Colony update here in Pa

[Dragonfly130]

Planning on having nucs again Allen if all goes well but unsure on bred queen's. Extra Cells' for sure when I requeen my own colonies but unsure on queen's as of yet. I'm gonna say maybe at this point and not lock myself in but if your willing to take some in a batch of several or work around my schedule I'd be more inclined to do it. Lot of work raising cell's to replace them and not really worth the effort for one or two. I'm just not set up to produce queen's other than for my nuc's and requeening full size colonies with cell's. Not sure on the fate of my last Glenn breeder queen should be checking tomorrow but regardless if she is replaced I'm gonna just pick my best to produce from for early May. Glenn retired so no more breeder's available from them. VP may be where I go next year for breeder's. Also if you can catch cage some it would also be easier on me.

I will say I've gotten a lot of queen requests from nuc buyers this year.

[Allen]

Sounds good and will call in Spring.
If we have some over-wintered survivors I'm hoping to split them so several queens may be needed.
Planning on running a dozen or so Nucs for next year.
Going to let some requeen themselves and add mated queens to others.

Almost requeened one of the Nucs.
Like you and I had talked about earlier in summer, they have been grumpy most of the time and gave me most of the stings out of all the colonies.

[delber]

I was just out at my yard at lunch time and inspected quickly and started feeding 3 hives. 1 nuc and 2 full hives. The "smell" was great. They are / were getting some goldenrod which is encouraging, but they are still low on stores. I haven't fed either of these hives at all this year. They started out as a 5 frame nuc that once put in a deep swarmed on me, and I split it again with another hive making 1 5 frame nuc overwintered into 3 hives. One I sold in July which has 6 frames of brood at the time. So It's feeding time for me!!!

On the queen rearing arena. . . I raised 5 queens this year of which 3 made it through well and are still going now. Why is it a big deal to use our best stock and rear our own queens for our splits and nucs. My bees are very calm. I have a friend that bought a nuc that the guy uses breader queens also from glenn and his bees are MUCH hotter. I can pop the top on any of my hives w/o protection and I wouldn't dare this with his. I learned a TON from rearing my own queens this year and God willing I'll be doing it again next year also.

[delber]

So I'e been trying to figure out why 2 of my hives just dwindled to nothing then died out and have a thought. I think they may have starved of pollen. So my question is when is it too late for pollen sub? Would it be beneficial to supplement this late in the year? If I would have thought of it I would have done it months ago and perhaps saved the other 2 nucs (Using 5-7 frame deep hives in 10 frame boxes) but hindsight is always 20/20.

[wildbranch2007]

So I'e been trying to figure out why 2 of my hives just dwindled to nothing then died out and have a thought. I think they may have starved of pollen.

did you go verify that they had no pollen. I've had this happen to a few hives the last couple of years. In one case the symptons showed up as diarea and the bees just kept leaving the hive. In the other cases they kept raising brood long after they should have and used up all there pollen, then there bodies reserves, then they left the hives(looks like ccd) but isn't. in all the cases when I pulled the frames, there was no pollen left in any frame, and it happened right about this time of year. from your post above you started feeding in oct. did they /had they stoped rearing brood? if they keep rearing brood they will eat up the pollen feeding the brood.

[libhart]

Right. New bees and raising brood causes the real need for pollen. From Biology of the Honey Bee by Wintson, '87:

"Pollen is necessary for proper post-emergence glandular development and growth of internal structures during the first 8-10 days of a worker's life, but after that it is not essential unless older workers begin to produce brood food and feed larvae."

[delber]

Honestly I hadn't kept an eye on pollen. I figured that the "normal course of life" would have covered things. I have never trapped pollen from them and saw them bringing it in regularly, but I was going to add a frame with some pollen just as they were dwindling down, but found that they had about a 2-3" diameter of polen which I realize isn't enough at this point. They were still rearing brood when I was feeding them. They stopped sometime in November and by that point the 2 hives were already dead. So do you all see a need or a benefit to feeding a pollen sub at this point? On a few hives I am mountain camping on top so there's room to put a patty in the hive if it'd be good and able to be used.

The "diarea" that you mention is nosema I believe. That could be why they just left the hive.

[virginiawolf]

I gave some of the bees, my smaller hives a little to 2 to 1 syrup in a mason jar last night.

They came up for it and seemed happy to see it.

They were flying like last week and it was 50 yesterday so I figure they could use a little syrup.

I'm not sure if they keep open nectar around the brood througout the winter like they do in the warmer months

I fed dry sugar only last year but I lost a couple to starving so I have it in my head to give them a little syrup.

I hope this wasn't a bad decision. Any insights would be appreciated.

Thanks, VW

[wildbranch2007]

The "diarea" that you mention is nosema I believe. That could be why they just left the hive.

not according to the microscopes.

[delber]

Mike, So you had them tested? What did they find?

[wildbranch2007]

didn't have the bees tested they were gone, scrapped the poop off the hives and looked at it under a microscope, nothing that looked like nosema or protozoa comparing to the pictures that I found. The hive had been treated with fumidil previous. Its one of those cause and effects. they didn't run out of honey, they did run out of pollen, they did run out of bees as I watched them leave even on cold days from my deer stand while hunting. If you popped the top (when they were still in the hive) the decibel level of the hive went way up compared to normal bees. To me they had all the symptoms of nosema, I left the hive sit most of the summer, no wax moth, no robbing, no ants. I originally thought it was nosema c. as they louder bees, flying when cold etc matched. When nothing touched it I assumed ccd. When I toook it apart didn't find any polllen, marked the hives and reused them on two other hives. no follow on problem so not ccd. to me lack of pollen, I had saved one of the deeps from the previous hives that I had a problem with, pulled it out of the cellar and no pollen. so I have two sets of symptoms to remember for lack of pollen, all hive bodies and frames were reused no problem so no ccd. Now its entirely possible that the one hive with diarea on it really did have nosema and I didn't know what the heck I was looking at.

[PAHunter62]

Finally broke 45 in the area today. I made it to my two remote hives and checked on them. I have not been into them since the end of October. Neither hive was in the top box yet, and the stores there appeared to be untouched from looking in. I did add a 2 inch shim box to each with a sugar brick and pollen patty while I had them open. Just a precaution in case we fall into a lingering deep freeze. All my hives were flying a little today, which was good to see after the cold spell we have been having. I have a NUC pointing out a shed window that was a late season split, they are still going, not super strong, but a decent sized cluster. The NUC was my most active hive today as it gets a little more direct sun than the others. I'll be looking for a temperature break towards the end of February for my next look. Wednesday, they are calling for 50+ temps, which should get most out for cleansing flights. Hope everyone else is doing well.

[MeriB]

I hope to check on my hives later this week with the warmer temps. One my be gone and I think one is strong( it roared at me when I knocked on it) but the other two, I have no idea.

[Allen]

Starting tomorrow and for the next 7 days, temps are supposed to be 45 or higher.
Hope they don't burn through their honey stores too quickly.
Was out with the stethoscope today and two hives sound more faint than the others.

[DC Bees]

I will be checking on my hives if the temps get into the fifty's, that is if I can get through the mud out on the farm.

[delber]

A week or two of warmer weather will be a welcome change for me. They can rearrange their stores as they see fit and I can get some more stuff on top of them if they need it. I'm planning on putting some pollen sub on top in addition to the dry sugar I've already put on some of them that were light. I'll check the others also and see what they may need. Opening them up quickly when it's 55 degrees is Ok. Doing complete inspections obviously isn't, but I'm excited to be a beekeeper again!!!

[GLOCK]

Well still have 14 hives a humming .
Going to poke around with them this weekend going to be in the 50s

[wildbranch2007]

Well still have 14 hives a humming .
Going to poke around with them this weekend going to be in the 50s

let us know if they have any brood

[GLOCK]

I'm not going to dig in to deep for it's only JAN. and they have awhile to cluster and i don't want to mess any thing up.
I will bee checking how there stores are holding up and see how my nucs are doing they sound strong.
I walked up to my bee yards yesterday when i got home from work right before dusk and the snow around the beeyards had dots of bee poop so they where out yesterday doing cleansing flights and when i got home my wife was like i have something for you and she has a jar with 2 honeybees inside and said i found these in the snow in the front yard {about 400yards from my bee yards} any way she thought i may want to ckeckthem out to see if i wanted to look at them under the scope. Whats funny they came back to life in the warm .
I sure can't wait till april.
peace.

[oblib]

>Whats funny they came back to life in the warm .


Forget where I read it but. A bee is not to be considered dead until it is warm and dead