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Lost hives to storm damage

4K views 28 replies 17 participants last post by  Brad Bee 
#1 ·
I have to wonder sometimes if the Good Lord is trying to tell me something.

We had some really severe weather tonight. It got bad here. I don’t know if it was straight line winds or a tornado but there was 2 separate “events” about 3 minutes apart. Thankfully nobody was seriously hurt. One of our neighbors lost her mobile home and got a gash on her head but she was treated and released. We lost one barn, completely gone, and a portion of another one. Got trees down all over the place but no house damage other than probably needing a new roof. When that 2nd wind/nado came over the house I thought the windows were going to blow out. It was hailing so hard that it sounded like a crew of roofers were on the roof nailing down shingles. I know for sure that 10 of my 5 over 5 overwintered nucs are toast. They blew off their stands and are scattered across the pasture behind my house. That’s all I could tell with my flashlight. I tried to go check on the hives down at the barn but there was so much tin and brown lumber full of nails that I decided to wait until daylight to check them. Good thing is, everything lost is “material” and can be replaced. Bad thing is, every one of those overwintered nucs were sold. I get to call 6 people in the morning to tell them that they may not get their bees in a couple weeks as planned. I am NOT looking forward to calling those folks and I am not looking for are to dealing with those pissed off bees in the morning
 
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#4 ·
Man, sorry to hear about your losses . I head to my farm in Cullman wed. Morning to check on damages, and livestock. Praying all is well there. Heard it got a bit nasty. I didn't have bees out there yet. Just starting out this spring. I will look into anchoring them down in some fashion though. Keep us posted tomorrow after accessing the damages. Rich
 
#7 ·
Brad, sorry to hear about your loses. What you described happened to me twice but it only knocked three hives down. Since that day, all of my hives have been rachetstrapped down to anchors in the ground or the hive stand. Hasn't happened again. We get some powerful winds here during a thunderstorm.
 
#9 ·
just now getting back to the forum brad and again so sorry about the bees but very glad that you and yours are alright. hard to believe there were no fatalities.

are you the same brad that channel 48 featured on their evening newscast? :)
 
#10 ·
SP, I can only assume that I am the same one. I couldn’t watch the news, our cable is still out. They did stop and interview me. I was between my two jobs for the day of beekeeping and roof repair.

I ended up with 14 hives blown over. I am fairly certain that I got all the boxes for the big hives put back together with boxes from the same hive but 7 of the 5 over 5 hives were just a craps shoot on whether I got them stacked back correctly. I’m not concerned about box orientation or even which one was on top, I just hope that I don’t have too many with one queen in each box and the hive beside it with two boxes with no queen.

I did learn that bees that have been scattered about by a storm, especially hives as strong as they are now, are in a really, really foul mood when you try to stack them back up. Worse than summer drought bad mood.

I lost some frames and a few other hive components but it could have been much worse
 
#12 ·
Brad, the same thing happened to me last night at one of my out yards. I had 7 hives blown over in the storm. I got them all righted this morning . There seemed to be a lot more live bees still in the boxes than dead bees. I'm wondering what to expect in a few days with the dead brood? I'm going to spend some time figuring out some kind of anchor system. (I didn't mean to hijack your thread). Like you said, it could have been worse.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Thanks guys.

Clyde, I talked to 2 of the nuc buyers today and they were both very understanding.

Don, I hate to hear that you had problems too. I don't consider your post hijacking, and I wouldn't be worried about it even if I thought you had. I can derail a thread with the best of them. I had lots of dead bees in my hive top feeders. I can't begin to image why they went to them. The syrup trays were full of rainwater and in some of those I'd estimate there was a quart jars worth of dead bees. I'm quite certain that there will be chilled brood pulled out of every hive that got turned over. The only thing that's going to prevent a mass brood die-off is how packed the hives are with bees. I don't recall having so many bees in hives this early in the year. I have fed no pollen sub and only fed one feeding of syrup during some warm weather in January.

I had a bout with AFB last spring and I figure that with all the stress that my hives went through, I'll know with 100% certainty very soon just how well I got that cleaned up. I would not be surprised to see it pop up again, although I was very thorough in burning anything and everything that I thought might have it or might be contaminated, on top of burning everything that did have it.

At any rate, it was a heck of a stressful event for them and me and if there is any disease of any sort lurking in the back ground, it's most likely going to manifest itself after this. I'm not trying to be all doom and gloom, that's just the nature of how things work.
 
#14 ·
Brad,

I am very sorry to hear about your bees, because I recall your travails with AFB last year and was hoping you'd have an easy year. But at least you and your family are OK - that's the only irreplaceable part of life. I'm hoping you won't have too many more big storms this spring.

And also hoping when you check those nucs on the weekend that you see some eggs in all of them. Can you get any that aren't queen right quickly restarted with some frames of eggs from the big hives? Bees are really tough little creatures, and if you already have drones it would only be temporary set-back.

I once had to set up a colony that had been through a bear attack - hoo-boy - those bees weren't in the mood to be kind to any rescuer. They were in a rage and took it out on me. My leather gloves had hundreds of stingers in them.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for your nucs.

Nancy
 
#15 ·
Thanks Nancy. I do have the resources for them to make queens if they are queenless. I didn't do an inpection on any of the hives yesterday, so I don't know if we have drones hatched out yet but there is capped drone brood visible in the hives.
 
#16 ·
These are the hives right behind my house, all of them except two were blown over. The top blew off of the two that stayed upright, so they may not be much better off than the others.




I'm posting a picture of this barn because of it's proximity to the beehives behind it. You can't see the hives but there are 7 hives right behind this barn. If the wind was blowing in the direction that the wall fell, and I don't see how it couldn't have been, then those hives took a direct hit from the storm. Only one of those 7 hives blew over. Doesn't make much sense.

 
#18 ·
Sorry Brad. I followed your AFB threads last year. You could use a break. It is bound to turn around now though. Can't give up.

FWIW, when the hurricanes were coming in last year, I drove T-posts beside my hive stands and ratchet strapped the hive stands to the T-posts and then ratchet strapped the hives to the hive stands. It did not really get tested as the hurricanes were not a direct hit. I have left them all strapped down since then and I have made it through some fairly rough (but not what you just experienced) weather. That was the only system I could think of with the few days I had to prepare.
 
#19 ·
Thanks Rich, I really appreciate the offer. I think all is as well as can be for now.

psm1212, I'm real close to throwing in the towel. I've thrown a whole lot of money, time and energy into this and I have nothing to show for it other than a bunch of white boxes full of bees. (Y'all please don't start a pity party response chain, I'm tired and angry) The only 2 winters that I have had a good survival rate were this year and last year. Last year AFB hit me as you know and this year has started off with a bang. I do really enjoy keeping bees but if someone offered me the right amount of money, they could own every beekeeping supply and hive that I have. I could keep 2 hives and have a lot less to worry about and still get to enjoy bees. The so very frustrating thing about this is that my insurance is worthless. I am beyond pissed off about it. My agent told me if I filed a claim on the bee hives that they would non-renew my policy. I had talked to them a few years ago and was supposed to be covered with my bees. She told me that they would be considered personal property and a LIABILITY and insurance would cover any hive (box) that was destroyed but the bees were not covered.

If lightning strikes a tree and kills 10 of our cows (livestock) insurance pays for them

If a tornado hits my bee hives and 10 hives of bees (livestock) die, tough luck and oh by the way, if you dare use the insurance that you've paid for, we'll cancel your policy.

I hate insurance companies.
 
#21 ·
Brad:

Take a trip to the beach within the next couple of months. Come through Andalusia, Alabama and I will send you back with a free nuc full of bees. Or I might be able to meet you in Montgomery sometime. I had some nucs get mated in the last couple of weeks and should have decent populations by the end of April.
 
#22 ·
Dang it man. Hate to hear the news about the storm damage. I was thinking about you when Spann was talking about Albertville and Boaz. Hopefully the bees will rebound since it is still early in the year. Hate it about the barn even more. I’m here too if you decide you need any free labor on the bees.

Wade
 
#24 ·
That stinks. A friend of mine had 2 hives blowover 2 years... In mid spring before they were heavy with honey. They both actually survived. He said the bees remained in the boxes and he just stood them back up.

Depending on wind direction the wind could actually accelerate a bit as it passes around the structure. Not sure about your situation.
 
#25 ·
Brad,
Sorry to hear that your hives and outbuildings got tore up. Two years ago I was ground zero for a tornado. Word of warning, watch what you say and what the insurance company does! Especially the adjuster that comes out! I got nothing for my bees by the way. Seems like trying to be fair and honest with the insurance company is like trying to negotiate with a hungry bear, they'll still eat you no matter what. I would however like to find out about that USDA program (anyone have specific information on where to look?). Anyway I transgress... After building back up I had a terrible winter, lost all my hives again. I could almost walk away, like you. I'm just not going to let it beat me, I'm starting again this spring with about a dozen packages, we'll see what this year brings. Good luck putting everything back together, it's slow and frustrating. Don't give up hope even when that insurance money runs out before you're done. I know you've been there before and made it, you can do it again, even better!
 
#26 ·
Update

I got all the hives checked this weekend. Only lost 3 of the 14. One of them was a dink and the other 2 got cold enough and wet enough that almost all the capped brood to apparently be dead. They had chewed the caps off much of it but had not removed any yet. The brood was still white, but like I said, the caps were chewed. I've read about "demoralized" bees but had never seen what I would consider to be that until today. Those two hives were clustered and not moving at all, despite temps in the mid 60's and intermittent sunshine. The others were all out in full force.

I shook them out and will freeze the comb before placing it in another hive or two to be cleaned out.

Fortunately I had a good winter, only losing 10% of the hives here at home. All other hives are strong enough that I truly belive I could split each one in half and still make a good honey crop on the queenright halves. If I only had enough hive bodies to do that.
 
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