Bees have all gone - photos

[Luminos]

Here are some pictures

 

[Susan1]

I just wanted to say how sorry I feel for you. I would be so sad if it were me. You have so much stores there to.

 

[Norton]

Typical Varroa kill.

 

[Luminos]

Thanks, Susan1 - I can hardly believe I'm so upset over a box of bees...

 

[For want of a better word]

extract the honey
clean up the frames
melt the wax for candles
torch sterilize everything
re wax foundation the frames
buy a nuc in the spring
start over again
Apiguaaard in Autumn!
Disheartening as this is... it happens to the best of us... even fully qualified BBKA certified beekeepers I would imagine!
Good luck!

BTW have you thought about thymolated feed at the end of the year?

 

[dpearce4]

extract the honey
clean up the frames
melt the wax for candles
torch sterilize everything
re wax foundation the frames
buy a nuc in the spring
start over again
Apiguaaard in Autumn!
Disheartening as this is... it happens to the best of us... even fully qualified BBKA certified beekeepers I would imagine!
Good luck!

BTW have you thought about thymolated feed at the end of the year?

They are God arnt they they never get anything wrong.

 

[Chris B]

Yes typical varroa by the looks of it.

The stores are likely what you fed them so I wouldn't be thinking to extract as honey.
Personally I'd consider disease risk small and just use the frames again or use them for bait hives.

 

[For want of a better word]

Yes typical varroa by the looks of it.

The stores are likely what you fed them so I wouldn't be thinking to extract as honey.
Personally I'd consider disease risk small and just use the frames again or use them for bait hives.

Well... Chinese honey ? .... I'll get me tin hat !

 

[bee ginnner]

Well... Chinese honey ? .... I'll get me tin hat !

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Cm'on people - for the sake of a few poundsworth of frames - Luminos, be sensible and waste the lot and start afresh next season (there but for the grace of god.. and all that) would anyone really wan to take the chance ?

 

[Finman]

.
Even with experience those happen. If treatments meet missluck even professionals may loose lots of his hives.

Mechanism goes so that the hive has a big mite load in summer. Things go worse if the hive has queen change and there is a brood brake in late summer.

Mite load attacks to the brood, which ought bee winter bees. Summer bees die and new bees have been killed by mites. The hive will have so small gang that it is not able to keep warm the brood. That is why dead hive has brood which have patly emerge.


You need not to do nothing to your frames. Keep them dry and start again.
Honey is probably crystallized and you cannot extract it.
.

 

[Chris B]

Cm'on people - for the sake of a few poundsworth of frames - Luminos, be sensible and waste the lot and start afresh next season (there but for the grace of god.. and all that) would anyone really wan to take the chance ?

It's always a personal choice. But bait hives, test frames, colony unites etc. are all techniques widely advocated with the proviso that donor colonies have not exhibited disease symptoms. Is this any different? There's a significant advantage to using drawn comb (and the photos show it's in nice condition), outweighing the negligible risk of disease transfer. Remember varroa killed this colony, and in the process killed itself as well.

 

[Luminos]

Thanks all for your advice - I hadn't even thought about the honey.
I didn't take any honey from them as it's my first year, so it might not all be from syrup/fondant?

I don't want to risk disease spreading to a new colony, so, as Jenkinsbrynmair said, I will get new frames (I bought a spare hive last summer so I have some ready).

I'm not sure how to "get rid" of the dead brood in the frames - any views on that?
I'm guessing not a good move to put into household rubbish/council tip?

 

[Phil280]

Hi there.

Had two of those this year - Varroa pressure too high. As a few have already posted - typical picture.

It is a shame, but it happens. As long as there is no faeces on the stores you can use them to help other colonies maybe in spring. All the other comb I would melt down.

Greets
Phil

p.s. As it seems to be nothing drastic I see no problem with just throwing the comb in the bin.
Use a blowtorch on the frames after cleaning them from the wax with a knife and you will be fine.

 

[For want of a better word]

p.s. As it seems to be nothing drastic I see no problem with just throwing the comb in the bin.
Use a blowtorch on the frames after cleaning them from the wax with a knife and you will be fine.


....make soap with it !

Waste not..... want not...........

 

[Luminos]

p.s. As it seems to be nothing drastic I see no problem with just throwing the comb in the bin.
Use a blowtorch on the frames after cleaning them from the wax with a knife and you will be fine.


....make soap with it !

Waste not..... want not...........

That's made me smile for the first time in days, Icanhopit - I coould advertise it on Fleabay - "special healing properties, DWV soap"

 

[Hombre]

Don't waste the drawn comb Luminos, it's all you have to show for your year and is good.

300 colonies and 12 or is that 13 now? years trumps 3 colonies and 2 (or more) years experience. Even Finman didn't advocate you bunging things in the bin or making candles from the wax. Keep it dry and covered to keep out any waxmoth, You will be grateful for it.

Happy New Year and wishing you better luck this year. Avoid the kneejerk advisers like the plague, because they will always see disease, That and eggs in a photo of a dark frame at twilight taken with a VGA camera phone with a finger print on the lens.

 

[gavin]

I'd check whether it looked like Varroa. Look for white faeces, as in the other post, and if the latest cells to be vacated were infested to a highish percentage then you can assume that was the cause. Varroa will cause high levels of some viruses but the viruses are unlikely to persist long on the comb. I'd keep the stores to feed to colonies later, and if you have good empty comb I'd be tempted to sterilise it in acetic acid fumes in a black polythene bag for a few weeks in spring, then air them. They'd be great for boxes to attract swarms in the summer, or to help building colonies through the summer.

 

[Luminos]

Don't waste the drawn comb Luminos, it's all you have to show for your year and is good.

300 colonies and 12 or is that 13 now? years trumps 3 colonies and 2 (or more) years experience. Even Finman didn't advocate you bunging things in the bin or making candles from the wax. Keep it dry and covered to keep out any waxmoth, You will be grateful for it.

Happy New Year and wishing you better luck this year. Avoid the kneejerk advisers like the plague, because they will always see disease, That and eggs in a photo of a dark frame at twilight taken with a VGA camera phone with a finger print on the lens.

Thanks Hombre, I see your point and it does seem a waste. I think we were thinking along the lines of "better safe than sorry" (again...) but if the virus doesn't hang about on the frames then perhaps I can re-use them with confidence.
And a Happy New Year too

 

[Luminos]

I'd check whether it looked like Varroa. Look for white faeces, as in the other post, and if the latest cells to be vacated were infested to a highish percentage then you can assume that was the cause. Varroa will cause high levels of some viruses but the viruses are unlikely to persist long on the comb. I'd keep the stores to feed to colonies later, and if you have good empty comb I'd be tempted to sterilise it in acetic acid fumes in a black polythene bag for a few weeks in spring, then air them. They'd be great for boxes to attract swarms in the summer, or to help building colonies through the summer.

That's useful info, I will be able to put my Christmas-present-magnifying-glass to good use
Will the stores be OK stored in a sealed bin bag if so, will a temp of around 10 degrees C be suitable?
Is acetic acid vinegar? How do I get the fumes?