"What can go wrong now?"

[Gscot]

My bees have survived so far with extreme temperatures -18 at times snow buried hives,gales torrential rain ect.the worst of the winter hopefully over"What can go wrong now?"They have plenty of feed.Surely they wont die now.
Have heard down south talking about bees flying in hundreds, Have seen the odd one venture out and had a few days +7 not seen many numbers out."Is this quite normal up north.?

[Calum]

Hi,
we finally had a warm day or two here in S Germany.
My bees were flying in numbers yesterday.

The only thing that can really go wrong now is Varroa collapse (nothing more to be done now other that drone drood removal), or if the bees rapidly build up and are hit by a long cold spell that they run out of stores and starve.
oh and woodpeckers !

Congradulations on getting your bees through!

[Rosie]

My bees have survived so far with extreme temperatures -18 at times snow buried hives,gales torrential rain ect.the worst of the winter hopefully over"What can go wrong now?"

I was thinking the same - until the weekend when we had 5 inches of rain, a chap from a neighbouring village got drowned trying to cross a flooded bridge and I found my apiary under water. They've been flooded before though and survived alright so I am not too worried about them.

Rosie

[Jon]

oh and woodpeckers !


Woodpeckers are a rare sight in Ireland and are certainly no problem for beekeepers.

I have seen this fellow a few times in S. Mexico.

http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-lineated-woodpecker.html

5 inches of rain Steve. You sure you want to live in Wales!

[robin118]

My bees have survived so far with extreme temperatures -18 at times snow buried hives,gales torrential rain ect.the worst of the winter hopefully over"What can go wrong now?"They have plenty of feed.Surely they wont die now.
Have heard down south talking about bees flying in hundreds, Have seen the odd one venture out and had a few days +7 not seen many numbers out."Is this quite normal up north.?

I was thinking that too until Saturday when I went to put some fondant on and one of my colonies has died out. Devastated especially when it wasn't the one I was given late last year with no time to do anything to build it up enough to get it through winter it was a stronger one and haven't worked out why yet.

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Robin

Let's have the symptoms!

Small cluster
no stores
Spotty effluent on the top bars
how old was the queen
did you anti varroa treat - What with?
Mice?
Heavy drip from an overhanging tree branch? Do tell!

Eric

[Rosie]

I checked 3 other apiaries this afternoon and found another under water. It was about 20 inches deep and was up to the entrances of 7 colonies. The others in the same apiary were still 6 inches above the water level. The 7 wet ones are now on my trailer. Fortunately I have already negotiated another apiary so I will have to bring forward my plans to populate it. The first apiary that I mentioned in the earlier post has now drained.

Jon, I must admit I have had second thoughts but the scenery and locals are worth staying for.:) Unbelievably the local beekeepers are all cooperating and trying to keep compatible bees. Have you ever heard of beekeepers agreeing with one another - outrageous!

Rosie

[Gscot]

(nothing more to be done now other that drone drood removal),

Just wondering Calum the reason for removing Drone Brood.
Its probably something simple but i'm just learning the game just now.

[Calum]

Drone brood removal - the varroa love drone brood as they are capped longer so they can raise another egg (or was it two), so removal of drone brood lowers the varroa infestation without harming the colony (although some say the bees are happier with drones). At least remove the first frame, you can uncap the brood to get a feel for the numbers you find (http://www.bienenzuchtverein-lindau.de/image/04_7.jpg).
Drone brood removal is the best varroa treatment you can do (that and making nucs as it also removes brood and as such varroa) until after you have your last honey harvest. - Chemical treatments from now onwards risk contaminating your honey.

[Eric McArthur]

Calum wrote:
(although some say the bees are happier with drones).
.................................................. .....
I hope the “some” in Germany are in the majority. Drones are a necessary component in the bee colony. (ich nehme an da Sie eine Freundin oder eine Frau haben!!) The bees will immediately raise more drone brood to replace the ”lost” drones. The rearing of drones is the first act in the honey bee colony swarm preparations. As an aside a honey bee colony will not produce drones in quantity until the colony is prospering (“feel good factor”). Drone sacrifice is as barbaric as “das Schwefeln”. Pfefferle or some other progressive German beekeeper advocated using brood combs with the lower half of the comb cut away. The bees in the early spring always build drone comb, thus the empty space is filled with new drone comb, which when laid up and sealed can be removed with the adhering bees (leave mum at home tho!). By removing 2 such combs from each of any number of so treated colonies before the drones emerge the beekeeper has the facility to make up perhaps 4 or 5 frame nucleus colonies, which can then be treated with whatever poison the beekeeper wishes to kill the phoretic mites. Thus the drones saved will be useful for early mating and the worker brood when it emerges will swell the numbers of the bees initially entrained when the nucs were made up – the beekeeper thus has a number of new nucleus colonies virtually by default which may be given eggs; a virgin or a laying queen as Nachwuchs as opposed to committing biological vandalism.
I would you refer back to your footer “problem” Parole. However if a problem is not recognised as such – “Whatever!!”

Eric

[Calum]

Hi
though it pains me to do it I destroy the majority of my drone brood as do the majority of the beekeepers I know.
What they build in the free space under the frames in the lower brood magazine they can keep the rest belongs to the birds as feed. My concession is that my pure bred queen can lay as many frames of drone brood as she likes, I don't remove that.
My method seems to work for me (drone removal, nuc building, 7*formic acid 60% & 1*oxalic)- in the last 3 years I have not lost a single colony in my area the average loss rate is >20%.

[Jon]

I destroy all or most of the drone brood in colonies whose genetics I don't want in the mix and replace it with frames of drone brood from the colonies with better queens. The donor colonies immediately make more drone brood and this keeps everyone happy.
It must help to keep varroa numbers down, as well as promoting better genetics.