Bumblebee's cleaning...

[Barry Tolson]

I put out a super of wet frames for the bee's to clean after cutting out the combs this weekend. There have been as many bumblebee's as honeybee's on these frames. I've never seen this and was wondering if anyone else has lots o' bumblebees helping out with the cleaning up of wet frames. This is the most bumblebee's I've ever seen at one time.

[dhood]

I have seen this before, like in my case you also probaly have a bumblebee nest somewhere near by. They were at the yard where I keep a garden, so i was glad to see them. Between the honey bees and the Bumble bees, my watermelons did better than ever this year.

[stoweski]

Don't want to hijack the thread but I have a question relating to this...

I put out six frames to be cleaned in a shallow rubbermaid container. I didn't have another super to use. Anyway, we came home from work today and found about 3 dozen bees dead in the bottom of the container. All frames were cleaned. I did notice yesterday when I set them out that there were a few bumblebees around but everyone was getting along.

Anyone ever have that number of dead bees around your frames that you left out for cleaning? I'm thinking of putting them in the top of the hive next year instead of leaving them out if I'll just wind up with dead bees.

Thanks,
Keith

[Hobie]

Keith, were the dead bees in a pool of honey in the bottom of the container? Bees will go to take honey off the pool in the bottom, get stuck in it, and perish. Kind of like a sweet La Brea.

[stoweski]

Hi Hobie,

No, the bottom of the container was dry with the exception of dry comb bits that must have been knocked off of the frames. That's why it didn't make sense to me.

Keith

Keith, were the dead bees in a pool of honey in the bottom of the container? Bees will go to take honey off the pool in the bottom, get stuck in it, and perish. Kind of like a sweet La Brea.

[Hobie]

That IS odd. I've put out extracted frames, pans, and the extractor itself, and the only dead ones I've found are stuck in the honey. (I've rescued and washed a few that weren't dead yet- family thinks I'm weird. I've started shoving a handful of grass in the bottom of containers - it helps). Maybe someone else can shed some light.

[Troy]

I set out some supers once and I came back at the end of the day to find hundreds of dead bees.

I assumed they were fighting over it and stung each other.

In my case I had stacked 4 or 5 supers up and left a gap at the bottom and the top for bees to get in and out, because I was worried about rain. I didn't want the rain to get in the combs as they go moldy real quick when that happens.

I think once the bees are inside and they encounter another bee (from another hive) they get defensive, whereas if the supers where stood on end and there is light all through the thing, then they don't get defensive as they know they are out foraging (robbing) and that it is not their hive to defend.

Who knows - this is just what I thought when I looked at it. Since then I've tried to put them out only one at a time when the weather is good and I've not had hardly any bees killed.

[stoweski]

Yep, Troy. That's what I figured it was too.

I will be using supers next time I set the frames out for cleaning. Unfortunately being a new beek, and picking up a late season swarm, we ran out of hardware.

Keith

[papa bear]

hey. i've been complaining about the bumble bees all summer and how they have been running the honeybees off blooms. i was rendering a large amount of comb a few days ago, and the bbees out numbered the hbees 10 to , i don't know way they are so many this year then before. i even have a big sumac over some hives. full of bbees but not a one of the hbees

[stoweski]

I had about six dead bumbles outside of one of my hives. It's funny because they seem to be outside one hive and other than a stray one or two haven't been near the other two hives. I guess they are no match for the guard bees. I never see the fight, just the corpse.

Keith