Bees falling about like they are drunk

[alldigging]

Small swarm hived about 8-9 days ago.
Lots of dead bees outside and sme fighting. This was perhaps due to me having moved my hive the evening the swarm arrived and hy went on that spot.

There was some activity outside last night that I noticed, again looked like fighting. Some dead bees n floor.

Tonight bees coming out climbing up hive front and then falling off and bouncing off the landing board on to floor.

Bees crawling round on floor and falling over too.

Any ideas?

 

[itma]

Small swarm hived about 8-9 days ago.
Lots of dead bees outside and sme fighting. This was perhaps due to me having moved my hive the evening the swarm arrived and hy went on that spot.

There was some activity outside last night that I noticed, again looked like fighting. Some dead bees n floor.

Tonight bees coming out climbing up hive front and then falling off and bouncing off the landing board on to floor.

Bees crawling round on floor and falling over too.

Any ideas?

Have you not heard of the 3 feet or 3 miles rule of thumb?

Of course there is going to be fighting.
Your existing colony's bees will be returning to "home" - and discovering that there's another colony on that spot, trying to defend itself.



Get one of the colonies (likely easiest the swarm) out of this situation. A couple of miles out of this situation.

 

[VEG]

Big mistake

 

[alldigging]

Have you not heard of the 3 feet or 3 miles rule of thumb?

Of course there is going to be fighting.
Your existing colony's bees will be returning to "home" - and discovering that there's another colony on that spot, trying to defend itself.



Get one of the colonies (likely easiest the swarm) out of this situation. A couple of miles out of this situation.

Yes. I have heard of that rule. I wasn't given any option about timing was just told the evening a swarm was beng bought in and i had to move.

The initial fighting stopped but why wouldn't start again after a more than a week? Could it be general robbing of a very weak swarm?

My hive is now away from this one, have moved it slowly further away.


Would fighting make the bees fall about and act drunk? They would fall to the floor and. Rawl about.

 

[itma]

And having moved the swarm, feed them and treat for varroa before they have brood.
Then wait until you can assess the colony's health from sealed brood, at minimum, before contemplating bringing them back.

 

[alldigging]

Big mistake

I know. I don't have access to another apiary (certainly not at a coueof hours notice) and I had no choice in the matter.

 

[Bitbybit]

Hold on Alldigging didn't tell us where his old hive went, maybe it is 3 miles away.

 

[Tom Bick]

If its been robbed out then perhaps they are starving.

 

[Bitbybit]

Other replies came in while I typed. I'll have to get better with my one finger typing or hire a secretary. By the way when I post a question it usually takes hours for a reply!!!

 

[itma]

Yes. I have heard of that rule.

But it sounds like you thought it wouldn't apply to you!
Bees work the way they do.
Not differently because it would be inconvenient for us.

Would fighting make the bees fall about and act drunk? They would fall to the floor and. Rawl about.

Quite apart from anything else, I expect they are starving and very low in numbers, hence cold.
If it was only a small swarm to start with, there may be nothing remaining worth saving.

 

[alldigging]

If its been robbed out then perhaps they are starving.

They'd been give a super frame of honey and a sugar feed I think.
I am not sure if they've been looked at since so I ent know what's going on inside.

 

[itma]

They'd been give a super frame of honey and a sugar feed I think.
I am not are if they've been looked at since so I ent know what's going on inside.

Robbing motivation!

Swarm should NOT be fed on capture. (Disease? And you are refuelling them to abscond.)
It should be fed after a couple of days.
And kept with food on offer while they fraw out lots of foundation. Which means frequent checking, at least of the food situation.

But syrup is eminently attractive to robbers ...

 

[alldigging]

But it sounds like you thought it wouldn't apply to you!
Bees work the way they do.
Not differently because it would be inconvenient for us.


Quite apart from anything else, I expect they are starving and very low in numbers, hence cold.
If it was only a small swarm to start with, there may be nothing remaining worth saving.

I had tried to explain to the person bringing the swarm in But I was given no choice about moving my hive.
That was I think 2 weeks this Wednesday.
Would my hive suddenly start going back after this long?

There been no fighting fr a while.

It was very small to start with.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I have heard of that rule. I wasn't given any option about timing was just told the evening a swarm was beng bought in and i had to move.

My hive is now away from this one, have moved it slowly further away.

alldigging had no choice but to move their bees within the apiary because somebody else was bringing in a swarm and had insisted on using a particular spot. There's another thread about it. http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=24306

And now the newly arrived swarm bees, that belong to somebody else, look sick.

There was something very recently in the Pests + Disease section of the B8KA forum about shaking bees, suspecting CBPV or poisoning. There's a short video within the thread there, maybe it'll help?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

alldigging had no choice but to move their bees within the apiary because somebody else was bringing in a swarm and had insisted on using a particular spot.

Sorry Itma and Craig but you're giving the wrong person stick here. The person whose hive she is now discussing very sefishly insisted on putting the hived swarm where her hive was and would take no persuading otherwise.

Sounds like a very sickly swarm to me.

Karma?

 

[Tom Bick]

The robbing (if this is the case) can happen at any time. It could be your hive or another.

So the swarm is not yours and perhaps belongs to the person who insisted you move your hive. If they knew you had no option but to move your hive less than 3 miles but still insisted then........the world has a way of balancing the books.

 

[VEG]

Sorry Itma and Craig but you're giving the wrong person stick here. The person whose hive she is now discussing very sefishly insisted on putting the hived swarm where her hive was and would take no persuading otherwise.

Sounds like a very sickly swarm to me.

Karma?

Cant understand why they would insist on moving an all ready established hive to put a swarm there. With the original hive still in the same apiary. They need to read up a bit (not you alldigging my apologies also)

 

[alldigging]

The robbing (if this is the case) can happen at any time. It could be your hive or another.

So the swarm is not yours and perhaps belongs to the person who insisted you move your hive. If they knew you had no option but to move your hive less than 3 miles but still insisted then........the world has a way of balancing the books.

Yup not my swarm.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25345470@N02/9185614185/
That's a photo of the bees on the floor. There were some crawling about.

 

[Tom Bick]

Hardly a swarm if that’s it in the travel box a small cast at best. You perhaps contributed some of your flying bees but I bet even then small and rather vulnerable if in an apiary with large colonies.

The photo of under the hive shows what looks like pieces of wax and larger than what you would normally expect to fall through the mesh and to me another indication to robbing.

How is your hive doing?

 

[pargyle]

Tom's right ... what comes around goes around ... not very nice neighbours you have and clearly don't know a lot about beekeeping ! Best out of there if you can find somewhere else.