i think i made another mistake (go figure)

[buford]

the other day was about 50F and some bees were flying (not in full force, but several were "exploring").

anyway, i heard that i could fog the hives as long as the bees were flying, so i tried it.

when i did, several bees crawled out and promply fell in the grass. when i looke at them the next morning, i noticed that they had died there (probably got too cold). i knocked on the hive and heard the bees in there, so i know i didn't lose the colony (i only hope i didn't lose the queen).

did i do something wrong?

[Michael Bush]

Several? Three? Thirty? Several die every day.

[louis1st]

That happened to me about one month ago (I haven't fogged since)...
About 100 were badly burnt by the FGMO.

I think it was either too late in the season or maybe because the oil was too hot (my fogger started burning shortly after)...

Maybe my fogger is broken, or maybe there wasn't enough FGMO in it...

I won't try again before next spring now.

Did you have problems with your fogger too?

[Michael Bush]

If the fogger is not vaporizing the fog then hot oil will squirt out the end. Not good. Also, you need to be back about six inches or more from the entrance or the vapor will still be too hot when it gets to the hive.

[Tia]

I always tilt my fogger back slightly to keep it from squirting oil and/or turning into a torch. I also keep the nozzle at least 6" away from the hive and every so often check the temp by fogging my bare hand.

[buford]

well, it seems that this is not a problem with the fogger, but maybe something else.

the other day (christmas day) was about 55F and bees were flying. i didn't fog at all and found that the bees did the same thing. several of them died in the grass.

nothing seemed unusual about these dead bees (their wings weren't crumpled, i didn't see k-wing, etc.) they simply "froze" in their tracks while doing whatever they were doing.

i've only been beekeeping for five years and i've never seen this sort of thing before. is it possible that they have t-mites even though i've been using thymol fog and OA?

or is this perfectly normal?

[buford]

btw, the dead bees are more than a handful

[Ronnie Elliott]

I noticed several hand fullÂ’s after fogging a few weeks ago. I have my hive sitting on 4-feet, by 8-feet pieces of plastic cardboard (politicians, vote for me signs). I can see just what's going on in front of the hives. I figured the bees were caring out there dead after the temps were down into the teens. I fogged last Saturday, I poked the nozzle right into the reduced opening, and found no dead bees. The bees this time of year or up in the hive frames IMO, and not walking around on the #8 screen wire bottom.

[brent.roberts]

If a colony has say 40,000 bees and the average life span is 6 weeks, then roughly 1,000 bees a day need to be born, and 1000 a day will die.

In the cool season all that slows down quite a bit but still it continues to some degree.

If you live far enough north to get snow, you will see the results quite easily as they land and die on the snow. On local forums (is there such a thing on the net ... maybe that's an oxymorom ) up north beginners like me get alarmed when we see the bodies in the snow. Everyone with years of experience assures us it's quite normal.