Cull

[Erichalfbee]

Beats me why you asked, then
Your choice
You've been given a recipe to try and a way of disposing of them.
Onward and forward

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Beats me why you asked, then

Hardly a year goes by without a similar post, usually has decided before posting but tries to offload some of the guilt by hoping for the approval of others.

 

[Madge]

I'm stuck now!
Bees have self sacrifice built in- chucking out drones in autumn ...

Yes, that's natural. You should be worried if they didn't do that. How long have you been keeping bees?

... uncapping diseased brood ,sick bees leaving and not returning -

Diseased brood? What did the brood look like? Why didn't you contact a bee inspector as you should have done?

Having a spore ridden box on the site

As said before, you're guessing. You don't know what's going on in there.

so I value nature's natural selection policy and stand by my willingnes to eliminate their DNA from the gene pool ... But !
If there is a chance to save them a tight fisted beekeeper wouldn't want to lose stock...

Says the ignorant, who asks for help, and doesn't listen to help offered.

 

[Stiffy]

Sorry if this offends but fed up with nonsense.
It would be good to hear all the facts from OP’s at the start so an informed response could be given.
S

 

[Madge]

Sorry if this offends but fed up with nonsense.
It would be good to hear all the facts from OP’s at the start so an informed response could be given.
S

I’ve asked several times for the facts. As yet he has only offered guesses.

 

[Millet]

I'm stuck now!
Bees have self sacrifice built in- chucking out drones in autumn,uncapping diseased brood ,sick bees leaving and not returning - so I value nature's natural selection policy and stand by my willingnes to eliminate their DNA from the gene pool ( none of the other colonies have apparently succomed and I don't want them mating with my good virgins later on.)
Having a spore ridden box on the site doesn't sit well with me and they haven't touched any sugar cake or pollen subs for weeks.
But !
If there is a chance to save them a tight fisted beekeeper wouldn't want to lose stock...

After the bits of advice given you still seem to have made your mind up...start a fire in your garden and throw the hive on top of it.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I haven't.

Terminate now as Swarm suggested and you'll never regret it. Three years ago in early spring I had similar: one colony with iffy temper (Q due for the foot) and bad dysentery in an apiary of twelve; on a cold day sprayed the frames and bees; all dead in five minutes. That lot and the scrapings went up in flames and the hive was taken out of the apiary for cleaning.

Maybe it was dysentery, maybe N. apis, but bad temper and a weakness for dysentery? No, thanks. We're dealing with livestock and the health of the majority is the prime concern. Not had dysentery in that apiary since (or bad temper).

fumigate the colony with a suphur strip to euthanase it then burn the frames and dead bees otherwise it will infect your new stock when you get it

 

[blackcloud]

Thanks for the helpful last page!!!
You all have missed what has transpired
I was checking for a humane way of disposing of bees who would have died anyway
The facts have been supplied early on and as soon as the alternatives were offered
If that's how you treat clearly new beekeeper s then God help us all.

 

[viridens]

Just a reminder that this is the Beekeeping forum. I completely agree with friend Jenkins posts.

(a) There is a seasonal element and the season is changing. I have seen apparent Nosema afflicted colonies recover and thrive without treatment as the weather improves.
(b) Why destroy the colony without first trying a fairly cheap and simple remedy? Even if it is rampant Nosema as you suspect, a week or two won't make much difference except to your potential victim colony.

Would you destroy a colony with a high mite drop? Surely the skill of the craft of beekeeping is in overcoming such difficulties.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I haven't.

Terminate now as Swarm suggested and you'll never regret it. Three years ago in early spring I had similar: one colony with iffy temper (Q due for the foot) and bad dysentery in an apiary of twelve; on a cold day sprayed the frames and bees; all dead in five minutes. That lot and the scrapings went up in flames and the hive was taken out of the apiary for cleaning.

Maybe it was dysentery, maybe N. apis, but bad temper and a weakness for dysentery? No, thanks. We're dealing with livestock and the health of the majority is the prime concern. Not had dysentery in that apiary since (or bad temper).

fumigate the colony with a suphur strip to euthanase it then burn the frames and dead bees otherwise it will infect your new stock when you get it

 

[ericbeaumont]

If there is a chance to save them a tight fisted beekeeper wouldn't want to lose stock

Tight fisted or false economy? Split a couple of good strong colonies in spring and you'll make up numbers and more.

 

[Ian123]

I think the OP will have to judge if you still have a good number of bees in the box covering multiple frames then it’s probably worth a go with the thymol, if your down to 2 frames of bees covered in crap then you may be wasting your time and soapy water is likely to be the best course. I very much doubt it’s the weather realistically whilst it’s been wet and blowing a gale temps have been mild over large parts of the country. I even noticed mine flying just before 1 of these storms hit. I’ve seen nosema take out large numbers of a friends hives and nucs 1 year including about 30 nucs out of 40 in a bee shed, annoying thing was I had been on at him for a couple of years about putting thymol in the syrup. Got to say very rarely see any case now and none so far this season touch wood.

 

[Madge]

Thanks for the helpful last page!!!
You all have missed what has transpired
I was checking for a humane way of disposing of bees who would have died anyway
The facts have been supplied early on and as soon as the alternatives were offered
If that's how you treat clearly new beekeeper s then God help us all.

The only - or initial - ‘fact’ you’ve given is that the bees aren’t as active as the other colonies. That’s not necessarily a disease or evidence of Nosema. Subsequent facts included chucking out drones in the autumn (yes!) and diseased brood - but again, no explanation as to why you think that, nor why you didn’t report it to a bee inspector.

As a new beekeeper, listen to advice and don’t assume your chosen course of action is the correct one.

 

[Murox]

This ink provides some salient reading
http://scientificbeekeeping.com/the-nosema-problem-part-5-monitoring-and-disinfection/

 

[masterBK]

If Nosema (need to check a ground up sample under microscope) then when bees begin to fly more regularly and defaecate outside the hive the colony often recovers (slowly at first) as other bees are not licking up the dysentery (if Nosema apis) . However there will be spores on the combs so need to get the bees onto clean comb (look up Bailey comb change) so that it doesn't break out again next winter. Also best to requeen from a healthy strain when you get the chance. Sometimes queen infected and she begins to fail leading to spring /early sumer supercedure. That said Nosemic colonies can be a waste of time and I tend to put them down (spraying with washing up water.)

 

[Erichalfbee]

If Nosema (need to check a ground up sample under microscope)

Randy Oliver’s Quick Squash is an easy method.

 

[Murox]

Randy Oliver’s Quick Squash is an easy method.

Some more useful reading and information from Randy Oliver - especially the first three articles
http://scientificbeekeeping.com/?s=dysentery

 

[Parsonage Bees]

As JMB says above threads like this appear each year and last year it was me. Disposable beekeeping as he puts it.

I had a colony that were followers and the queen had been failing/becoming a drone layer through the winter resulting in a colony that looked like photo below in May.

Was going to put whole brood box in freezer but didn't end up culling them. I united them with another colony which had bad chalkbrood so little to loose. They produced a super of honey and have survived the winter and a huge varroa population last autumn.

blackcloud, I'm guessing you have only a few hives like me. Beekeeping for the interest not the next mortgage payment. I don't have pedigree stock. I don't have control of the drones in the area so didn't worry about slim chance of any of these drones getting to mate. Drones alive now are not going to mate.

I say try saving them. More interesting.
If I had a sick colony now I'd have to leave them for a few weeks yet. Still too cold?

 

[Swarm]

No drone cells on that frame.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

No drone cells on that frame.

Look at the bees. About half the population are drones. I started seeing drones being ejected or flying in January last year. Queen struggled on until May. They tried to replace her but failed.