walking bees with wings!

[milkermel]

I collected a swarm several weeks ago and all seemed well, however over the last few days I have noticed increasing numbers of bees walking around outside the hive they have wings and seem fine except they dont appear to have the urge to fly! I havent noticed any disentry and hive appears normal inside with plenty of protection against any wasp that appears. So any suggestions appreciated!

 

[Black Comb]

DFV caused by Varroa?

 

[Tom Bick]

I may be wrong but if memory serves me right acarine caused the symptoms you are describing.

 

[milkermel]

DFV caused by Varroa?

pls excuse my ignorance but I am not much cop at abreviations!!! DFV?

I may be wrong but if memory serves me right acarine caused the symptoms you are describing.

have had this mentioned to me by another person,

SO next move pls someone?? do I take samples do I contact the bee inspector?? or quite what?

 

[Mike a]

pls excuse my ignorance but I am not much cop at abreviations!!! DFV?

Deformed Wing Virus

Spread by Varroa

See - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deformed_wing_virus

 

[Hivemaker.]

If there wings appear normal and not k winged, i would think it is most likely Paralysis Virus.
Have they got plenty of stores.

 

[milkermel]

Wings are definately ok, they just appear really tired! for want of a better way to describe them! only collected about 2 weeks ago and covering about 4 frames. daytime there are bees coming and going and they are getting some stores in, but not loads! should I put on some extra food for them I did feed initially but have stoped in the last few days as there were a fair few wasps around that they were trying to fend off.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Just make sure they have enough stored food.
If its a virus infection there is nothing that you can do really except keep the mite numbers down.

 

[milkermel]

what is best for feed? I have some bakers fondant ready for the winter, is this better than making up a liquid syrup? Still have plenty of bees flying, but am wondering if maybe my other 2 hives are trying to rob as have seen a few bees being chased off from reduced hive entrance.

 

[justme]

what is best for feed? I have some bakers fondant ready for the winter, is this better than making up a liquid syrup? Still have plenty of bees flying, but am wondering if maybe my other 2 hives are trying to rob as have seen a few bees being chased off from reduced hive entrance.

Hi mel, i had symptoms similar but worse, dying/dead bees. B.i thought paralytic virus. I got vitagreen and fed them with it. They recovered beautifully. Whether vitagreen helped i dont know but some info somewhere sayr it helps with acarine.

 

[freckledbeck]

Sorry, what is vitagreen?

 

[justme]

apologies, thread is far down line and my memory not great.

Vitafeed green is what I meant to put. Vita do a green and gold version. Natural essential oils. Some ads say I think, gold for spring and green for autumn but makes no difference. You mix it with syrup feed. In one piece of advertising, it did say for treatment of accarine, it is strong enough supposedly to stop them hanging on/breathing or something. Does smell contains oils of walnut tree, thyme, marjoram, wild marjoram. Take a look on Th***** website, thats where I got mine from.
hope this helps:.)

 

[milkermel]

apologies, thread is far down line and my memory not great.

Vitafeed green is what I meant to put. Vita do a green and gold version. Natural essential oils. Some ads say I think, gold for spring and green for autumn but makes no difference. You mix it with syrup feed. In one piece of advertising, it did say for treatment of accarine, it is strong enough supposedly to stop them hanging on/breathing or something. Does smell contains oils of walnut tree, thyme, marjoram, wild marjoram. Take a look on Th***** website, thats where I got mine from.
hope this helps:.)

thanks will looksee!

 

[milkermel]

Just got the results back from our local bee inspector, medium evidence of Nosema, girls are already on vita gold now and havent seen bees walking recently. Wasps are a bit of an issue, but guard down to bee width almost and lots of sentry duty done by girls.

Fingers Crossed!

 

[RoofTops]

Bees walking around the entrance might mean they are just foragers with nothing to forage on. There may be nothing wrong with the hive.

 

[tidymeup]

I have noticed something something similar today with one of my colonies. Bees walking around on the floor trying to fly but being unsuccessful. The others in the se colony seem to be fine and are extremely busy these just seem confused.

 

[kazmcc]

When wasps were about I found ours were walking on the floor outside the hive, quite a few. As the wasps came in waves, some days there were hardly any, and on those days i found no walking bees. I don't know what this means, maybe it's something they do when threatened.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Sorry, what is vitagreen?

does this help, from their web site


Vita (Europe) Ltd, the honeybee health specialist, has launched two new feeds to help improve honeybee health and stimulate colony development. Vita Feed Gold, a natural extract, and Vita Feed Green, an essential oil, are simple and safe to use leaving no residues and containing no antibiotics. Developed over several years and thoroughly tested in field trials, the new feeds are designed to strengthen colonies and make them more resistant to disease.


Vita Feed Gold is a liquid feed based on natural beet extract and molasses. It stimulates a controlled and sustained build-up of colonies, especially if they are weak, and has been shown to be effective in reducing the number of Nosema spores in colonies.


Vita Feed Green is a liquid feed based on the essential oils of walnut, thyme, marjoram and wild marjoram. By stabilising the acidity (pH) of the bee gut to within the optimum range of 6.3 to 6.6, Vita Feed Green offers wide-spectrum protection against harmful bacteria and fungi. It is an anti-oxidant and helps reduce varroa and chalkbrood infestations.

 

[Bcrazy]

Hi kazmcc
With these wasps about its advisable to reduce the entrance to help the guard bees in covering a smaller area. Have you reduced your entrance?

Mo

 

[kazmcc]

Yes BCrazy, thanks though......what a saga lol