Advice needed - Deformed wing virus?

[Bluebell]

Lots of dead/dying bees in front of my hive today. Inspected on Sunday;all looked fine. Varroa board has been in since then - only 4 (dead) on it. Saw at least 6 bees on the ground with deformed wings, I assume this must be dwv, or could it be anything else? Can't add images but looks exactly like pics I've seen of deformed wing virus.

We have had a couple of nice days after shocking weather - are they just having a clear out or should I be worried (I am worried!)

Not sure how to treat for varroa at this time of year? Am thinking perhaps best solution is a shook swarm - or at least take out all sealed brood and replace with foundation?

 

[flemage]

I have also seen this but only a couple of bees in my case.

Think it depends if you have supers on or are wanting to get supers on, over the next few weeks.

If not you could go with almost any of the treatments, apistan strips i think need to be in place for six weeks.

or you could try one of the powderd 'hive sanitizers' as these can be used with supers in place. Varroa guard i tryed but it didnt seem to work for me. I put in apistain after having this powder on the hive for a few months and had a big varroa drop so in my case at lest they seemed to be living happly with the varroa guard.

If it was me i would make very sure that the hive varroa could not be contained in any other way before dumping all the comb, unless its black stuff which needs changing any way?

How about the put a small super frame into the brood box let them build 'wild comb' off the bottom of this (which will have a lot of drone brood on it) which the varroa love to live in then scrape it off once it is capped thereby killing the varroa?

Perhaps some one eles will be along shortly with some more complet advise.

Good luck and dont panic!

 

[FreeFall]

Most varroa are resistant to Apistan these days (I made that mistake in my first year).

 

[scuttlefish]

Apiguard (thymol) is probably a better treatment at this time of year if you're treating for varroa, but it'll taint the stores.

Roughly how many is "lots of dead/dying bees"? A dozen, dozens, scores, hundreds?

Did the bees with knackered wings look like young (still furry) or older bees?

A mite drop of 4 in a week doesn't in itself sound like collapse-levels of varroa, have you tried uncapping some of the drone brood to see what the level of infestation there is?

If you haven't got it already, FERA have a booklet on managing varroa at https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/index.cfm?pageid=167.

 

[Bluebell]

At least a hundred in front of hive. I've cleared them away to see how many more tomorrow.

With low mite drop, I'm not sure it can be varroasis. Most live ones look ok, just a bit dopey. Some have sticky-out wings, so perhaps k-wing (acarine?) Would this cause the very deformed wings too?

I have local association apiary meeting tomorrow - will ask for someone more experienced to maybe take a look. Shame I can't post photos on here, think I'm nearly up to the minimum posts required!

 

[For want of a better word]

At least a hundred in front of hive. I've cleared them away to see how many more tomorrow.

With low mite drop, I'm not sure it can be varroasis. Most live ones look ok, just a bit dopey. Some have sticky-out wings, so perhaps k-wing (acarine?) Would this cause the very deformed wings too?

I have local association apiary meeting tomorrow - will ask for someone more experienced to maybe take a look. Shame I can't post photos on here, think I'm nearly up to the minimum posts required!

Phone your local Bee inspector... PDQ !

 

[Poggle]

I too have just had a few bees dead at the entrance with deformed wings. Saw some on the frames as well. My bee inspector is coming next Thursday. I am not hopeful the hive will get a clean bill of health though. If not, then I am giving up. Too much time and effort waisted and money spent. The warm I collected will be going to a good home as well

 

[REDWOOD]

Are the dead bees with deformed wings drones, as mentioned on a previous thread that in this bad weather bees are kicking out the drones with battled scared chewed wings, also remember that bees are replaced every day buy new bees that have done their six weeks working life. if you have a full hive with 50000 bees replaced every six weeks is 8000 divided by 7 = over 1000 bees a day but a second opinion from a knowledgeable beekeeper is advised

 

[Chris Luck]

Some colonies seem to be more prone to DWV in my experience and the few I have had always get over it. One of my colonies manifests it every year for a while and then all is OK and normal again. In my case this isn't something that spreads rampantly from hive to hive.

Out of interest, have they got plenty of stores?

Chris

 

[susbees]

Phone your local Bee inspector... PDQ !

Acarine is not notifiable....what would you inspect the SBI to do about it?

 

[Bluebell]

Just had a long chat with very experienced beek (our association chairman). When I mentioned that a lot of the dead/dying ones this morning looked very odd - almost completely black - he said it may well be insecticide poisoning. Also noticed woodlice tucking into the dead ones - perhaps they've been chewing off the wings which made me think it was dwv?

Just waiting for it to warm up a bit before having a good look inside the hive which will hopefully give me a clearer picture.

Oh - btw, yes, absolutely chock a block with stores. 2 supers on, one really needs to come off as may contain OSR.

 

[BBG]

I agree with icanhopit, if you are worried the SBI will be very happy to come out especially in a case where you think something is serious and K-wing (acarine) wiped out the honeybee population I believe in the early 1900s.

Better to be safe .......

A little info here - hope it's not serious.

http://tinyurl.com/d9nlkz6

 

[BobsBees]

Bluebell, I suggest to look at the hives at your meeting today, and see how many Deformed wings you can see in other peoples hives, You might be surprised.
Bob.

 

[scuttlefish]

On a related note - is there a threshold of apparent DWV sufferers in a hive at which I should get concerned?

At the last inspection I spotted a DWV bee (young worker) in each of two hives. I know that's nothing to worry about in itself, esp. from Chris's earlier post in this thread - it's a given that my hives have varroa (mite drop normal for this time of year) and that varroa is a vector for DWV - but at what level of DWV should I be worried? Is there some level of, say, "DWV bees/brood frame" that's recognised as an indicator to say "sod the honey, treat for varroa* now!!"

* as the main vector for DWV... don't think there's an actual treatment for DWV, is there?