Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Olea visits her hive, and some bad news for #2

Olea got to use her bee suit this past weekend.  We looked in the nuc, #2 and Olea's.  She had no fear of the bees buzzing about her and the only problem was getting a good view into the boxes.
When we looked into Olea's, I inadvertently broke two comes filled with capped and uncapped honey, so we took out the broken pieces for an unexpected honey harvest. 
We checked the nuc to see if they were taking their pollen and syrup.  There was still plenty of each.  I fear that there just are not enough bees in the nuc to survive.  I had considered moving a frame or two of bees from #2, but than plan was shot down by what we saw in #2.
There was plenty of honey in the top box of #2, at first encouraging.  But then I saw the brood.  The pattern was spotty with several uncapped cells with dead pupae.  Also, I saw 3 bees with deformed wing virus.  This probably is Parasitic mite syndrome, but I have unrealistic hopes that the dead pupae may be from being chilled.  I had treated this hive and believed I had the mites under control, so what could have happened?  I think I know.
Not far from here is another backyard beekeeper.  He had 6-7 hives and believed in no treatment beekeeping.  This has become controversial in the beekeeping world with the main objection to it is that when an untreated hive dies, the mites get into (often by robbing) surrounding hives.  I noted that my neighbors bee yard is now just stacked boxes, so I assume his hives succumbed.  And my otherwise healthy have was overwhelmed by the mites.
In any case, #2 is very sick and I do not expect it to recover.  I did treat it with Apiguard and will hope for the best.  If Olea's survives, I may try to make splits from it.  Otherwise I can either buy new bees, have only one hive or hope to capture a swarm.

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