Al-In-Italy
New Bee
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2010
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Pembrokeshire
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 5
We kept bees for about five years in a very rural mountainous area of central Italy. It wasn't all plain sailing nor a huge success in terms of honey production, but we did learn a lot, we managed to actually keep bees through some pretty harsh winters, we built up our colony numbers at a modest rate and we kept them healthy. The result is that we consider ourselves fairly competent beginners.
When we moved to Pembrokeshire last year, we were keen to get back into beekeeping. We didn't manage to fit all our woodenware and equipment in the initial van loads, but after our visit to Italy at Easter this year we did bring two 10x14 brood bodies, floors and roofs.
We then acquired two nuclei with mated Buckfast queens and things progressed in what seemed to us a very satisfactory way. The queens rapidly came into lay and the colonies built up steadily.
We had to return to Italy during the summer school hols, and our last inspection before we left on 25 July gave us some cause for concern since there were so many bees, so much brood and a few queen cups in the middle of frames. If we'd had more equipment, we would have done splits, but we were reluctant to buy yet more boxes when we had stacks of the things in Italy. Also, we convinced ourselves that the fact that there were several frames with neither brood nor stores meant that the colonies had room for expansion.
We returned on 23 August to a ghastly scene: masses of dead bees on the ground in front of the hive entrances and under the hives. Typically Welsh summer weather meant we couldn't open the hives for a couple of days, but when we did we were thoroughly depressed.
There were still a large number of bees in the hives, but most seemed listless. Sort of like how you'd expect the classic relaxed Buckfast worker to behave if she'd over-indulged in the spirit of that parish. Apart from a few drones emerging on one frame in one of the hives, the comb was completely empty of eggs or brood. The mesh floors also had a large number of dead and dying bees.
In one hive, there were about a dozen emerged queen cells and a few others that had been torn down. In the other hive, there were a couple of emerged queen cells.
The only positive thing was that the empty brood cells were all clean and looked like lovely new drawn comb should look; there were no signs of foul brood. Just frame after frame of vacant cells.
There was perhaps a total of one frame of capped and uncapped honey in each hive as well as pollen stores, so starvation seems unlikely given the time of year.
We live in an area surrounded by dairy pasture and an MOD range that's mainly grassland which also is used for pasture when the tank shells aren't flying. The fields are separated by woods and hedges. Because of this and because the dying bees aren't twitching and writhing about, pesticide also seemed to us an unlikely cause.
We decided to move the frames to different brood bodies on different floors, since this seemed the simplest and least disruptive way of getting rid of all the corpses. When we did so, we discovered a young queen in a small cluster on the underside of one floor. We placed her on the top bars and she immediately disappeared down into the hive.
We just (27 August) did another quick inspection and spotted her in the hive. We weren't able to spot any eggs, but we're trying to positive and hoping that this is simply because she hasn't had time to get into egg laying mode.
Less positive is the fact that there were again a large number of dead and dying bees on the OMF in both hives. Consequently, we've done another shift to clean floors.
There are also a lot of bees that are lethargic and look to be on their last legs.
Since placing the queen in the one hive, the activity there is markedly different to what's going on at the hopelessly queenless hive. While there's a fair amount of activity at the queen-right hive entrance when the weather is halfway decent and even a bit of pollen coming in, the other hive has only occasional coming and going.
We understand that the weather here was pretty grim while we were away, so we think that's a reasonable explanation for how the other queen was lost.
We're used to seeing small piles of dead bees outside hives after a period of foul weather has prevented undertaker bees from carrying the bodies off. Given the population of the hives a few weeks back, we can see how natural mortality rates might result in masses of dead bees on the floor and outside if the undertakers were not able to keep up. We're also wondering if a relaxed approach to undertaking might be a Buckfast trait. I don't recall ever seeing this mentioned.
We'd be very grateful for comments and suggestions. We've purchased a new queen for the hopelessly queenless hive, but we do have niggling doubts about whether this might be a waste of money.
Apologies for the length of this, but attempting to paint a reasonably complete picture.
When we moved to Pembrokeshire last year, we were keen to get back into beekeeping. We didn't manage to fit all our woodenware and equipment in the initial van loads, but after our visit to Italy at Easter this year we did bring two 10x14 brood bodies, floors and roofs.
We then acquired two nuclei with mated Buckfast queens and things progressed in what seemed to us a very satisfactory way. The queens rapidly came into lay and the colonies built up steadily.
We had to return to Italy during the summer school hols, and our last inspection before we left on 25 July gave us some cause for concern since there were so many bees, so much brood and a few queen cups in the middle of frames. If we'd had more equipment, we would have done splits, but we were reluctant to buy yet more boxes when we had stacks of the things in Italy. Also, we convinced ourselves that the fact that there were several frames with neither brood nor stores meant that the colonies had room for expansion.
We returned on 23 August to a ghastly scene: masses of dead bees on the ground in front of the hive entrances and under the hives. Typically Welsh summer weather meant we couldn't open the hives for a couple of days, but when we did we were thoroughly depressed.
There were still a large number of bees in the hives, but most seemed listless. Sort of like how you'd expect the classic relaxed Buckfast worker to behave if she'd over-indulged in the spirit of that parish. Apart from a few drones emerging on one frame in one of the hives, the comb was completely empty of eggs or brood. The mesh floors also had a large number of dead and dying bees.
In one hive, there were about a dozen emerged queen cells and a few others that had been torn down. In the other hive, there were a couple of emerged queen cells.
The only positive thing was that the empty brood cells were all clean and looked like lovely new drawn comb should look; there were no signs of foul brood. Just frame after frame of vacant cells.
There was perhaps a total of one frame of capped and uncapped honey in each hive as well as pollen stores, so starvation seems unlikely given the time of year.
We live in an area surrounded by dairy pasture and an MOD range that's mainly grassland which also is used for pasture when the tank shells aren't flying. The fields are separated by woods and hedges. Because of this and because the dying bees aren't twitching and writhing about, pesticide also seemed to us an unlikely cause.
We decided to move the frames to different brood bodies on different floors, since this seemed the simplest and least disruptive way of getting rid of all the corpses. When we did so, we discovered a young queen in a small cluster on the underside of one floor. We placed her on the top bars and she immediately disappeared down into the hive.
We just (27 August) did another quick inspection and spotted her in the hive. We weren't able to spot any eggs, but we're trying to positive and hoping that this is simply because she hasn't had time to get into egg laying mode.
Less positive is the fact that there were again a large number of dead and dying bees on the OMF in both hives. Consequently, we've done another shift to clean floors.
There are also a lot of bees that are lethargic and look to be on their last legs.
Since placing the queen in the one hive, the activity there is markedly different to what's going on at the hopelessly queenless hive. While there's a fair amount of activity at the queen-right hive entrance when the weather is halfway decent and even a bit of pollen coming in, the other hive has only occasional coming and going.
We understand that the weather here was pretty grim while we were away, so we think that's a reasonable explanation for how the other queen was lost.
We're used to seeing small piles of dead bees outside hives after a period of foul weather has prevented undertaker bees from carrying the bodies off. Given the population of the hives a few weeks back, we can see how natural mortality rates might result in masses of dead bees on the floor and outside if the undertakers were not able to keep up. We're also wondering if a relaxed approach to undertaking might be a Buckfast trait. I don't recall ever seeing this mentioned.
We'd be very grateful for comments and suggestions. We've purchased a new queen for the hopelessly queenless hive, but we do have niggling doubts about whether this might be a waste of money.
Apologies for the length of this, but attempting to paint a reasonably complete picture.
