Dead Bees

[Nick W]

Hi

Had a listen at my 2 hives today to make sure everything was ok and to make sure entrance was clear etc.

I have mesh floor.

Knelt down and looked underneath hive 1 - could see the cluster and some movement - they got very excited when they saw me looking up (I did try and hold my breath)

Hive 2 - there seemed to be a lot of dead bees on the mesh floor but I did see movement. I wondered if I should and how I should remove the dead bees to allow more free movement inside the hive.

The entrance is clear - should this cause me concern or will the bees remove the dead ones off the mesh floor as the whether gets warmer?

Thanks!

Nick

 

[Midland Beek]

Get a warmish day and your bees will set about removing the corpses. However, they will never do a good job of it with a mouseguard in place. I would do two things:-

When you go to your hives, just make sure that the entrance is clear. Poking a bit of wire or a twig through the mouseguard to remove any dead bees will suffice.

On a warmish day end of Feb/first part of March and when the bees are flying, lift off the brood box/boxes and clean the floor. Just turning the floor upside down is usually enough.

 

[darren64]

I took the mouse guard off and cleared the dead bees away with a piece of stick then replaced the guard

 

[freethorpe bees]

Last Sunday when the bees were active I moved the mouseguard up in the morning to make it easier for them to remove the dead bees, then replaced it in the afternoon. They use less energy , I reckon.

 

[Arfermo]

Get a warmish day and your bees will set about removing the corpses. However, they will never do a good job of it with a mouseguard in place. I would do two things:-

When you go to your hives, just make sure that the entrance is clear. Poking a bit of wire or a twig through the mouseguard to remove any dead bees will suffice.

On a warmish day end of Feb/first part of March and when the bees are flying, lift off the brood box/boxes and clean the floor. Just turning the floor upside down is usually enough.

No need to dismantle the hive(s) at all as MB suggests. When I wanted to clear the corpses and debris to evapoarate oxalic all I did was to open the deep/wide entrance and sweep using a 18" panel saw. Magic. Minimal disturbance to the bees even if the odd dozy one in this cold weather from the cluster fell out too. Somebody is probably going to quibble. Don't as I've had quite enough of that negative verbiage.

 

[chycarne]

I like the saw idea, bamboo would do, but the teeth on a saw grip better, hmmmm better than my idea one strong (?) person (me) gently lifts (yes it is possible) the other takes away floor and cleans or swaps. This worked well with a similar situation. but I like the saw idea save my back and arms a bit. On a solid floor I would guess the bees would eb more disturbed by this and less by the saw. Otherwise I /we leave it to the bees