mandabow
House Bee
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2011
- Messages
- 126
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Southampton & Rugby
- Hive Type
- Beehaus
- Number of Hives
- 4 eeep! keep needing to AS.. 2 with virgin Qs tho'
while i try and resist posting on before finishing and get on with reading the thread of doom i have a random question:
I bought an omlet beehaus about a yr and a half ago when i was made redundant and had moved back to my mums. sadly (literally weeks before i ordered the omlet) my mentor had died (having not seen him for a couple of years while working away i had no idea, happliy rolled up at his to make his day and say i was finally ready to have that free nuc i was always promised for yrs of helping out in my holidays at school. only to find out he had passed on )
anywhoo, few months went by and the spring came, and put waxmoth traps around to see what the area was/is like and try and cut down local population. was going to buy a nuc, balked at the price a bit. then got another job miles away and it all went on the back burner.
now working vaguely closer to home, so decided to get off my ass an actaully get some.
went to check the hive this weekend and to my horror found about 50 or so dead bees in it. no sign of a queen, no obvious signs of disease.. they look liek theyve been there som time (totally dried up) about half hove their toungues stickign out and heads are turned to the side.
I'm guessing that they were scouts looking for a new home, who's sisters going back to get the rest of the swar found it wasn't there or something. or maybe a swarm popped in and decided not to stay and these gals died during the short period they were in residence (no comb has been drawn)
or perhaps they smelt the wax inside ont he frames and were trying to rob another hive.. or popped in separatly to shelter from the rain/ i don't know
slight concern as my knowledge is somewhat out of date as to the diseases we have in the UK (literally 14 yrs sice i actually handled hives on a frequent basis!!). should i send them off somewhere to be tested? or can i as i suspect assume they died of naturalish causes and happily put in a new nuc sometime soon?
thanks a million in advance for any suggestions
manda
I bought an omlet beehaus about a yr and a half ago when i was made redundant and had moved back to my mums. sadly (literally weeks before i ordered the omlet) my mentor had died (having not seen him for a couple of years while working away i had no idea, happliy rolled up at his to make his day and say i was finally ready to have that free nuc i was always promised for yrs of helping out in my holidays at school. only to find out he had passed on )
anywhoo, few months went by and the spring came, and put waxmoth traps around to see what the area was/is like and try and cut down local population. was going to buy a nuc, balked at the price a bit. then got another job miles away and it all went on the back burner.
now working vaguely closer to home, so decided to get off my ass an actaully get some.
went to check the hive this weekend and to my horror found about 50 or so dead bees in it. no sign of a queen, no obvious signs of disease.. they look liek theyve been there som time (totally dried up) about half hove their toungues stickign out and heads are turned to the side.
I'm guessing that they were scouts looking for a new home, who's sisters going back to get the rest of the swar found it wasn't there or something. or maybe a swarm popped in and decided not to stay and these gals died during the short period they were in residence (no comb has been drawn)
or perhaps they smelt the wax inside ont he frames and were trying to rob another hive.. or popped in separatly to shelter from the rain/ i don't know
slight concern as my knowledge is somewhat out of date as to the diseases we have in the UK (literally 14 yrs sice i actually handled hives on a frequent basis!!). should i send them off somewhere to be tested? or can i as i suspect assume they died of naturalish causes and happily put in a new nuc sometime soon?
thanks a million in advance for any suggestions
manda