Plenty of honey
Field Bee
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2015
- Messages
- 965
- Reaction score
- 15
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Hive Type
- Dadant
- Number of Hives
- 260 + (Nucs and Honey production)
Looks like it became queen less and colony slowly dwindled in the autumn. Snelgrove is right re drone comb but there is not a huge amount, but bees didn't keep them warm, thats why they never hatched.Last main load of bees look as though they died of starvation.
Looks like its been on the decline for a while. Bees at the bottom under the ,middle frame, frame 5 and 6 havent cleaned out the dead bees so i would say since October/ November!
The Hive is full of what looks like maggots and Caster, which is the maggots when they start to pupate. The colder weather will have virtually stopped them.
It is just possible that you might have had what looks like "Sac brood:, in the middle of some of the cells, in the cose up pic, but its so difficult to tell because its also full of maggots.
Dont be Disappointed, its a perfectly normal dead hive. It certainly happens.
You can clean it all out, sadly the frames dont look very salvageable to use for swarm trap next year. Theres also bound to be some wax moth lurking around there too.
Clean it all out, blow torch around the inside of the hive.
If you can afford new frames, then chuck out 5 of the worst, keep the remaining 5 and clean them up by cutting out the wax and putting them in a bucket of bleach.
When you receive another swarm, it should come on another 5 frames, so you will quickly have the full compliment.
Just to add, Ive just looked at your two middle frames again, and if you look at the bottom bar, and underneath that, you will see your bees built a raft under the frame, as your queen was running out of space in the spring summer build up.
Theres nothing wrong with this, as long as you are aware of it next time. It can fall off and often its loaded with done comb, so some people like to remove it as a varroa control.
You can use this as a sign your brood nest may be struggling for space, so you can reverse brood (if your running double brood boxes or keep an eye out for swarm preparations, or make an artifcial swarm, because to do this you will have had a lot of bees in that colony. They only build under the frames when everything is really prolific !!
Its not nice to see this, but you've probably gained a lot of info! and also, i doubt you did anything wrong, if you did you will never know!! put it down to experience!!!!
You did say anything else might be a help!!
Best of luck when you get a new swarm!!
Looks like its been on the decline for a while. Bees at the bottom under the ,middle frame, frame 5 and 6 havent cleaned out the dead bees so i would say since October/ November!
The Hive is full of what looks like maggots and Caster, which is the maggots when they start to pupate. The colder weather will have virtually stopped them.
It is just possible that you might have had what looks like "Sac brood:, in the middle of some of the cells, in the cose up pic, but its so difficult to tell because its also full of maggots.
Dont be Disappointed, its a perfectly normal dead hive. It certainly happens.
You can clean it all out, sadly the frames dont look very salvageable to use for swarm trap next year. Theres also bound to be some wax moth lurking around there too.
Clean it all out, blow torch around the inside of the hive.
If you can afford new frames, then chuck out 5 of the worst, keep the remaining 5 and clean them up by cutting out the wax and putting them in a bucket of bleach.
When you receive another swarm, it should come on another 5 frames, so you will quickly have the full compliment.
Just to add, Ive just looked at your two middle frames again, and if you look at the bottom bar, and underneath that, you will see your bees built a raft under the frame, as your queen was running out of space in the spring summer build up.
Theres nothing wrong with this, as long as you are aware of it next time. It can fall off and often its loaded with done comb, so some people like to remove it as a varroa control.
You can use this as a sign your brood nest may be struggling for space, so you can reverse brood (if your running double brood boxes or keep an eye out for swarm preparations, or make an artifcial swarm, because to do this you will have had a lot of bees in that colony. They only build under the frames when everything is really prolific !!
Its not nice to see this, but you've probably gained a lot of info! and also, i doubt you did anything wrong, if you did you will never know!! put it down to experience!!!!
You did say anything else might be a help!!
Best of luck when you get a new swarm!!
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