literally forget to feed them!

(I don’t think we even fed the swarms last year.  I hope I wrote up the details anyway…)

I honestly didn’t think to feed them because the first weeks they were very busy going in & out & getting honey & pollen stored up – or so I thought.  This last week of alternate cold & rain was not good for bee flights, so they probably ate everything they had, and today when I opened up the box, there was no honey is sight.

My action plan today was this – to feed them & to add another deep box below that initial super.

I made some sugar syrup, set up the top feeder near the new hive, then I opened the big hive “Queen-of-the-hood” in order to steal a honey frame …But, funny – as I went in – and let me just say that this big hive is stacked high with 2 deeps, then 2 supers on top…well – I couldn’t find hardly any honey in the supers either.  The top super was almost empty – a lot of comb being built with masses of bees working on that project.

The lower super was a brood chamber with very little honey in it!  How did I find that out?  The hard way – there was a lot of hardened propolis holding each frame in & I had to pry hard to get them out,  outer frames full of mostly finished & ready to go wax cells – then when I got near to the center I saw the first batch of closed brood cells, with lots of bees in attendance so I wondered at that – but – kept going to the center 2 frames, where – instead of it being yet more tough propolis holding them in, I made a huge effort to free the frame & behold!…(there was a too-big space between those 2 frames) & the 2 frames were actually stuck together with rogue brood comb built sideways!  Yikes, big plump white larvae now broken open all over… and as I pulled that frame out to look closer, I realized that I was not seeing any big honey stash areas anywhere.

I went further in & worked the top deep box a bit – looking for honey stash, but again – so much propolis to unstick & tough to move carefully with the effort required to pull a frame apart…and, because I had now killed both brood & bees, they were all fighting mad.  Nervously I began to close it all up, leaving out 2 smaller frames with some brood & lots of bees clinging.  I put those into the weak new hive, laid the feeder on top, filled it with syrup & closed it up.  I also fed them from the bottom with honey on a stiff plastic “tray”, which I slid into their open door.  I think I may have seen their queen, looking very weak, and she is not looking healthy.  Bigger than the rest with a long black abdomen.  Geez, what a sad & exhausting day’s work.  If I was a drinking woman, I’d be having a shot right now!

So – Tuesday – before I leave on my vacation, I’ll recheck that hive (hope it is warm enough) – at least I’ll feed them again.  Fingers crossed, head bowed, I ask for forgiveness from the Queen & Her colony.

Monday – May 24^th – The day after heartbreak…

I closed the entrance up last night with a reducer, and today there is a lot of activity out front – it is robbers & fighting & hopefully – the hive springing to life.

This morning also at least one disappointing discovery – the top feeder is leaking…yes, you know the signs-  syrup running down the side of the hive, making an attractive pool of sweet on the ground – attractive to ants, that is!  I sprayed the whole area & around the base of the hive stand with my garden spray – Neem Oil & Dr. Bronners.  So far (it is now 2pm) there are no ants around the hive, and no dead bees in the sprayed areas, so this is a good measure to remember!  Today is warm & dry, so I am happy about that.  There appears to be nectar somewhere around because a lot of flights are taking off in the general westerly direction.  The other 2 colonies are making their tidy take-off’s & landings all this warm day, while the Newhive fights & tumbles off  their landing board…

The other worry is that there appears to be bright yellow bee diarrhea running down the front of the hive as well as many large spots of it on the top.  Is this because they were stuck inside until they got fed, or do they have some disease?  Gosh, I hope not!

As I prepare to leave for 2 weeks, I am making some more syrup, got the extra feeder into the hive & will double their food up for this week – expected to be cold & rainy yet again…it is clouding up right now!  Got to go and feed my girls…