Bees checked today

[Bcrazy]

My bees were out and about and bringing in yellow and a dirty looking white loads of pollen.

I checked all my hives and found I had lost one. The bees in this hive did not die of starvation as there were only two bees with heads into the cells, the remainder were all on the floor of the hive.
I have carried out tests for Nosema, Acarine, EFB, and AFB all tests proved negative. I did notice 'K' wing on some of the bees but not sure f that's the way their bodies react to dieing. Varroa, yes there was some varroa but nothing out of the ordinary. There was a small amount of fondant left so they had been using that as food. I do not know what caused their deaths.

On a bright side one of my Langstroth wooden hives had 5 frames of brood at all stages so I'll give you a guess what colony I am going to breed from.
My poly Langstroth has 3 frames of brood in each hive, running parallel with each other.

My Nationals have small colonies in and I am hoping they will make it as I have given a couple of them pollen patties to help bring them on. All hives had pollen being collected by bees but the movement was rather slow, which I think is to be expected.

One down 3 up.

Regards;

 

[jimbeekeeper]

I did notice 'K' wing on some of the bees but not sure f that's the way their bodies react to dieing.

Sorry about your loss

What is K wing?

 

[Polyanwood]

K wing is a viral disease. Supposed to be vectored by varroa, but it was around before that. You know when you look at a bee normally you only see 2 wings, you don't see 4. With K wing if you look at the bee from the side it looks like one wing has gone forward, so it looks like a K with the body of the bee being the upright of the K lying down.

Sorry your bees died B crazy. For what it is worth, when mine were poisoned with insecticide, they all had K wing when they died...

 

[Hivemaker.]

Quite often associated with acarine.

 

[OXFORDBEE]

Have checked bees over the last few days. I've found one empty hive with a few bees in cells and a vast amout of stores. I've also got one hive that look like they've got nosema and had one that went drone laying.

Lots of warmth from all the others, lots of pollen going in and bags of sugar on the top to keep them going untill I can feed them later this month.

Quite a variablility in colony size and there are some huge colonies out there.

I guess starvation might be a risk for some beekeepers. It's quite amazing how the amount of stores in some hives has just shot right down.

 

[Bcrazy]

Hi OXFORDBEE

Please don't think I am being pretentious but you mentioned;

I've also got one hive that look like they've got nosema

I think you will find there are no outward signs of Noseam. People often believe that spotting in the hive and dysentery are a sign of Noseam. Not necessarily so.
The only way to find out if bees have Nosema is by a microscopic slide being made from crushed abdomens of the bees.

Have you fed sugar water as this can cause dysentery?

Regards;

 

[OXFORDBEE]

Bcrazy,

Well the colony appears to have dwindled and there seems to be poop on combs and around the enterance. Colony moral also seems to be low.

Vitae seem to think you can spot a nosema infected hive before doing a slide test...

http://www.vita-europe.com/Map_enscript/frmbuilder.php?dateiname=/en/disease/nosema.htm

Howeve, It might be a good idea to dig out my microsope and have a look.

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[Bcrazy]

Hi Steve,

Well the colony appears to have dwindled and there seems to be poop on combs and around the enterance. Colony moral also seems to be low.

Vitae seem to think you can spot a nosema infected hive before doing a slide test...

What I think they are indicating is the poop on the frames could be an indication of Noseam. In their first paragraph they state

They are not visible with the naked eye; microscopic examination is necessary.

There are a couple of possibilities that could cause dysentery apart from Nosema.

I do think nowadays that its a fair indication that Nosema might be present.

So when all said and done any indication that something is amiss then investigation is a must.

Dig out your microscope and see for yourself.

Regards;