When you walk up to a hive and see no activity, you immediately think, why are my bees dead. Watch here as we do an early spring beehive inspection to see what’s up
I kind of experienced the same thing with my hive here in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. Very strong colony in February – March with good acceptance of the patties. When the nector flow started in April the girls replaced all of the honey they had eten over the winter. Then they just took off! I harvested most of the honey but let one frame in the hive for the few bees that remained and put another one in the hive of a swarm that I had captured. A week later a swarm appearently moved into the empty hive and are filling it up. Go figure? Got any ideas? Please keep the videos coming!
Bill Fetcher
The large number of dead bees may have been caused by being gassed by the menthol used for tracheal mite treatment. I lost an entire hive through this application. Be sure there’s a tracheal mite problem to start with and apply treatment with caution.
Diana L
Very cool ! Glad there are signs of life… a few tense moments.
Scott
great to see another bee video…looking forward to more
didn’t you say in gardenfork radio that one of your hives had died?
starting to prepare for our first winter here, bees have stored heaps of food so fingers crossed…
Steve Howard
You mentioned signs of Nosema. Can you describe what those signs are sometime? Dead Bees, aroma, colors, etc? Very interesting series, Eric
Tonia Moxley
So, do you have to clean out the dead bees? Or do the live ones take care of that?
George Cannon
I kind of experienced the same thing with my hive here in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. Very strong colony in February – March with good acceptance of the patties. When the nector flow started in April the girls replaced all of the honey they had eten over the winter. Then they just took off! I harvested most of the honey but let one frame in the hive for the few bees that remained and put another one in the hive of a swarm that I had captured. A week later a swarm appearently moved into the empty hive and are filling it up. Go figure? Got any ideas? Please keep the videos coming!
Bill Fetcher
The large number of dead bees may have been caused by being gassed by the menthol used for tracheal mite treatment. I lost an entire hive through this application. Be sure there’s a tracheal mite problem to start with and apply treatment with caution.