Starvation - Fields of Yellow

[SteveG]

Just lost one hive to starvation, last week lots of bees, 3 frames of brood, looked great. I moved the super above brood, placed large slap of fondant over hole in crown board. Thought good job done.
I'm guessing due to cold nights bees had clustered, all brood frames empty of food, didn't find fondant.

Continued to check all hives, 4 others - all fine, but had not found their way to the fondant, I removed the supers, fondant directly onto brood frames, other hives bees demolishing fondant.

From both apiaries you can see fields of yellow.... Plenty of pollen.

My first job reference closed over 40+ years ago " Sometimes too enthusiastic" guess I've not changed.

Sorry bees... lesson I will not forget.

 

[pargyle]

Just lost one hive to starvation, last week lots of bees, 3 frames of brood, looked great. I moved the super above brood, placed large slap of fondant over hole in crown board. Thought good job done.
I'm guessing due to cold nights bees had clustered, all brood frames empty of food, didn't find fondant.

Continued to check all hives, 4 others - all fine, but had not found their way to the fondant, I removed the supers, fondant directly onto brood frames, other hives bees demolishing fondant.

From both apiaries you can see fields of yellow.... Plenty of pollen.

My first job reference closed over 40+ years ago " Sometimes too enthusiastic" guess I've not changed.

Sorry bees... lesson I will not forget.

You are not alone ... too many beekeepers putting supers on with very little brood present (3 frames is not enough) and are finding the extra space with the current cold snap is really detrimental to their colonies and in some cases are seeing the same as you.

Credit to you for confessing - others take note.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes........Super on top with 7/8 frames of brood.
Always check the bees have at least a frames worth of food which should last to next inspection.

 

[LeaBees]

Just lost one hive to starvation, last week lots of bees, 3 frames of brood, looked great. I moved the super above brood, placed large slap of fondant over hole in crown board. Thought good job done.
I'm guessing due to cold nights bees had clustered, all brood frames empty of food, didn't find fondant.

Continued to check all hives, 4 others - all fine, but had not found their way to the fondant, I removed the supers, fondant directly onto brood frames, other hives bees demolishing fondant.

From both apiaries you can see fields of yellow.... Plenty of pollen.

My first job reference closed over 40+ years ago " Sometimes too enthusiastic" guess I've not changed.

Sorry bees... lesson I will not forget.

Also had a hive suffer starvation. Also lots of bees - 5 frames of brood with a lot of drone brood. For reasons won't go into popped a super on, thought stores were ok. Observation of hive few days ago saw a carpet of dead bees outside hive, dived in to look. Lost a lot of bees and quite a bit of brood, no sign of fresh brood. Didn't have time (or weather) to do much then so put some fondant on crownboard as a "hail-mary". Following some guidance went back in today to consolidate the hive and have a good look through. Check of brood box showed 1 uncapped QC so I was sure my queen was a goner. As I was shaking bees in from super, there she was! Back in brood box now. Imagine bees in brood box thought were queenless so started QC. Likely to tear down QC now queen back in I guess. Leave bees to sort out? Closed up, gave some liquid feed and leaving well alone for a bit now. Have had a roller coaster 72 hours and can confidently say I levelled up about 5 levels of experience over last 3 days. Huge highs and lows. Lots of lessons learned - mia culpa.