Wasps and Dark Bees

[Millet]

Here is a pile of pictures out of around 300 i took yesterday..As you will see the hive is getting tortured from wasp's.. i'm not there all the time but over a two day period i splatted 23 with a tea towel that where trying to gain access.. some got in and some where quickly turfed out..

The colony is not weak as far as i'm concerned the brood box and frames are full of bee's with a even number of uncapped brood/ capped brood/ capped honey and uncapped honey with pollen stores also and empty cell's for the Queen ..the first super is also been drawn out with 2 frames nearly done and honey starting to fill the middle of one up..

Also you will see some very dark bee's they come and go like the rest of my bee's with no fighting or bickering.. have they been accepted into my colony or am i missing something..?

And too add to the above question what is the blue payload the bee's keep bringing in..?

Thank you in advance for any sensible constructive advice.
Regard's
Steve.

P.s sorry for the picture overload..

Thank the lord i put this in place otherwise i would be up ***** creek..

 

[Erichalfbee]

Blue is likely to be Rosebay Willow herb

Reduce your entrance to 2 bee spaces.
Make sure that trap is nowhere near the hives...it doesn't look like a high efficiency one so that means wasps are escaping it, bringing more of their mates back to the hive.
Better still plonk a waspbane trap right next to the entrance with the entrance cones at the same level.

 

[user 6228]

a narrow long entrance tunnel and the wasps will get a right kicking from your bees

 

[Jimy Dee]

Regarding the dark workers - these are more than likely (half) sisters from the same hive and same queen. Remember the queen mates with up to 15 drones and a worker bee has 2 parents (ie a fertilised egg) (by contrast drones only have 1 parent - ie an unfertilised egg from the queen) So your yellow workers do not have the same dad drone as your black bees but they have the same mom queen. Your queen may have mated with a number of light coloured drones and a some dark coloured drones - each giving different coloured workers - half sisters.
As for the pollen - dont know what it is from. I dont have the benefit of rose bay willow herb where I am.
Finally - the photos are great - no need to apologise for putting up a raft of them.

 

[Karol]

You will need to get on top of your wasp issue quite quickly as you are currently at high risk of losing your hive. Your wasp problem is presently diluted because wasps have a lot of other naturally available food sources such as fruit and blossom that are keeping them distracted. However, as those sources start to dissipate in the fall the scouts that are presently entering your hive relatively easily will start bringing back far more of their colleagues that are no longer able to find alternative food sources and I am concerned that your hive will quickly be overrun. From what I can see you only have 1 bee rank depth to your entrance (i.e. just the depth of the hive wall) and the scouting wasps in the pictures do not appear to have any real difficulty in entering your hive. Scouts that enter freely will sooner or later elevate sporadic solitary feeding to intense concerted swarm feeding and you'll find it progressively more difficult to deal with your problem. Whatever you do, do not 'splat' wasps on your hive otherwise the hive will become coated with wasp alarm pheromone and you will precipitate 'frenzied' feeding which is basically terminal without desperate emergency remedial action that is a real hassle to execute.

 

[MartinL]

As everyone has already mentioned, reduce entrance size, which is welcoming the robbers, (Wasps & Bees).

You could try moving it to the other side too. Saw a mesh entrance cover that was meant to help them defend against wasps + Victor Meldrew had his own device on here in previous post, (don't have a link) but someone else may have???

If you can see where the wasps are returning to with your honey, follow them and destroy the nest after dark.
Another, gratifying way would be to get a chair and sit outside the entrance yourself (rubber gloved), Squash all the wasps you can for an hour or two, they just keep on coming in hoards!

 

[Finman]

.
Dark bees are old bees or robbers. Their hairs are missing.

It depends, do they rob this hive, or are they bees who rob other hives.

Old bees have that hair thing, and often their wings are tattered..

 

[drex]

Recently lost a colony to wasps. Narrowed down entrances on all my other hives. One was being threatened by wasps still. A sheet of glass in front of entrance sorted that one. All are now managing to fend off the wasps. The hive that was overwhelmed was not a pretty sight. Literally hundreds of wasps.

 

[Millet]

Thankyou all .. waspbane trap on order and the entrance will be altered to a long narrow one..
Karol you are 100% true on the other food source at the moment for the wasp's as they are destroying the strawberries and feeding on various flower's in the garden.. the strawberries are nearly finished so that must be why they are switching to the hive..

 

[Millet]

Recently lost a colony to wasps. Narrowed down entrances on all my other hives. One was being threatened by wasps still. A sheet of glass in front of entrance sorted that one. All are now managing to fend off the wasps. The hive that was overwhelmed was not a pretty sight. Literally hundreds of wasps.

Thank you for that Drex.. how far from the entrance do you place the glass and how big should it be..

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thankyou all .. waspbane trap on order and the entrance will be altered to a long narrow one..

1 bee high 2 bees wide

 

[Swarm]

Pollen is Willowherb. Nice pics again

 

[Finman]

Blue is likely to be Rosebay Willow herb

.

Rosebay has light blue pollen.
I bet Phacelia.

 

[MartinL]

Nooooooooooooooooo
1-2 bee space.

To help them defend the entrance without being killed by the intruders.

One way to tell if they're robbers is that they are heavy when leaving the hive, may climb up the outside before takeoff or (as in picture 9), drop as they leave the entrance.

 

[Swarm]

Rosebay has light blue pollen.
I bet Phacelia.

Watching the bees on Willowherb only yesterday

 

[Finman]

Watching the bees on Willowherb only yesterday

I have seen them 50 years
Have you seen Phacelia

 

[Millet]

Pollen is Willowherb. Nice pics again

Thank's..there's plenty of Willowherb and thistles surrounding the hive ..

 

[Millet]

1 bee high 2 bees wide

I do have a narrow entrance on the entrance block i will spin it round when i'm next there.. thank's ..

 

[Swarm]

Thank's..there's plenty of Willowherb and thistles surrounding the hive ..

Finman, .....^^

 

[Millet]

Rosebay has light blue pollen.
I bet Phacelia.

Do you have any idea of the specific type of Phacelia as i have googled it and there's none of what i have seen on google anywhere near the hive..