Hi

[beewells]

Hi I thought i would introduce myself, my name is Andy and live in Suffolk well the year started off well as i always wanted to keep bees ever since i was a lad, as luck would have it a swarm landed in my Hawthorne hedge in May, a friend had a spare hive i bought off him and some frames, so from then i was hooked got a few bits together and really enjoying my self looking after my bees, i had them about 6ft away from the hedge, but unbeknown to me next door sprayed weedkiller under the hedge to get rid of the weeds some time at the end of may and again in august, by the end of june some bees were dead in front of the hive and by the end of august all were dead, could this have been do to the weedkiller as they were doing so well and could not find any mites and all look ok,
Regards
Andy

 

[Walrus]

Hi,
there are many things it could have been. I'm not sure which weedkillers, if any, would wipe out your bees. As you had a second hand hive it is always possible that there was some disease lurking in there. Did they have plenty of stores? With the bad weather this year many colonies died of starvation.

Sorry anyway - hopefully you will get more bees and have better luck next time

 

[beewells]

thanks for your reply the hive was sterilized i was told and about 5 frames of bees with plenty of stores i did notice alot of drone cells tho, yes i know its not been a very good year for bees and it could be a combination of things that went wrong, but won't give up
Andy

 

[psafloyd]

Andy, I'd go and tell your neighbours that if they do any spraying of weedkiller on your boundary, they should give you fair warning.

Whether it did for the bees or not, you could have all manner of things there you wouldn't want contaminated with weedkiller.

 

[alanf]

thanks for your reply the hive was sterilized i was told and about 5 frames of bees with plenty of stores i did notice a lot of drone cells tho,

The sort of contact weedkillers anyone might risk under a hedge such as glyphosate won't kill insects. Although they do kill the food source of the insects (including bees of all types), and risk killing the hedge by drifting onto foliage, so not to be encouraged.

My guess would be the dead bees are unlikely to be connected to the spray. Many queens around here this year have been poorly mated. Yours could have been one of them, either before or after swarming and without worker brood they have died out. No reason why you shouldn't have better luck next year.

 

[beewells]

many thanks for all your help, i am new to all of this and i was very disappointed at losing all of my bees and have tried to think if it was anything i have done but i can't, another beekeeper friend said i have had all the problems that some get in ten years of beekeeping in one season, but will not let it get to me as i have been promised another colonial in February so can't wait.
Andy

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Hi beewells. Welcome to the Forum.

Sorry you had such an unpromising start - but it's great that your enthusiasm seems indented.

Plenty of time now to read up, to mooch around this crazy Forum and to do a course. Then you'll have a head start next year.

Enjoy.

Dusty

 

[beewells]

thanks dusty, i have been given plenty of help from a friend and more bees coming next year,like you say plenty of time to dust up on the reading.
regards
Andy