white bee

[beehive1234]

Saturday I noticed a bee trying to drag something from the hive entrance. On closer inspection and aiding her struggle the item turned out to a dead white bee.
Please can you advise me what this means. Was it because of the storms we are having? Is this normal or is it a sign of infection.

 

[mbc]

It could be chilled brood but my number 1 suspect would be varroa damage.

 

[Winker]

chalk brood

 

[o.stjohn]

If it was bee shaped with legs and body segments etc then it was a pupa that died before it could emerge. Disease or chilling are obvious culprits...

 

[beehive1234]

Thank you Winker but definitely not chalk brood.
Perfectly shaped white bee. Squishy and soft. I've not been feeding because they have been very busy foraging. Want them to fill up on the good stuff. Now I am wondering if this might mean starvation. Weather not good enough to open hive. Really worried.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I've not been feeding because they have been very busy foraging. Want them to fill up on the good stuff

Three of my four hives have not gained weight in the last three weeks despite good weather and plenty of ivy so beware. I'd bung on some feed.

 

[victor meldrew]

I suspect it to have been drone brood . Colonies should be / been down sizing the drone population at this time of year !
VM


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[mbc]

Now I am wondering if this might mean starvation.

Could very well be, it would do more good than harm having a quick peak and remedying the situation if it is. Mine have been steadily losing weight without feeding.

 

[beehive1234]

Thank you for your replies. Fondant going on soon.

 

[susbees]

Could very well be, it would do more good than harm having a quick peak and remedying the situation if it is. Mine have been steadily losing weight without feeding.

That's exactly what I suspect is happening. Not enough sun to pull in the ivy to increase weights a bit. Early fondant mbc?

 

[mbc]

Early fondant mbc?

They'll use it and store it but I'd be inclined to give liquid feed while they're still able to take it.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes, I agree.
Mine are on warmed ambrosia delivered via insulated rapid feeder and gulping it down.

 

[drstitson]

"Now I am wondering if this might mean starvation."

why? removing dead well developed late brood (possibly drone) won't help if starving.
IMHO just sign of normal housework - removal of either drone or chilled brood.

 

[beehive1234]

Hello drstitson thank you for you reply. Somewhere in my recollection there is a nugget of info stored, 'bees will remove the lava that they have not the means to feed.' That is the reason behind the starvation theory. That and my decision not to feed the bees until they have finished foraging. Only then to put on fondant. It proved successful with the warre and the bees always look weeker to me having syrup being fed to them. They are small colonies so no honey has been removed. Sugar isn't natural. They need what nature can give them in what they have collected for millennia. I am hoping it is tidying the hive. It isn't something I have seen before. It occurred to me it may be a queen lava too. I have closed down the entrance too incase the wind is chilling brood.
Many thanks to all the replies. The picture was excellent. Exactly what it was. Except no black eye. Infact the head seems to be missing........

 

[drstitson]

"Sugar isn't natural" and Fondant is?????

it's not synthetic either.


bees may well remove LARVAL stage brood (that needs feeding) in times of dearth but can't see why it would advantageous for them to evolve to evict healthy non feeding pupal stage brood.

 

[MuswellMetro]

They'll use it and store it but I'd be inclined to give liquid feed while they're still able to take it.

I had last week a14x12 colony that took down 3 gallons of 67% Fructose syrup in 5 days, i had not realised how light the hive was before adding the extra feed

if behive1234 is following the Warre method, i doubt he will want to inspect at all, he will have to learn how to heft, and it will be trial and error in the early years until he know what weight of a hive t will take acolony through winter AND we've all lost a few under weight colonies especial in the first years of beekeeping

 

[beekeeping4you]

...and the bees always look weeker to me having syrup being fed to them.

What can bees make "look" weaker - loving loving the bees??

 

[Little John]

if behive1234 is following the Warre method, i doubt he will want to inspect at all, he will have to learn how to heft, and it will be trial and error in the early years until he know what weight of a hive t will take acolony through winter AND we've all lost a few under weight colonies especial in the first years of beekeeping

Think you'll find the 'he' is a she.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about the odd one dead bee - a dozen or more would be different - but yes, it might be a sign of something more serious, so maybe worth looking into.
LJ

 

[beehive1234]

Thank you Little John. How perseptive of you.
Perhaps it is the bees lost attention to the natural forage. When I give them syrup. It looks odd to me.
As if they are on drugs.
They are not bees any longer. They are not so enthusiastic to fight for life.
To toil to survive. Man is forcing his ideals on his pets.
They will get sugar.
They will not get all the things we know nothing about.
Unyet we do know some of the benefits of honey.
Their food.
Yet we feed them sugar?
Am I making any sence?
Replace a complecated elixir like honey .........with sugar?
Then poisen them now and again.
Thank God 50% survive.

 

[Little John]

we do know some of the benefits of honey.
Their food.
Yet we feed them sugar?
Am I making any sence?

Of course you're making sense: health-conscious human beings opt for honey instead of refined sugar precisely because of it's health benefits - and yet we feed the bees that which we ourselves shun - and whilst doing so, have the audacity to claim that it's actually better for the bees than honey.

But - I would simply ask the question: "would anyone keep bees, if there wasn't at least the prospect of harvesting some surplus honey at the end of the season." I rather suspect that no-one would.

The basic problem for many is a need to feed during the season, with this need being caused by a paucity of continuous forage. In my locale there is a glut of feed whilst the OSR blooms ... and then nothing very much, just a trickle of nectar from village flowers, flowering weeds etc. There are no extensive hay fields anymore with their clovers and vetches - these have been replaced by sugar beet, cereals, brassicas, potatoes and so on. Even the few grassland areas which still exist around here are used to make silage.

As much as I would personally like to keep bees as naturally as possible, this can only ever take place within a 'natural' landscape, and by that I mean one in which substantial quantities of nectar-bearing plants bloom right throughout the nectar-gathering season.

Unless, or until such conditions return, there will sadly continue to be a need to feed at least some supplementary sugar to bees. Wish it were otherwise.

LJ