What are my bees doing?

[Queens59]

Checked the fondant on top of my WBC today - didn't disturb the actual hive proper, although they were flying well.

They don't seem to have touched the fondant, put on Christmas Eve, the hive seems to 'heft' at a similar weight to November, and there are no signs of wax capping under the hive...what are they eating?

I sent them into winter with full BB and super - but they seem to be living on fresh air - although they seem active, fit and healthy...are they peculiar? Or do they have a cupboard full of wax capping ready for Spring??

 

[MuswellMetro]

sometimes italian bees don't cap winter stores ( or super ) could be that but depends on type of bees, they might hsve a large amount of "almost honey" they are using first, though that can cause disentry


i have less under my italian hives than the mongrels and carnies in the association hives that i have inspected

 

[Queens59]

As far as I know they are British mongrel - but maybe they went on holiday and got some strange ideas!!

 

[MJBee]

Queens59,
Have a peer under the hive and make sure the OMF is not covered with dead bees which is masking the debris pattern. I have had one case of this. A quick swap onto a clean floor solved the problem
Mike

 

[oliver90owner]

MJBee,

Good advice. Shame that there are not too many out there that have a spare WBC floor!

Regards, RAB

 

[Queens59]

I do have a spare WBC, so I shall try to look tomorrow - weather permitting! Thanks for the idea.

 

[Arfermo]

Queens59,
Have a peer under the hive and make sure the OMF is not covered with dead bees which is masking the debris pattern. I have had one case of this. A quick swap onto a clean floor solved the problem
Mike

I only have Nationals and evaporate oxalic from UNDER THE OMF. Couple of weeks ago found the OMF fouled up with dead bees, so not much use evaporating until cleared a little. Rather than arouse the cluster on a bitterly cold day by sticking on clean OMFs, I tried using the entrance block to clear out some of the debris on the first hive but caught a load of live bees too. After shovelling some of them back, I cleared the floors by using a hand saw in through the entrance. Dragged out a huge number of dead and debris on all hives. Problem solved. I reckon the bees had been accumulating the debris as a form of insulation.

 

[Queens59]

Ok, well today was the first chance I had to look at the OMF - and there were maybe 12 dead on it - but the cluster was humming and moving around happily...so I shall STOP WORRYING!!!