Dead Bees? Need opinons

[Chef Isaac]

Well.... my wife and I moved the bees from Eugene to Northern Washington. We set up the hive stands and placed the hives on the stand and than removed the screen. All of the bees boiled out except hive number 1 and hive number 2... both were strong hives during the season and made a good amount of honey.

I did not open the hive to see but are the bees dead? If they got to hot or suffacated, I would expect to see a lot of dead bees on the bottom board. I did a sweep of both bottom boards and only came up with a few dead bees.

any thoughts?

[drobbins]

a wise old beekeeper told me a trick to see if your bee's are alive in late winter
put your ear up against the hive and give it a solid jar
if they're ok you'll hear em
he said you gotta listen the first time, the second time they won't make any noise
I'm a rookie and have never done this but I would think it would work

Dave

[ October 29, 2005, 05:30 PM: Message edited by: drobbins ]

[MichaelW]

you can also try removing the cover and peering down into the hive.

smile.gif

[DChap]

I use a stethoscope to listen for activity in the winter, works great

[Michael Bush]

I would expect a lot of dead bees on the bottom if they all died. But you may as well open it up and look. You just have to take off boxes until you get to the bottom or you see a cluster.

[Robert Hawkins]

On purchasing stethoscopes; I tried the cheapos and couldn't hear anything in em. I then got the $75 kind withthe double tube going down to the head. Unfortunately in this instrument, you get what you pay for.

Of course I use mine in the back of an ambulance doing 60 mph on a dirt road. So YMMV.

Hawk

[DChap]

hawk, you do get what you pay for. My good stethoscope is used on the side of the freeway waiting for the ambulance the cheaper one used in the bee yard.

Doug