Search results

This is Year 2 We have had the hive for a year, so this isn't a new hive that we've somehow messed up. The bees over-wintered very well, and we completely happy with their progress in April, and most of May. But then she stopped laying and hence my quest for WHY began....

Both Queens are missing An update. I opened the hive: we have two brood boxes and two supers. No sign of the queen (either one), and no sign of any egg laying. The newest queen has been missing for 8 days, and the old queen about 10 days before that. The brood boxes are mostly empty with some...

Once again (with more detail) OK, let's try this again. On the Sunday, I went to look at the hive, and the Queen was there. She looked OK, but I noticed that there was no evidence of her laying. She was normally a good layer, so the absence was a bit of a surprise. However, I am saying this...

Here's an update to the story... After 2 weeks, with no evidence of further laying, we added a new queen (a Buckfast Q). After 3 days, we opened up the hive and found no evidence of the Queen or laying. However, we did find ONE Q cell with an egg in it! I can only think that we missed her during...

We had a 1 yr old, Cypriot queen. She was a very productive queen, but about two weeks ago, she disappeared. One symptom was that the bees started to increase the production of queen cells. Normally, the Q cells were always empty, but all of a sudden the queen started laying eggs in these cells...

Fingers Crossed On the next fine day, I'll replace the crown board (so that the vents are sealed), and add some insulation in the roof space. I have some insulation used for lining the roof space (in a human house, and it's made from recycled plastic bottles), so I'll put that in and see how we...

Water The roof board had two vents, and there is obvious evidence of water leaking through those vents (see pics). The top of the roof board (just below the metal cover) was soaking, while the bottom was damp (with mold starting to grow [see pics]) There is no insulation in the roof space...

Healthy Bees I hefted the hive, and there is plenty of food left. Also, when I lifted the crown board, there were plenty of active bees, and the hive smells of freshly uncapped honey. The crown board was not damp, but the roof was. The picture you see is what I scooped out after removing the...

I was cleaning out the dead bees in the hive, and I noticed what looks like a fungal disease. It was only on one or two bees of the thousand or so that I scooped out. Does anyone recognize it from the attached picture. The symptoms are a white growth that seems to be coming out of the top of...

When the weather was nice, I lifted the roof on my hive to check on the bees. One of the things that I was shocked to find was that the wood inside the roof was wet, and showing signs of mold growth. I replaced the roof, but I am stumped by the cause. I took the roof apart, and found that the...

Varroa I pulled virtually all the drone larvae in the colony, and they all came out sparkling white. I also checked the tray every other day for two weeks and nothing [other than the usual debris]... When the colony was just a nuc, it was treated with Apistan, so that's helped. I'm still on the...

I have a new colony (started in June), and they are doing very well [no varroa!] and the queen is still laying. The hive is about 1/4 - 1/2 capped brood, and I have two supers on (although these are mostly uncapped honey). My question is in two parts: (1) When do you decide to start feeding...

Nitrile Gloves What thickness glove do you use?

Leg Count It's definitely an arachnid.

Gloves and Bees Generally, if it's sunny outside, the bees in my hive are calm, and you can use nothing, or thin nitrile gloves. It's worth pointing out that nitrile is 3x more puncture resistant than latex, so nitrile offers more protection. If it's cloudy (and rain is due in a few hours...

Pollen Mite Actually, I found a pretty good match here http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/beemites/Species_Accounts/Pneumolaelaps.htm#Pneumolaelaps%20costai To save you looking it up, here's the image

Size does matter OK, the period size does depend on the font size. Bad reference. Let me make another attempt at size. The mite size is about .7mm

Size The size of the mite is pretty small - less than the size of a period. Because the bottom tray contains all the usual detritus, the dead ones are hard to spot. However, when you see one walking across the bottom tray, they are easy to see. I just pick them up with scotch tape, and then...

Can anyone identify this mite?... I've seen it in the bottom tray, but I've not seen any signs of disease in the hive. Thanks in advance