Apiary died over winter

[felixflyer]

Hi

So I checked the apiary today which consisted of 5 hives and all of them are dead.

4 have no signs of life, the floor is covered with dead bees including queens and some dead on the frames with one queen as shown in the photo. The other has a small cluster of live bees but no sign of the queen.

I treated them all with Apilife Var in the autumn and did a mite count which showed nothing major. before closing them up they had plenty of stores and added fondant.

Lots of honey left in brood and supers as well as fondant still but most fondant has gone.

This is the first winter in this location and all were new colonies either bought or from splits, Last winter 3 hives came through thriving.

All colonies were in Maisemore poly hives.

I'm thinking they may have frozen as the new location is in a dip by a pond.

The flakes in the cells are just dried was as you can see in another photo. The white in the cells is fondant.

Any ideas?

 

[enrico]

I would suggest that varroa was worse than you thought! Cold is unlikely to have been the problem and you say they have stores available.
E

 

[felixflyer]

I thought about that but all hives?

How could bees possibly survive in the wild if they can be wiped out so easily. These were all new colonies.

 

[Boston Bees]

Nightmare, sorry to see that.

When exactly did you treat with ApiLife-Var?

Worth pulling some of the brood out of the cells to make sure they are normal looking? Not a nice job I know. Though the empty brood cells look perfectly clean and disease-free, so probably nothing to see.

 

[Erichalfbee]

So sorry. You must be gutted. Does look like varroa. Punctured cell caps
One or two bees died trying to get out of cells ... too weak.
When exactly did you use the Apilife?
You say the drop wasn’t anything major.
Perhaps it’s because the Apilife didn’t work.
As for bees surviving in the wild. Most dont.

 

[ericbeaumont]

I treated them all with Apilife Var in the autumn and did a mite count which showed nothing major. before closing them up they had plenty of stores and added fondant.

The nibbled brood cappings suggest bees were attempting to remove infested larvae. Quite likely that varroa loads were high and compromised the ability of the nest to develop in late summer and into autumn.

Small nest + freezing weather + an inability to produce nest heat (isolation from stores increased as the nest reduced) = death.

Counting mite drops on boards is inaccurate; when did you treat, and how many frames of bees did these colonies have when you saw them last autumn?

 

[felixflyer]

I did it in October. The drop wasn't too bad before the treatment but I didn't check it after. The access is off-road and was getting too muddy by late October so once the 4 week treatment was done in early November they were closed up.

I have pulled a couple of bees out of the brood and they are just dried up bees.

Haven't decided what to do yet from here but if I restart then I'll try a different treatment.

 

[Erichalfbee]

When you start again. You can re use the combs at least.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

A Maisies polyhive will keep them warm enough. October is far too late for a thymol treatment - treatment is better in late summer. Check on the floor for bees with deformed wings or ones that were pulled out of the cells which are deformed/manky wings.

 

[felixflyer]

Coun

Counting mite drops on boards is inaccurate; when did you treat, and how many frames of bees did these colonies have when you saw them last autumn?

They were thriving in the autumn. One colony in particular was packed with bees and the floor is covered with them now.

It was a bad summer though, we didn't get a summer harvest and had to keep feeding syrup. It was very dry and I heard many beekeepers having similar issues. Maybe that was a sign something else was wrong but I put it down to the weather at the time. Even the farmer where the apiary is said it was his worst harvest since the 70's due to the dry weather.

 

[ericbeaumont]

if I restart then I'll try a different treatment.

October is too late, Felix. The colonies went into winter with insufficient new bees and paid the price.

August is textbook, but I reckon treatment that early on colonies that brood up to Christmas means that by then varroa will have recovered; I balance the option and treat in September.

Nothing wrong with the treatment, just the beekeeping.

Edit: too early to give up!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Felix. My season was awful too. Very little honey. Don’t give up. Just treat earlier next time. We all lose colonies and we all learn from it. I lost a hive from varroa in my early days. Horrid to see a strong colony dead, inches deep in the floor. Shake yourself down and order a nuc. Best of luck.

 

[felixflyer]

October is too late, Felix. The colonies went into winter with insufficient new bees and paid the price.

October was still very warm down here in south Kent. I left it late as I was holding out for a summer crop which never came. Looks like I should have just cut my losses earlier and got on with treatment.

If I do rebuild then at least I won't make that mistake again I suppose.

Not nice to know they all died because of my mistake though.

 

[felixflyer]

Check on the floor for bees with deformed wings or ones that were pulled out of the cells which are deformed/manky wings.

Had a good look through and nothing like that, no signs of diarrhea either.

 

[BugsInABox]

Hi

So I checked the apiary today which consisted of 5 hives and all of them are dead.

4 have no signs of life, the floor is covered with dead bees including queens and some dead on the frames with one queen as shown in the photo. The other has a small cluster of live bees but no sign of the queen.

I treated them all with Apilife Var in the autumn and did a mite count which showed nothing major. before closing them up they had plenty of stores and added fondant.

Lots of honey left in brood and supers as well as fondant still but most fondant has gone.

This is the first winter in this location and all were new colonies either bought or from splits, Last winter 3 hives came through thriving.

All colonies were in Maisemore poly hives.

I'm thinking they may have frozen as the new location is in a dip by a pond.

The flakes in the cells are just dried was as you can see in another photo. The white in the cells is fondant.View attachment 24742View attachment 24743View attachment 24744View attachment 24745View attachment 24746

Any ideas?

View attachment 24741

Gutted for you - hope you keep going.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

October was still very warm down here in south Kent.

May be - but it's too late to get healthy winter bees uncompronised by varroa.

 

[mbc]

As others have said, varroa the most likely culprit.
Once the first colony had collapsed the surviving bees would have migrated to the next colony with their varroa load and overburdened that one and so they go down like dominoes.
Better luck this season.

 

[felixflyer]

Just ordered some packages of bees. Enjoy it too much to give up .

Thanks for all the replies. That is a lesson learned the hard way.

 

[ericbeaumont]

Just ordered some packages of bees. Enjoy it too much to give up .

Packages? From a Kentish supplier?

 

[felixflyer]

From Bee Equipment in Canterbury, They are ready in April.