Dead bees

[Aggravated]

Did an inspection this morning and found 5 or 6 dead bees on the OMF in the hive. The Colony is a swarm from the beginning of June, and is on 4 or 5 frames in a National, and seems a bit weak( Full size hive with dummy board). I saw the queen today for the first time and managed to mark her.

My other hive is from an over wintered nuc and is going well.

1. Is it that the swarm needs more time to build up
2. I know that 5 or 6 bees in the scheme of things is not much, but I am worried the bees can't be bothered, indicating another problem
3. There seems to be enough stores and have seen larvae and sealed brood.
4. The bees are a bit grumpy compared to the nuc, is it worth re queening this hive

Regards


Agg

 

[tonybloke]

a few bees on the floor is nowt to worry about, it just means the house-tidying bees ain't been able to sweep the floor due to bad weather.

'a bit grumpy' is too vague for advice. most bees are 'a bit grumpy' this year, due to crappy weather.

 

[itma]

Having marked HMQ, one thing to be sure to check next time is that she's still there and still doing what she should.
There's a (should be small) risk that after marking, she might be rejected by her colony. Risk is much greater with 'unusual' marking paint.

 

[Aggravated]

Thank you, what would unusual paint be, I have used the pen type form the bee shop

Regards

 

[Poly Hive]

I would dummy them up and put insulation over the CB which I assume they do not have?

PH

 

[itma]

Thank you, what would unusual paint be, I have used the pen type form the bee shop

Regards

Should be fine - but I've heard of people using Humbrol, nail varnish, etc ...

 

[Baggyone]

Swarm may have better things to do sorting out some laying space before worrying about clearing out the dead. If you had a big mound of bee's worry, but you haven't so don't.

Baggy

 

[Aggravated]

Thank you, why would you put insulation over the crown board?

Agg

 

[Swarm]

Insulation above the CB acts in the same manner as loft insulation, haven't you seen all the contentious threads? Something you need to worry about more in Winter than now. Accidents can happen, entrances becoming blocked etc and should this happen (I've seen it) the poor bees would have been happy with matchsticks propping the CB. As it was they were well insulated and boiled to death with collapsed combs and all sorts, what a pitiful sight.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Aggravated,
Bees need to keep the brood area at 35 degrees, so there's a lot of work to do. Insulating the hive or using a smaller hive means that it's easier to keep the brood area warm - and consequently easier to rear more brood so the colony builds up quicker. It's generally accepted that less winter fuel is used too - just as your loft insulation means you don't use so much electricity/gas.

4 or 5 frames of bees (how many brood?) is not much in a full-sized box hence the suggestion to reduce the size of the box by adding insulation.

 

[Aggravated]

So it may be worth putting the insulation in now?

 

[itma]

They need even more warmth for making wax for comb-making.

Hence the best place for getting new brood frames drawn is either side of the brood nest (the frames with actual brood - eggs, larvae or sealed) - but not dividing the brood nest.

With an open mesh floor, its never a bad time to have top insulation.
With a small colony not filling the box, it may be helpful to fill the void space beyond the dummy board with insulation.

To help get wax drawn in bad weather, some would make a point of closing the open floor to make the hive as cosy as possible. With the weather set to improve, this may not be so good - you don't want bees having to do extra work as aircon simply because you've closed the floor.