requeening?

[curry756]

Hello,

My colony is struggling with Chalk Brood and I am after some advice.

Long story, shortened:
I have one colony at present and I recently split it as there was a superseder cell. So I moved all the old frames to a new BB (3 feet to the left of the existing hive) with the queen cell and bees. I left the queen and 1 original frame of brood in the existing hive and 10 new frames. I then fed this hive to encourage them to draw the new comb. The QC in the new hive died and never hatched and they never seamed bothered about creating a new one. After 2 weeks all the brood had hatched and i amalgamated the hives together today.

The single hive is now on 10 new frames and 1 old frame and all the bees.

They have 3 frames of brood and the rest are still not drawn out and the queen is laying in pretty much all of the unused completed cells that dont have stores or pollen in. But it seams that this colony is stunted to its size of 3/4 seams and frames as over 50% of the brood is chalk brood. The queen is small by anyones standards and she is of a unknown age and type. So I am thinking I need to replace her to try to resolve the chalk brood issue and get the colony into a stronger position.

I only have this national 14x12 hive at present, so if it goes queenless and doesn't recover i am screwed.

I do have a new colony on the way, but its in a langstroth hive and is currently being being moved onto a 14x12 national, but this will take a good while as the foundation needs to be drawn and the queen moved up, then it will take a further 3 weeks before we can remove the langstroth and class this as complete. Any suggestions would help me out.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Davelin]

The question you have to consider is if you spend out on a new queen are they strong enough to survive anyway. They don't sound very healthy, you could try giving them a bit of a boost with vita feed or something like that.

 

[curry756]

Yeah might be good it treat them with something.

Here is a video of the activity at the entrance of the hive just now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7unqwLiEK4

 

[Anduril]

I assume you are doing a Bailey change with the langstroth. If you could use one of the langstroth frames or cut a piece out and lay it horizontally over the frames raised enough to draw queen cells after doing an artificial swarm. Keep your old queen raise a new queen by scoring some of the cells, enabling the bees to draw out cells that you could have more control over. Then you have the Hopkins method of queen rearing. Just a thought.

 

[Midland Beek]

You need a new queen.

 

[curry756]

I assume you are doing a Bailey change with the langstroth. If you could use one of the langstroth frames or cut a piece out and lay it horizontally over the frames raised enough to draw queen cells after doing an artificial swarm. Keep your old queen raise a new queen by scoring some of the cells, enabling the bees to draw out cells that you could have more control over. Then you have the Hopkins method of queen rearing. Just a thought.

You need a new queen.

thanks - @Anduril, sounds complicated, but I will discuss this with my mentor next week. In the mean time I think I may have sourced a new(ish) queen here:

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=28842&page=2

She doesn't have FSH nor is she T&T and she may be old too, but she has got to be better than my current queen, who has just broken down and failed her MOT badly.

 

[Hawklord]

I had a similar problem last year and found that by getting rid of the infected combs the chalk brood cleared up.

 

[curry756]

I had a similar problem last year and found that by getting rid of the infected combs the chalk brood cleared up.

Interesting. I just replaced all but one of the old frames with new frames and foundation and it didn't make the slightest bit of difference. Maybe I should have replaced them all in one hit and shook the bees into the new bb and new frames - will try that next i guess.

I have just ordered these as they proclaim to help against Chalkbrood
ChalkBrood - http://www.bees-online.co.uk/view.asp?ID=1174
Vitafeed GREEN - http://www.bees-online.co.uk/view.asp?ID=863

and maybe got a new queen coming too, so will see how this goes. On the plus side i have very little varroa. Every cloud i guess

 

[curry756]

Also removed inspection tray from OMF to increase ventilation. Aparently that can help reduce chalk brood too.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Also removed inspection tray from OMF to increase ventilation. Aparently that can help reduce chalk brood too.

The 'inspection tray' should be out unless you want to count varroa.

 

[oliver90owner]

The 'inspection tray' should be out unless you want to count varroa

Ahh, we have here a small cold colony in a large damp hive with loads of festering detritus below. A good combination for the symptoms described. Just need an invasion of wax moth and they will be brown bread...

Improve their living conditions! Otherwise I agree with MB.

 

[curry756]

The 'inspection tray' should be out unless you want to count varroa

Ahh, we have here a small cold colony in a large damp hive with loads of festering detritus below. A good combination for the symptoms described. Just need an invasion of wax moth and they will be brown bread...

Improve their living conditions! Otherwise I agree with MB.

Ok thanks everyone. I have removed the inspection tray and the insulation from the top too. That should allow air flow through the hive now.

I was just trying to keep them warm.

New/second hand queen coming on Friday and the supplements coming too this week. Hopefully chalk brood free in 4 weeks

Thanks again.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Ok thanks everyone. I have removed the inspection tray and the insulation from the top too. That should allow air flow through the hive now.

I was just trying to keep them warm.

I can't see any real reason for removing the insulation, it won't have done any harm as long as it hadn't absorbed moisture. It'll be easy enough to replace it without disturbing the bees - just lift the roof and pop it back above the crown board.

One of my colonies developed chalk brood last year. It was in the only hive that was on a low 'stand' - a temporary thing only about 6 inches off the ground so a bit close to the damp grass. Raising it higher (letting clean air pass beneath the hive) and putting some black weed membrane over the grass seemed to help, because the chalk brood vanished.

 

[curry756]

I can't see any real reason for removing the insulation, it won't have done any harm as long as it hadn't absorbed moisture. It'll be easy enough to replace it without disturbing the bees - just lift the roof and pop it back above the crown board.

One of my colonies developed chalk brood last year. It was in the only hive that was on a low 'stand' - a temporary thing only about 6 inches off the ground so a bit close to the damp grass. Raising it higher (letting clean air pass beneath the hive) and putting some black weed membrane over the grass seemed to help, because the chalk brood vanished.

I will get some membrane under them - thats a good idea Actually thinking about it - I will probably block up the hives early one AM so I can level and pave (with membrane) the area under them. Then once they are dry I can put the hives back. that should make it all a bit neater.
My national is a new 14x12 is inside a new WBC (painted white), so they shouldn't really need the insulation now as they effectively have double glazing already and it isn't too cold now. I will use the insulation over winter. Also they are on the standard WBC OMF which is about about 8" off the floor already. Thanks for the ideas - I will def look into the ground under them.