Drones in January ?????

[Tom Bick]

It’s a tough one nedgehog66 and my first post was wide of the mark.

You bought the 3 colonies at the end of summer so not nucs then? and do you know the reason for the beekeeper selling? This would be important to me in that if they were selling up they just may have neglected the bees or knew they had problems? Or it may have been someone who produces a few nucs / colonies for sale each year and unknown to them produced poor queens.

If I was you I would ask someone to run a Nosema test on them Nosema Ceranae can effect the queen not sure about her becoming a drone layer but certainly stop laying and falling off the perch, this can happen late in the season forcing the bees desperately trying to replace her with one outcome unmated queen.

When you got the colonies you were told to feed feed feed was this because they were under strength or just on the verge of starvation and perhaps a pointer that all was not right back then, to me a colony should be holding its own at least towards the end of summer even with this previous year unless they were surrounded by green concrete that is but I don’t see that’s the case at Preston and probably a good mix of nectar and pollens through out the year.

 

[Chris B]

I hadn't spotted the Preston link. My brother in law has bees in Preston and they did especially well late season due to balsam everywhere.

 

[Easy Beesy]

If I remember the bees were not purchased until late October and it was November before I was asked to visit. Not much I could do at that time of year - bees were flying and we looked under crown board. There were 4-5 seams of bees to be seen. No further inspection done. OP advised to feed as hives were light. . Visited and Applied th0rnes premixed oxA on 9 Dec.

 

[hedgehog66]

Bees were bought from Cheshire......near crewe

Guy selling up because of work commitments. There were 5 hives in small orchard. The other 2 belonged to someone else.

Put it down to experience. Hopefully i will have more luck next year.

Will look to buy some nucs from local bka, members.

 

[hedgehog66]

Hello easy b

All your help & experience has been invaluable and very gratefully received.

Just an unfortunate situation that nobody could of anticipated.

There is still 1 hive with life in it at moment. All i can do is keep feeding them and check them.

See you on Thurs. Xxxx

 

[Tom Bick]

All is not lost hedgehog66 you still have one colony although six drones to one worker bee spotted looks bad it just may be ok. One thing I have learnt is that when everything tells you this will happen the opposite is sometimes the case.
The bees came with equipment and you still have that and we often learn more from mistakes and problems. I sympathise with you and you must be gutted and feeling bad but I doubt you could have done more just perhaps experience caught you out and this has gained you some of that.
Good luck and fingers crossed for the bees.

 

[Easy Beesy]

Hi Hh66
Not much can be done at this time of year for either the dead or living hive, I'm afraid.
Any advice from inspector at branch meeting?

 

[enrico]

All is not lost hedgehog66 you still have one colony although six drones to one worker bee spotted looks bad it just may be ok. One thing I have learnt is that when everything tells you this will happen the opposite is sometimes the case.
The bees came with equipment and you still have that and we often learn more from mistakes and problems. I sympathise with you and you must be gutted and feeling bad but I doubt you could have done more just perhaps experience caught you out and this has gained you some of that.
Good luck and fingers crossed for the bees.

That was a nice cheer up post Tom. We need more optimism like that on here!

 

[Tom Bick]

Cheers enrico I have seen a couple of hives come through impossible situations and go on to thrive they have a greater sense of survival than we give them credit for but it does depend on the problem they face never the less it has given me more faith in them.