Hive check today

[wightbees]

Thought it was necessary to do a quick check.Nothing major just a quick look inside and have a look at what fondant is left on all 4 hives.
1 hive
Solid floor fondant above CB lots of dead bees around fondant but they are active looking through the glass CB.About 4lbs of feed left
all other hive OMF

2 hive lots of fondant BUT very small cluster about 6 " in length and on 3 frames. Lots of dead bees the whole floor is covered in them.

3 hives clustered under about 6 lb fondant (seen life)

4 hive about 8lb fondant and bees flying

Any thoughts on Hive 2 please

 

[Moggs]

Depends on much, does it not? Were they strong and well provisioned going into the big chill? Varroa count/ load? Have they been unable to find the fondant? Starving bees are usually to be found head down in empty cells(?) May be just winter losses on a weakened colony? You will probably have more clues than anybody else if you check hive records...

 

[wightbees]

Is there much i can do to try and save them.
Maybe put them in a polynuc, would that help ?

Also at what point in the yr do they start to build back up?

 

[Heather]

I would leave them be- don't disturb.
Weather seems to be constant just above freezing. As long as well insulated and give fondant which I would warm slightly and slide 1" slices down between frames as they may be too small to come up. I have one just as small but it is hanging in there- if you transfer you will lose precious heat. They will do better than any disturbance. Help nature- don't meddle...

As soon as warm enough for them to bring pollen in- they will start to build. maybe a fondant with pollen incorporated will help them too.

 

[wightbees]

Thanks Heather .

 

[Mike a]

I agree with Heather
Just check they can get in and out of the entrance and have enough stores/fondant and wait it out.

 

[Vergilius]

You don't want to be messing around with them now... Any re-housing should have been done in autumn.

Ben P

 

[wightbees]

They where to big for a nuc in autumn Ben.p
Plus,umm i was in the states lol

 

[Jimmy]

slide 1" slices down between frames as they may be too small to come up.

I found out this afternoon that a small nucleus was a starvation victim and wished that I'd done something along the lines Heather suggests last week when they were still alive.
They had fondant available on the crown board but the tennis ball sized cluster was positioned mid-frame, all head down and very dead
With hindsight I should have culled it back in September - it had a small emergency queen that was mated in late August and seemed to stubbornly refuse to lay down stores. She had started to lay eggs this year and there was a patch of hatching brood when I cleaned out the dead bees.
I'm hoping the other full sized colonies have more luck. All were OK when hefted though I think I will need to supplement them to get them through to the first nectar.

 

[Poly Hive]

This advice is brutal.

I had no choice either but......

Take your hit in autumn. Lest they die.

Ph

 

[Heather]

I have a 2 frame in a polynuc tree rescue Sept- hanging on in- still alive -fondant rammed down- watch this space....

 

[wightbees]

I just hope they make it to this coming sat as thats the only time i will be able to get to them.Or a early eve ,do you think that would be to cold to do a quick feed ? (eve).
cheers

 

[Erichalfbee]

I would leave them be- don't disturb.
Weather seems to be constant just above freezing. As long as well insulated and give fondant which I would warm slightly and slide 1" slices down between frames as they may be too small to come up. I have one just as small but it is hanging in there- if you transfer you will lose precious heat. They will do better than any disturbance. Help nature- don't meddle...

As soon as warm enough for them to bring pollen in- they will start to build. maybe a fondant with pollen incorporated will help them too.

My weakest colony has all but eaten the fondant I put on two weeks ago so I put on some neopoll yesterday morning. Don't know if that will help. They were out flying and throwing out their dead last week and were,as far as I could see in the ten seconds it took me to change containers, clustered tightly under the crownboard hole. The other two were walking about and munching the fondant.
Strangely, the container I removed had some comb built in it.

 

[Black Comb]

Too early for pollen substitute IMO.
This is to encourage them to build up brood.
It's only mid-January and could go very cold again.

 

[Heather]

Bog standard fondant till March -then neopoll - if you think natural pollen input is low

 

[BobsBees]

Hi Wightbees,
Any chance you can insulate the hive, If we get another very cold snap, they could perish, as theres not enough bodies to keep each other warm.
Even if its dustbin liners folded to double thicknes and then stapled around the brood and up to the roof.
I have done this this year to ward off the Green Woody's, so far it has worked, where another hive close by has been attacked.
Otherwise not much you can do, as you are already feeding fondant.
Cheers and good luck Bob.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ahhhhhhh should I take it off then?

 

[Black Comb]

If it can be done quickly and minimal disturbance then do it.
It won't do them any harm to eat it so if not easy just let them chomp away and replace with fondant until March.

 

[Haughton Honey]

Bog standard fondant till March -then neopoll - if you think natural pollen input is low

And there's no reason to think it should be low in most areas of this country......

 

[RoofTops]

Neopoll is mostly sugar with added pollen. It is not a pollen substitute in its own right. There will be some parts of the country where willow is coming into flower and providing lots of pollen so nothing wrong in feeding them with Neopoll but once started I suggest you need to keep feeding them because if you encourage brood rearing there will be more mouths to feed, which is the real danger really - the colony building up early and running out of stores. Neopoll provides protein and carbohydrates but you could switch to normal fondant after the first dose if you don't have any more to give them.

If you do a bit of Googling you will find accounts of people using pollen subsitutes as early as January in some parts of the US like Florida but I wouldn't recommend it here unless you can also give them plenty of carbohydrates.