New Member with worry about dead bees outside hive and being brought out of the hive!!!!!

[Boylucid]

Hello All,

I am Boylucid and have just joined this group, I am a new bee keeper with one hive which was Kindly given to me by a beekeeper who used my land for several years.

So I was given a queen and three frames in March and due to the poor summer kept up a sugar feed til July. Last month as well as the Super being very full and busy I have a set of full frames above the excluder and all was moving along nicely, added Verola sticks and there is no sign of the mite.

Beginning of August I reduced the opening to a 2" wide gap to make wasp intrusion more difficult....

Sadly I am noticing a lot of dead bees around the hive, so this morning I swept them away to see what quantity was appearing on a daily basis..... with in a 6 hour span I have about 100 bees again outside the entrance and on the approach. every 5-10 minutes bees are bringing out dead or weak bees.

I looked in the hive, removed the excluder and without removing the frames it all looked very busy and healthy and no dead bees from top of hive to super...

I cannot contact the bee keeper who started me off, but called someone I know and he has said the following....

" they might be bringing pollen back to the hive which has pesticide on it, and if the Queen eats the same pollen she will die as well!"

Could I ask you all for your opinion? Would you open again and inspect the super frames for wasps already in there or is this normal for the UK in August ( Kew Gardens Area) or is there something else you thing going wrong here?

Getting frantic


Boylucid

 

[Anduril]

The're just kicking out the drones, which is normal.

 

[Boston Bees]

https://beeinformed.org/2013/11/08/why-your-drones-are-getting-the-boot/

 

[user 819]

Yes most are drones/males, settled colonies happy with the queen will start evicting them also from now all they will do is eat into the valuable stores that they build up for winter.

The 'someone you know' hadn't even seen the hive so was talking out of their backside, personally give them a wide berth if that is the crap advice they are handing out.

You have come to a good forum which hands out sound practical advice with knowledgeable folks on here, I doubt if any one would have came up with such a ridiculous quote/answer having not seen the colony or the pic. Without seeing the pic a good few other decent reasons would have come to mind, pesticide poisoning isn't a common occurrence and wouldn't be first or foremost in my mind.

The forum users will always call out and refute bad advise esp that said on a whim without thinking or looking.

 

[pargyle]

Some of the dead bees are certainly drones but it looks to me as though there are some workers there as well ... I don't think it's poisoning of any sort ... that's not what you see when a hive has been poisoned. It may be just natural wastage but it rather depends on the size of the colony 200 bees a day is not an excessive number in a colony of 20,000 ... in a small colony - could be something going on.

I'm a bit confused about your set up and what you have been doing ... " So I was given a queen and three frames in March and due to the poor summer kept up a sugar feed til July. Last month as well as the Super being very full and busy I have a set of full frames above the excluder and all was moving along nicely, added Verola sticks and there is no sign of the mite. "

So ...

1. Did you start off three frames of bees in a full national brood box ?
2. What other frames did you have in there - frames of foundation ?
3. You say you were feeding them 'til July' ... how far into July were you feeding them ?
4. The super being very full and busy ? So you had a super on top of the brood box ? Were you feeding them at the same time ?
5. What are the full set of frames above the excluder > do you mean these are super frames that have been drawn ?
6. "Added Verola sticks" - What treatment was this ?

I'm only a few miles South of you in Hampshire and there's no sign of mass eviction of drones in my hives, I'd like to know a bit more about your set up and what you have been doing before offering any advice.

They should not have needed feeding in June and July - we've had one of the best summers for Nectar and pollen in recent years - most of us have good crops of honey - much of which came from the summer as the end of spring was a disaster when the bees ate most of the spring honey. I started a Nucleus off in June and they only had a litre or so of syrup to tide them over the first week or so - since then they have foraged for their food. They are now in a full 14 x 12 bursting with brood.

 

[Patrick1]

It looks like you have bought a nuc that has swarmed leaving a lot of drone behind , they have kicked out the drone, not a lot to worry about, look at the brood area make sure you can see lots of eggs larva and brood, all should be fine in the end I am sure

 

[pargyle]

It looks like you have bought a nuc that has swarmed leaving a lot of drone behind , they have kicked out the drone, not a lot to worry about, look at the brood area make sure you can see lots of eggs larva and brood, all should be fine in the end I am sure

No .. have a look again at the original post ,.... he was given three frames of bees and a queen in March and has been feeding them until July ... there's something we don't know here ...

 

[user 819]

From what I see Philip there are very few workers among the dead.

 

[Patrick1]

I didn’t catch the earlier posts sorry , Definitely something wrong. If you don’t have eggs and larva it’s a lost cause………….sorry

You should not be feeding at this stage in the development.

 

[pargyle]

Frome what I see Philip there are very few workers among the dead.

I'd agree ... there are some workers but more drones ... I'm more concerned about the description of the OP's set up and what he's been doing with them ...

 

[Patrick1]

I cant help but thinking this is a swarm nuc !!

 

[user 819]

The op probably wouldn't know if they had swarmed as do a lot of so called exp beeks.
All we know is there was a Q and three frames of brood, how many bees covering the frames unknown, current status of colony brood unknown or colony density.
Does he/she know if the same Q is in the hive or is it a new one as Patrick is thinking along the lines of ?

 

[pargyle]

The op probably wouldn't know if they had swarmed as do a lot of so called exp beeks.
All we know is there was a Q and three frames of brood, how many bees covering the frames unknown, current status of colony brood unknown or colony density.
Does he/she know if the same Q is in the hive or is it a new one as Patrick is thinking along the lines of ?

All possibilities ... perhaps the OP will return with a slightly fuller explanation of what he has/had and we may make some sense of it ... rather than guessing as his 'mentor' clearly did in the first place.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

" they might be bringing pollen back to the hive which has pesticide on it, and if the Queen eats the same pollen she will die as well!"

Doesn't know a lot about beekeeping either |I take it

 

[user 819]

I cant help but thinking this is a swarm nuc !!

I have read the the start of the post#1 again and it is possible that a small swarm was given to Boylucid, a weak split off or just a weak overwintered nuc.
Details are too scant to know what was actually received and whether any further help was given, by the sounds of it he has been left to it.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I think we need a lot more information, apart from exactly how is the hive set up, is there any evidence of brood? if so, how many frames
Maybe taking a few photos of the inside of the hive may help us a bit.

 

[user 819]

Let's hope Boylucid updates the forum with some further information and that he hasn't been put off from posting again.
I think he has been left in the mire or in the deep end of the pool with little added help, the forum is a good place to come for advice and help in times when finding a good mentor may be at a premium.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes please come back @Boylucid
I see you’ve popped back to read the answers. I’ll move the thread to beginners section

 

[Boylucid]

Firstly thank all of you for coming back to this! I really appreciate it. I am now going to give images of the hive... and inform you of the kind gentleman who gave me the keen and frames, he is Halil and came from the eastern block where under the communist regime he has 200 hives to look after. he asked if he could use my garden and from there grew a ever increasing number of his homemade hives. Due to selling the property he slowly moved out and gave me a small hive last fall but that died in January when we had -7 degrees. He then Kindly replaced colony with my present hive. I have a Robert Lee hive, an old insulated one for next year and and old French one I use for storing kit and tools.

The anti verola sticks I purchase on line as well as a green paste which I believe is keeping well at bay.

I also enclose images of the Hive and a closer image of the burial ground 24 hours on.

Thank you so much I am feeling a lot better, I have not lifted the frames from the brood box as I really do not want to disturb and risk damaging the queen.

Best


Boylucid

PS why make so many drones in the first place? Does the queen really need that many???!!!!

 

[pargyle]

So ... where do you live ? This will have a bearing on what is happening with your bees ... beekeeping to a great extent follows the seasons which vary from country to country and even within countries....