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The circumstances around the recent lost of one of my observation hives has me thinking; “What really is the life span of a worker girl during long winters?” I’ve heard every thing from 10 weeks to 9 months.
I had not checked this hive for weeks and when I finally did it spoiled my day “all dead”. This hive (single wide; 4 deep frames) was strong, perhaps overcrowded, had a good laying queen and the equivalent of 2 frames of capped honey in Sept. (and I feed Syrup then on). At the beginning of Nov. there were few fly days and no fly days from mid Nov till now, late Jan.; totaling about 10 weeks with no fly days and with temps from 30 to 8 degrees, suicide for any outdoor flying. I had noticed earlier, in that hive, that dead bees were piling up around the exit route in the hive case but I was to busy to do anything then.
So here’s my thought, relevant to this hive and regarding life span in long winters with no fly days: “In a packed hive the workers ability to clear dead bees and debris was prevented by a blocked exit. The pile up of dead became critical and probably toxic, leading to more dead and eventually all dieing”.So this instance causes me to look for a more definitive answer to worker life span in winter. There of course can bee other explanations to the demise of this hive but I’m adding a debris port at the bottom of the hive for when and whatever reason, the exit becomes blocked the build up of debris and dead bees can be mitigated by emtying the port.
My question is: Life span in winter??
Anybody?
Mark
I had not checked this hive for weeks and when I finally did it spoiled my day “all dead”. This hive (single wide; 4 deep frames) was strong, perhaps overcrowded, had a good laying queen and the equivalent of 2 frames of capped honey in Sept. (and I feed Syrup then on). At the beginning of Nov. there were few fly days and no fly days from mid Nov till now, late Jan.; totaling about 10 weeks with no fly days and with temps from 30 to 8 degrees, suicide for any outdoor flying. I had noticed earlier, in that hive, that dead bees were piling up around the exit route in the hive case but I was to busy to do anything then.
So here’s my thought, relevant to this hive and regarding life span in long winters with no fly days: “In a packed hive the workers ability to clear dead bees and debris was prevented by a blocked exit. The pile up of dead became critical and probably toxic, leading to more dead and eventually all dieing”.So this instance causes me to look for a more definitive answer to worker life span in winter. There of course can bee other explanations to the demise of this hive but I’m adding a debris port at the bottom of the hive for when and whatever reason, the exit becomes blocked the build up of debris and dead bees can be mitigated by emtying the port.
My question is: Life span in winter??
Anybody?
Mark