Disapearing Bees

[Tom Bick]

Hi Enrico I have kept bees for over fifty years we used to keep about thirty hives I sold up for ten years when my wife died encouraged to start again three years ago Varroa was not about when i kept them before. we are now back up to thirty hives ,I have never had this happen before just like the boat marie salest a mystery

Yes no Varroa a good few years ago now but also no Nosema Ceranae at this time of year it raises its head and can affect the queen stopping her laying and eventually falling off the perch. I may be wrong but I don’t think the bees realise something is wrong with her before its to late.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I suspect post #2 is correct.

Thymol has a strong smell and can - in my view - overpower the natural hive smell and bees learn to associate thymol with food as that's what we have trained them with! If all the hives stink the same, then it's easy for robber bees to get in - the intruders smell the same as the 'victims'. Once silent robbing starts it's a) difficult to identify with a casual glance and b) it's difficult to stop.

The 2 gallons of feed has gone somewhere. It's not CCD. Neonictinoids do not cause feed to disappear! With CCD, bees - I believe - don't enter the hive to rob it and the queen remains with a few bees in any case. I suspect Taylan has got some well-fed hives somewhere.

Wasps would work through the larvae possibly but consider thymol feed; queen might go off lay for a few days; Hive starts to get robbed; Queen a bit miffed and doesn't lay - downward spiral..

A hive that's heavily robbed might abscond too. I saw that with a mini-nuc a month ago. The clipped queen and her bees were in a pile 3 feet from the hive. I nearly stood on them.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Nosema Ceranae ....... can affect the queen stopping her laying and eventually falling off the perch. I may be wrong but I don’t think the bees realise something is wrong with her before its to late.

I suspect this too Tom. What I should have done a couple of years ago when I had a couple of queens like this is to examine them. I didn't
I've not had the problem since.

 

[PBee]

Two weeks ago strong and flying well bringing in pollen.

Hi itma last inspection 21st Aug when we put on the thymol pads there was brood and eggs so no need to look for queen if there had been no eggs we would have looked further I can't remember the individual counts of varroa but the highest was only about ten haven't done a count since

Hi Poly Hive 4 of these hives produced honey this year from the rape and were well up to strength I would have thought if it was Varroa it would have taken hold sooner when the brood was more, the apiary in the wood which is the largest is right by 20acres of rape one bright sunny day at 12pm a contractor came in and sprayed I don't know what with I did not see it myself I was told but it did not have any visable affect on the bees
I had quite a fair crop, they have now ploughed the field so I don't think they would have sprayed again.

Experienced beekeeper, strong hives 2 weeks ago, highest varroa count on the borderline of Defra's light control/severe risk graph. Fourteen days later bees gone in a number of hives. Hives on OSR and possibly sprayed earlier on. Coincidence?
....adjusts hardhat to anti position low over the eyes .... I spy with my little eye something beginning with .... n ....

 

[itma]

Last inspected about seven weeks ago.
Swarm seen nearby six weeks ago.
Weather since not too great for mating? Or potentially simply lost on the mating flight.

That quite easily accounts for broodless in my estimation.
And quite probably queenless too. (Incoming pollen does not guarantee queenright!)
All feed and nectar/honey stores gone - robbed out, potentially under cover of Thymol, as mentioned. Fairly easy from a swarm-weakened hive, even easier if queenless and 'demoralised'. From what I gather total clearance can happen in a very short time, a few days at most.
Queenless, broodless, storeless hive - remaining few bees drift off elsewhere.
I don't think any conspiracy theories are needed.
Wouldn't Occam be satisfied?




And anyway, when was this spraying?
/ yes 12 noon, got that, and sometime before ploughing, but how many months ago? Or rather, how long before the 21 August inspection when everything seemed fine?

 

[Poly Hive]

Indeed and the less nonsense about the "N" the better.

PH

 

[Hivemaker.]

I spy with my little eye something beginning with .... n ....

Indeed and the less nonsense about the "N" the better.
PH

According to most,even Wiki, Neanderthals are now extinct anyway,so doubt they could be to blame for the disappearance.

 

[Haughton Honey]

I presume if it was robbing that the OP might have spotted the trademark 'ragged edges' to the cells/comb that's associated with robbing, either by other bees or wasps?

 

[PBee]

According to most,even Wiki, Neanderthals are now extinct anyway,so doubt they could be to blame for the disappearance.

Oh yeah ....... what's this then .......

 

[PBee]

Swarm seen nearby six weeks ago.


And anyway, when was this spraying?
/ yes 12 noon, got that, and sometime before ploughing, but how many months ago? Or rather, how long before the 21 August inspection when everything seemed fine?

Fair enough but its four hives not one so that would suggest a common denominator somewhere. I have hives that were broodless for a long period around this time and there was no dwindling. Less work, less die off.

 

[Stromnessbees]

situation in Europe

Loads of empty hives in europe last autumn/early winter. Attributed to high varroa load plus nosema.

I know the situation in Europe very well: after all, German is my first language and I speak some French and Italian as well.


The massive problem of empty hives in autumn/early winter there has been attributed to varroa - by the Bee-Institutes, not by the beekeepers!

The problem is, that the Bee-Institutes receive their funding from Bayer, the producer of neonicotinoids.

The beekeepers know fair well, that neonics are the real reason behind their empty hives, even if varroa is sometimes the final straw.

And why else were certain neonics banned in several European countries?!

Time for the Uk beekeepers to wake up and smell the coffee!

 

[Hebeegeebee]

So.
The N-word has been spoken
Not the F-word.
But it seems
The N word
is responsible for robbing too!
That's a new one.

I suspect that some would say
That Jimmy Saville had been dosed with N.
And it's all Bayers fault he was a perv.

This beekeeper knows fair well
His hives are surrounded by N
His bees do very well.
I must be lying.
I must work for Bayer to say this.
But I don't.

 

[madasafish]

I know the situation in Europe very well: after all, German is my first language and I speak some French and Italian as well.


The massive problem of empty hives in autumn/early winter there has been attributed to varroa - by the Bee-Institutes, not by the beekeepers!

The problem is, that the Bee-Institutes receive their funding from Bayer, the producer of neonicotinoids.

The beekeepers know fair well, that neonics are the real reason behind their empty hives, even if varroa is sometimes the final straw.

And why else were certain neonics banned in several European countries?!

Time for the Uk beekeepers to wake up and smell the coffee!

So no doubt you will produce written proof of that extraordinary allegation that Beekeepers KNOW the cause of death is neonics... and not just an unverified statement made by you.


You really are doing your cause no end of harm by acting and sounding as if the world is a conspiracy started by Bayer..

Conspiracy theories are ten a penny and frankly a total turn off.

 

[Poly Hive]

Complete and total rubbish.

I noticed by the way a complete absence of honey bees in Orkney. I wonder why?

It must be the fuel leaking from the Royal Oak?

Just as likely.

PH

 

[Stromnessbees]

hives lost because of neonics

Don't underestimate other beekeepers.

They can work it out for themselves. After all, varroa has been around for a long time, but what beekeepers are observing in their hives nowadays cannot be explained by varroa alone.

Beekeepers everywhere notice the change of the farming systems, they can work out, that hives fail if they have been visiting treated crops, even if it's a few months later.

In this video a sixth generation beekeeper who lost all his hives to neonics in 2008 explains, that he now avoids all agricultural crops to keep his bees alive.

http://planete.zdf.de/ZDF/zdfportal...42534/24385582/97ba76/Tod-im-Bienenstock.html

 

[Taylan]

Hi itma
The spraying occurred ealy on when the rape was in full flower don't you remember that nice day we had in summer !!

 

[Stromnessbees]

Beekeeper Tom Theobald about neonics causing bee die-offs

So no doubt you will produce written proof of that extraordinary allegation that Beekeepers KNOW the cause of death is neonics... and not just an unverified statement made by you.

You can have written proof, but in the meantime a video of another beekeeper who is not too shy to say what he knows, this time in English:

http://www.linktv.org/video/7800/colorado-beekeeper-tom-theobald-on-bee-loss

 

[itma]

Hi itma
The spraying occurred ealy on when the rape was in full flower don't you remember that nice day we had in summer !!

So, unlikely to have a sudden effect several months later.

Whether or not the spraying had any part whatever, I sincerely doubt that it was a primary causal factor.
It would be very hard for an impartial judge to accept that "but for" the spraying, the colony would be there today - and "but for" is the standard legal determinant of causation.

 

[Poly Hive]

Botheration

 

[Nic Rhodes]

and move it to the 'area 51'