Tapped on one hive put my ear to it and hear nothing, tapped on the second hive and they are buzzing like mad. Does that mean the quiet hive is totally kaput. I'm tempted to take it all apart to find out, just tear it down and start fresh with a nuc I'm overwintering in the spring time.
Im a new beek and the other hive and nuc is doing fine. They funny thing is the quiet hive was the most active all summer, they were fine going into winter and now it seems like that done up and died
It will be hard to know what is going on for sure until you look inside, but if they were doing really well they may have just abstained. Wait for a warm day and take a peek.
I feel that I can get a pretty good idea how large the cluster is by the sound they make when you tap on the hive and listen with your ear right up against the wall. No noise at all is not a good sign. My most productive hive this year made over 200 lbs. honey and I discovered they were dead the other day, have not torn down the hive to see what happened yet, probably won't till spring now. John
We pop lids throught out the season on winter yard inspections with temps in the 30F's to check for dead outs on suspect hives or to feed lightweights. Sometimes, especially with our New World Carniolan stock hives which run small winter clusters they don't make much noise and we find a cluster in there when we that didn't make much noise. We find the quiter hives that do have bees tend to have more feed and are at the bottoms of the frames. They'll buzz and mill around a bit if they are in the top and if you leave the lid off about a minute one or two will let you know the stingers still work fine in winter. We winter singles but if you do run doubles you will hear them with the lid of if they are in the bottom. We like to clean out and anaylize dead outs ASAP and get the equipment cleaned up and ready for next season as spring get pretty busy in the bee yards.
Nothing to be gained by opening now (you can't combine with the nuc yet) but a lot to lose if you open and break the box seals and disturb the cluster if its alive
Let the bees help you practice patience
Good Luck, Mike
Joel is giving good advice but geared more for commercial guys like himself that don't have the luxury of time and a much different area of the country and possibly an entirely different breed of bees
This is just one of the reasons one gets seemingly conflicting advice when both approaches are right.
I agree with Mike that you don't want to go breaking apart boxes this time of year to see if they are alive, just taking the inner cover off and putting your ear down to the top of the frames and tapping will tell you. John
Took top off today rapped on bottom deeps and no noise or activity at all. the hive next door was active with some flybys during the day. So I guess they are kaput. I have a full medium super of honey on top. Guess I'll leave it all together until spring than rip it apart and if my Nuc survives, I'll put those five frames in place. Is there anything I need to do once I confirm they are all dead or gone as far as cleaning the hive and getting it ready for the 5 frame NUC I'm overwintering? What should I do with the honey, or whatever else I find in there? Im new at this and this hive was doing very good all season. I started it from a NUC. Just went kaput where as the other hive started from a nuc took off slow and they seem fine. It hasn't even begun to get cold here on Long Island. In fact today it was 49F. Need help ASAP as to what to do come springtime. Thank you in advance. I hate to jump out of the hobby because of losing one hive but if they are that sensitive I might just give it up.
Take it apart you have nothing to lose. Get it ready for spring. Make sure you find out why this happened if possible. I have the honey from mine in a top cover sandwich. Meaning the frames and supers are in between two covers to seal out critters and insect from getting in. Keep it if the other hive needs some, if not you can use it for your own use. Make sure no disease took out the hive though. Remember to take pics, maybe we can help determine the cause.
Typically hives are not all that sensitive.
Try placing a glass between your ear and the hive. It will act like a stethescope.
THEN maybe you will know if your hive is still buzzing. lol
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