Overreacting?

[DANIEL QUINCE]

I walk by the hives every day and remove the dead bees from the landing board. Today for the first time on one of the hive I only found a larva, white with white eyes with a bit of black on the sides. Should I worry, look inside, feed, medicate, or is it a normal occurrence? This is my first winter with bees and I know I may be overreacting. Am I?
Thanks
Daniel

[BULLSEYE BILL]

Sounds like chilled brood. The bees were not able to cover all the brood to keep it warm, so some of it dies and gets booted out the door.

It happens, could also be hygenic behaviour, a sign of a problem in the cell, but this time of year I would bet on the chilled brood.

[peggjam]

This is normal, don't fret to much about it. If you were to see alot of them, it might be a problem. It was proably one that died due to chilling when the cluster contracted for the night. You will see this during early spring when brood rearing has resumed. Sometimes the queen will lay outside the clusters ability to keep them all warm.

[DANIEL QUINCE]

Gee, you made my day.
Thanks

[Brent Bean]

Daniel:

January has been very mild with temps both high and low well above normal. The queen will normally start laying eggs by this time of year and with the warmer temps here in Michigan it wouldn’t surprise me if mother started a couple of weeks ago. I don’t bother cleaning off the dead from the landing board, the undertaker bees will take care of that when they can get out to fly and it will give you and indication that you have a live hive when they disappear. I wouldn’t disburse the hive this time of year, because the bees worked very hard sealing up the hive last fall and won’t have an opportunity to fix the damage. They will either survive or not, if they were strong last fall and you treated for mites, left them adequate food reserves and you have a queen that is laying I would say you can sleep well tonight. Check them at the end of February or early March for food and add pollen patties. And you should see them explode when the Maple trees bloom.

[buckbee]

If they are throwing larvae out of the hive, I would check they have enough stores - this can be a symptom of starvation.

[DANIEL QUINCE]

Thank you Brent and Buckbee. I didn't take any honey out last year since was the first year for the 2 package bees I got. I clean so I can monitor activity assuming that if they carry the dead outside, than there must be some alive inside cleaning up. When was cold I didn't see any out of the hive. During the few worm days I did see them taking flights.
I didn't treat for mites last year. The only treatment I used was Terramycin when I got the bees and again in Sept-Oct. Maybe I should try to pick them up and see how heavy they are. I had them strapped down to the fixed frames I am using to raise them off the ground. I am wandering how heavy a 2 deep should be at this time of the year.

[Brent Bean]

You should still feel like the hive has some weight but it won’t feel as heavy as last fall. If you should think you need to feed them remember, when the weather turns cold again,( and it will!!) Depending on the method you use they will have a hard time getting to the food. Feeding to early may also make the bees think they need to start brood rearing at full throttle and when the weather gets back to normal they will use what stores they have even faster. This time of year I will only help out a hive if they are in dire straits, and I will add frames of honey. I know that you don’t have that option this year so I would probably use a division board feeder. When the temps get cold they can better access it. Also use a 2:1 sugar to water mixture.

[ January 29, 2006, 09:56 AM: Message edited by: Brent Bean ]