Help with dying bees and posting photos

[saraindevon]

Hi Pargyle

Again, thanks for the questions; I'd try to answer as best as I can, but not sure I can identify that much of what I see unfortunately.

The bees came from someone who had them on a farm about 30 miles from where I am. Personal circumstances meant he had to leave quite sudden; I wasn't able to pick them up until a few weeks after he left and I didn't get much information about them (though one of the farm workers suggested maybe one of the colonies had swarmed) ; all I know is that they were not swarms but bought as nucs and they have been on that farm for a few years. We moved them to our place (a market place) beginning of June, and inspected them every 2/3 weeks but not really knowing what I was looking at to be honest, they seemed fine and on my good or bad judgement I decided from things I've read etc, that I wouldn't take honey or do anything much to them for the first year and just leave them to it, only having a look every so often to make sure they were fine; and then next time I looked, maybe 4/5 weeks from previous is when I found the dead ones, just before I posted here...

I never saw a queen on the dead colony but doesn't mean it wasn't there of course. I've seen the queen on the other colony but only this last one time.

what is BIAS?

Haven't taken any honey and don't think anything distressing has happened

There is loads of forage available to them here; veg plant flowers, wild flowers, trees, weeds, bushes, etc; not heather here but lots of flowers of all kinds; lack of flowers shouldn't be a problem, though we get very high rainfall and strong winds...

there are dead bees with their heads in the empty cells and their backsides sticking out as you said, but also a big pile of bees dead on the floor...would they eventually all fall to the floor anyway? Also, it didn't really seem to be that many, I thought there was too few dead ones to be honest, maybe swarmed without me noticing?

I looked closely at the dead bees to see if I could see any mites etc but I couldn't-are they all visible with naked eye?

I think that's all I can think of; hope that helps to get a better idea...?

happy to answer any other questions of course; sorry took a while to reply but haven't got internet access at the moment

thank you all for your help
sara

 

[Millet]

BIAS = Brood in All Stages brood being young larvae or pupa.

 

[saraindevon]

charlievictorbravo, thanks for that, I didn't know about beebase, will look at how to do that..
when you pm does that go straight to my email or do I have to find the pm message here in the forum? (sorry also not so good with computers!)
thank you!
sara

 

[enrico]

Come on you Devon forum members, I am just too far away to help but someone must be close enough to visit!
E

 

[theeggman]

Sara,
You have a message on your landline answerphone.

For info, Private Messages are in a smallish box towards the top right of the screen.

PS This always assumes that you are who I think you are.

 

[saraindevon]

Thank You! Help is at hand now...

Thanks everyone for your kind support; a nice local member has offered to come and have a look, that's amazing, I'm so grateful....thank you!
sara

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thanks everyone for your kind support; a nice local member has offered to come and have a look, that's amazing, I'm so grateful....thank you!
sara

sara that's wonderful and thanks to whoever has offered to help. That's one of the good things about this community.
Let us know what the diagnosis is and good luck with your other bees.
You've started the journey with a disaster but it does get easier....stick with it.

 

[pargyle]

Hi Sara,

Have a look here, its a USA site but the photos on this page are good and will give you an idea of what you are looking for in terms of starving bees.

http://pollinator.com/starving_bees.htm

The first photo shows you what a brood frame with no stores in it looks like ... there's a few capped worker cells (the brown lidded ones) but at this stage they would be lucky to have live bees in them.

There's a bit of pollen stored around the edge of the brood area ... that's the reddish sunken cells - which may be the 'reddish' bits that you are seeing in your hive.

The second photo shows bees in the classic 'bum out' position - trying to extract the last bit of honey from the bottom of the cell - this is a situation that would reduce any beekeeper to tears.

The white bits you can see are probably dead larvae - it's even possible that they have been inflicted with chalk brood which leaves the dead larvae like a piece of stone - it's often the sign of a weak colony.

If you want to see what healthy frames should look like at this time of the year then you can see some from an inspection of one of my hives late in August 2013 here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/99514363@N06/albums/72157636257539084

You really need to start and do some learning - there must be a local beekeepers association who will almost certainly be running a course in the early part of the spring so if you are going to continue to keep bees get joining and sign up. Whilst we are all happy to help with disasters on here you really need to do a bit of reading - a book like ' Bees at the Bottom of the Garden' is a book for pre-beekeepers but for less than a fiver it will be a lot of help to you if you read it ... and then read it again. Next year you will need something like the Haynes Manual of Beekeeping which will get you through your first real year.

http://store.musicmagpie.co.uk/prod...MItpCSnIWR1gIVT7HtCh1srwWQEAQYAiABEgKaePD_BwE

Beekeeping is not rocket science but you do need to learn the language, get some basic idea of what's going on and then we will be in a better position to assist.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

charlievictorbravo, thanks for that, I didn't know about beebase, will look at how to do that..
when you pm does that go straight to my email or do I have to find the pm message here in the forum? (sorry also not so good with computers!)
thank you!
sara

Did you manage to open my private message? Access to these Private Messages is via a link below where it says "Welcome, Saraindevon" in the top right hand corner of the screen.

CVB

 

[Millet]

Thanks everyone for your kind support; a nice local member has offered to come and have a look, that's amazing, I'm so grateful....thank you!
sara

Brilliant and well done to that good person who has offered help, the world would be a better place if there was more like him.

 

[Wingy]

Keep us updated with the results. Best of luck