The Difference Between a Healthy Hive and a Weak Hive
Nearly always, you can blame a weak hive on the queen, whether she is a poor laying queen, rejected by her colony, or dead. For awhile now, I have thought of our weak hives as a challenge and that if we just worked to make improvements where needed, the hive would grow to be a strong, productive hive. This week, we learned that a weak hive stands a very likely chance of failing. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, a weak hive's recovery is an uphill battle, and it's complete failure may be inevitable.
Mark and I feel very lucky that hive 04 has never had an issue since we installed it in March. It is a perfect hive in every way. We even think that we will likely place a second deep super on the hive during our next visit. The bees are working like a machine and have a good amount of capped honey as their reserve. We are proud parents of hive 04.
Hives 01, 02, and 03 have each had queen issues since installation, and Mark and I have been "plugging holes" as the issues came up. The difference between a healthy hive and a weak hive is that weak hives, like these three, do not produce a sufficient amount of brood to fight off pests that can destroy an entire colony. In these hives, we are experiencing different levels of wax moth and small hive beetle infestations. Hive 04 does not have a pest issue, as they are a strong and productive colony, able to fight off these invaders.
Hive 01 has a new laying queen, and she seems to be settling in okay. Hive 03 has no queen, once again, even though we just installed a perfect one about three weeks ago.
Hive 02 has a queen, who is laying, but her bees are rejecting her. When we lifted the lid on hive 02, we immediately noticed the bees "balling" her (workers will kill the reigning queen by "balling" her, clustering tightly around her and stinging her). At first, we didn't know exactly what they were balling, and I assumed it was a wasp or other robber. When we smoked them, we still could not see what was at the center of the mass.
We continued inspecting the hive and noticed them balling once again. This time, the bees collected near the far end, at the bottom of the hive box. Mark smoked them and we saw the queen at the center, (although we did not catch this part on the video).
We noticed she was our clipped queen, the one we had installed on May 9. We were shocked and could not image why her bees would want her dead. Of course, we were only seeing part of the picture and the bees must have reason for this. We guessed that they have plans for another queen. We managed to check the hive twice thoroughly, but never saw another queen or any supercedure cells. We put the lid back on to let the bees handle this on their own.
Hive 03, without a queen once again, has seen the worst of the wax moth and small hive beetle damage. The frames of brood and honey have been destroyed and are unsalvageable. The Beetle Bee Gone squares have helped somewhat, to trap the tiny larvae, but won't solve the problem.
What we have learned this week is that a weak hive is a dying hive. It is not the "runt of the little" that needs extra care. It is a matter of time before it fails, like hive 03. So, to be proactive with our weak hives 01 and 02, we plan to combine them into one hive. We will research how to combine hives and do this within the next two weeks. We will also add a trap to help control the small hive beetle population in the newly combined hives.
Mark and I feel very lucky that hive 04 has never had an issue since we installed it in March. It is a perfect hive in every way. We even think that we will likely place a second deep super on the hive during our next visit. The bees are working like a machine and have a good amount of capped honey as their reserve. We are proud parents of hive 04.
Hives 01, 02, and 03 have each had queen issues since installation, and Mark and I have been "plugging holes" as the issues came up. The difference between a healthy hive and a weak hive is that weak hives, like these three, do not produce a sufficient amount of brood to fight off pests that can destroy an entire colony. In these hives, we are experiencing different levels of wax moth and small hive beetle infestations. Hive 04 does not have a pest issue, as they are a strong and productive colony, able to fight off these invaders.
Hive 01 has a new laying queen, and she seems to be settling in okay. Hive 03 has no queen, once again, even though we just installed a perfect one about three weeks ago.
Hive 02 has a queen, who is laying, but her bees are rejecting her. When we lifted the lid on hive 02, we immediately noticed the bees "balling" her (workers will kill the reigning queen by "balling" her, clustering tightly around her and stinging her). At first, we didn't know exactly what they were balling, and I assumed it was a wasp or other robber. When we smoked them, we still could not see what was at the center of the mass.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZXIvh5bVJnI
We continued inspecting the hive and noticed them balling once again. This time, the bees collected near the far end, at the bottom of the hive box. Mark smoked them and we saw the queen at the center, (although we did not catch this part on the video).
We noticed she was our clipped queen, the one we had installed on May 9. We were shocked and could not image why her bees would want her dead. Of course, we were only seeing part of the picture and the bees must have reason for this. We guessed that they have plans for another queen. We managed to check the hive twice thoroughly, but never saw another queen or any supercedure cells. We put the lid back on to let the bees handle this on their own.
Hive 03, without a queen once again, has seen the worst of the wax moth and small hive beetle damage. The frames of brood and honey have been destroyed and are unsalvageable. The Beetle Bee Gone squares have helped somewhat, to trap the tiny larvae, but won't solve the problem.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/09_p94nW7Zg
YouTube: http://youtu.be/YOY3gaKQKa8
We removed the three frames that suffered the worst damage. The photo on the left shows dust-like particles on the bottom board. This is from the wax moth larvae tunneling through the comb. The center photo shows silk webbing from the wax moth larvae. The photo on the right is a wax moth larvae, which is about an inch long.
The population in this hive was sparse. We will wait a few weeks until the hive is completely gone, then clean out the box, order new frames and install a new nuc.
What we have learned this week is that a weak hive is a dying hive. It is not the "runt of the little" that needs extra care. It is a matter of time before it fails, like hive 03. So, to be proactive with our weak hives 01 and 02, we plan to combine them into one hive. We will research how to combine hives and do this within the next two weeks. We will also add a trap to help control the small hive beetle population in the newly combined hives.
Comments
Post a Comment