dlawr42103
New Bee
- Joined
- May 25, 2013
- Messages
- 55
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- oxford
- Hive Type
- Commercial
- Number of Hives
- 8
Wondered if anyone could advise on one of my hives that has very patchy brood and is struggling this year. Photos attached. Below is a summary of the main points.
. Bought-in Buckfast Q, introduced 9/4/14
. Running on commercials
. 2014 excellent results, prolific & successful in all ways
. Spring 2015 good start to year, building up fast
. Early April found very High varroa load, natural drop ~100 / day
. Other hives very low varroa
. Treated with MAQ's 9/4/15, weather conditions ok
. From this point on the brood has been very patchy
. Typically lots of eggs in most empty cells, quite a lot of capped brood, but very little uncapped brood
. Typically 10 frames will have some brood in various stages
. No other symptoms, all appear healthy to me
. Numbers of bees has been very slowly increasing, bees on all frames, but even now end of July they are no where near full strength
. Ran EFB tests anyway, negative each time
. Varroa count now very low
. Now have changed out all brood frames, only new drawn frames now
. Less patchy on freshly drawn frames, but still patchy
I think a proportion of the eggs are disappearing / failing to hatch... although I don't know why, certainly no problem until April of this year. I did use MAQ's on all my other hives with no side-effects.
I do have a couple of new Q's in nucs ready, but this Q was so prolific last year, and she is still laying furiously, that I keep hoping this will rectify itself eventually.
Any thoughts / suggestions? .. PS only my 2nd year, so happy to learn from others.
. Bought-in Buckfast Q, introduced 9/4/14
. Running on commercials
. 2014 excellent results, prolific & successful in all ways
. Spring 2015 good start to year, building up fast
. Early April found very High varroa load, natural drop ~100 / day
. Other hives very low varroa
. Treated with MAQ's 9/4/15, weather conditions ok
. From this point on the brood has been very patchy
. Typically lots of eggs in most empty cells, quite a lot of capped brood, but very little uncapped brood
. Typically 10 frames will have some brood in various stages
. No other symptoms, all appear healthy to me
. Numbers of bees has been very slowly increasing, bees on all frames, but even now end of July they are no where near full strength
. Ran EFB tests anyway, negative each time
. Varroa count now very low
. Now have changed out all brood frames, only new drawn frames now
. Less patchy on freshly drawn frames, but still patchy
I think a proportion of the eggs are disappearing / failing to hatch... although I don't know why, certainly no problem until April of this year. I did use MAQ's on all my other hives with no side-effects.
I do have a couple of new Q's in nucs ready, but this Q was so prolific last year, and she is still laying furiously, that I keep hoping this will rectify itself eventually.
Any thoughts / suggestions? .. PS only my 2nd year, so happy to learn from others.