No activity outside "strong" hive

[danro]

Hi everyone

Last year I had two colonies.
A "good strong" one that went into winter queen right, (2010 queen) plenty of stores etc.
Then there was the "weaker" colony. Not sure if it was queen right at the end
Considerably less bees, not much in the way of stores.. a likely candidate to fail.
A feeder was place on top of both hives.. just in case (I'm quite new to this)

Anyway, on Sunday we had some sunny weather down here in the south.
So I popped over to the hive to see what was going on.

I expected the good colony to be doing their cleansing flights and the weaker colony to not be upto much.

To my surprise there was a healthy looking "cloud" of bees around the weaker colony, bees coming and going in the sun - looking great!

However, the stronger colony had very little signs of life.
There are bees in there, I can see them walking past the entrance on the inside.
But none were flying.
Is this normal?
According to the car it was about 5degs outside, which may be too cold.. but then the other hive seemed happy enough..

Do I need to worry?
What do i need to do (if anything)
I'm waiting for the temp to get closer to 14degs before opening up the hives - is that right?

Many thanks for your help

Danro

 

[RoofTops]

If the colony is failing there is not much you can do unless they are starving - but if they have starved to the extent they have stopped flying then I fear they are gone.

If you want to find out what the score is lift the lid and have a quick peek, ideally on a warmish day. Wear a veil because if they are alive and healthy they may object to your unscheduled visit.

The purpose of the examination is just to see how many frames of bees you have. Quickly look along the top bars of the brood box - you should see bees in the gaps. If you don't see any, look down into the gaps. If you don't see many bees then the answer is, I'm afraid, there are not many bees.

Causes could be various, varroa or starvation most likely "external" candidates but queen failure late last year also very possible. Might be nosema but that is quite rare around here and I have no experience of it.

 

[Silly Bee]

Agreed ^^^^^

Might just be to cold for them though.

I have 3 WBC's all located within 3 feet of each other, the difference is activity times is surprising. I even call the one hive "The teenagers" they never get out of bed before mid-day.

 

[danro]

Might just be to cold for them though.

Ohh I do hope you are right.
It was such a good colony last year, we had all our hopes on that one.

Thank you!!

Danro

 

[Silly Bee]

If the worst has happened, come the spring, try a frame of eggs/larvae from your other hive.

Good luck.

 

[danro]

Yes, I guess that will be the case... it was just that the donor was the "dodgy" hive.
I need a good, warm day now so I can see what is going on.

 

[Haughton Honey]

danro, it would be useful to know what type of bees that you have?

There is a marked difference in activity at lower temps between some strains (local dark mongrel vs. Buckfast-typ vs. Carnie's etc etc)

 

[Cazza]

Agreed ^^^^^

Might just be to cold for them though.

I have 3 WBC's all located within 3 feet of each other, the difference is activity times is surprising. I even call the one hive "The teenagers" they never get out of bed before mid-day.

I think you have a good point here. My bees won't usually fly at 5 degrees. At 7 degrees half fly and at 9, all hives are flying.
Cazza

 

[SER]

Mine fly at different times, sometimes both together, sometimes one but not the other etc.

I think the position of the cluster/majority of the bees must make a big difference, if they are towards the south of the hive they are going to feel the warmth much sooner once the sun is up.

Si.

 

[Vergilius]

Not many bees fly at 5C. It is beeter if they don't fly and stay in a cluster at that temp.

Ben P

 

[Dishmop]

My 2 outside hives act the same. Middle of October they were both strong.

When the snow came one started to kick out drones by the dozen whenever possible for quite some time.. The other hive didnt really seem to do anything and it got to the point where i thought I had lost them.
This morning as on any other day when the temperature is above about 9 one lot are out and about flying but only a few from the other hive, but a couple of weeks ago when there was a couple of days when the temperature wasa bout 12 both hives were very busy..... so it seems as if one lot prefer warmer weather than their neighbours...... The brave ones are illegal immigrants who moved in without permission into an incomplete hive I was building....

 

[Silly Bee]

Just back from mine, today my weakest hive is the busiest, so, hold on there danro,

 

[danro]

danro, it would be useful to know what type of bees that you have?

There is a marked difference in activity at lower temps between some strains (local dark mongrel vs. Buckfast-typ vs. Carnie's etc etc)

Ohhhh I couldn't tell you that? Sorry.
The bees came to me as a collected swarm in 2009 from the swarm co-ordinator.

How can I tell now?

We split the colony early last year and requeened so we knew what we had, queen wise.
But both hives are "related"

I really hope you are right Sally Bee.
Just need a decent day to see what happens..

Outlook for next few days..
9° Today
12° Saturday
11° Sunday
11° Monday
9° Tuesday

So may take a look on Saturday....

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Danro

 

[Silly Bee]

Silly.

 

[danro]

Silly.

Whoops Silly mee!!

Sorry, I did try to edit it but I was after the 10 mins....
Danro

 

[danro]

Weather has been pretty cool since my last post, but today the sun was out so I took a trip to the hives.
AS it was still only 7° I did not open them up but both hive had bees pinging in and out. So hopefully they are OK.
Forecast is still pretty poor and I don't want to open them up in the cold so until then I have to just watch the entrance.. Feeling a little more hopeful thou.

 

[Gardenbees]

Yours are obviously like mine: one lot in, one lot out in colder weather. My long hive colony doesn't get out of bed for anything less than 10 degrees!! The others are busy even at 5 degrees if it's a sunny day. Hive 1 won't go out in the rain either, whereas Hive 2 don't seem to mind it at all. Both are technically Buckfast, although Hive 1 look a bit more Italian/less chunky.

 

[MuswellMetro]

the association apiary has hives are all in a line, the ones in the middle always fly late, even though in full sun at Noon

It took some time to work it out, but a tree 100 yds away sheilds them from the early winter morning sun, by 10:00 in march they are just still in shade,

 

[Dishmop]

I was worried that one of my hives was failing.. Only ever saw a few of them when there would be hyper activity from the other one.. However,, last week I put an entrance feeder on that one and with 1 pint of 1 to 1 (so best part of 1 litre)and they took it all in about 4 hours, so perhaps there's more of them than I thought...

 

[danro]

It's still too cold top open up and have a good look in, but I've been observing and there is more activity from the "stronger hive".
It is still less than the "weaker hive" but there is definitely

The "Stronger hive.."

..and the "weaker" one..

Nice to see they are both bringing food in...


I'll keep you all posted on progress!!

Danro