Joined
·
546 Posts
Howdy. Finally got a chance to peer inside one of my 2 hives on this 52 degree sunny day. And I am wondering if I should condense and clean up the hive down to one deep to try and save what is left of the living bees?
It seems I have 3 small clusters in different places. This is a 10 frame Lang. 2 deeps with a medium on top. There was a small cluster (30 or 40 bees) right on the top bars against the sun side of the hive. There was a small cluster directly below them on the top bars of the top deep and down in the bottom deep it sounded like a small queenless roar going on. I had taken the medium off the top and set it aside. Maybe the queen was in there.
Aside from that lots of dead bees plugging up between the frames. And because of winter dysentery, lots of almost black poop on the top bars and down the sides of the hive. I pulled a couple frames where the dead bees were packed between and the comb was full of dead bees head first into the comb. Some all the way in and some half way out.
We are heading into a warming trend. Lots of 50 degree days a couple 60+ days coming up but still some 30 degree nights.
One one of those 60 degree days, should I pull this hive apart, try to get any living bees into a single cleaned up deep with whatever stores I can muster and some empty comb? The hive right next door seems much healthier with a couple orientation flights happening already.
Thanks for any advice.
It seems I have 3 small clusters in different places. This is a 10 frame Lang. 2 deeps with a medium on top. There was a small cluster (30 or 40 bees) right on the top bars against the sun side of the hive. There was a small cluster directly below them on the top bars of the top deep and down in the bottom deep it sounded like a small queenless roar going on. I had taken the medium off the top and set it aside. Maybe the queen was in there.
Aside from that lots of dead bees plugging up between the frames. And because of winter dysentery, lots of almost black poop on the top bars and down the sides of the hive. I pulled a couple frames where the dead bees were packed between and the comb was full of dead bees head first into the comb. Some all the way in and some half way out.
We are heading into a warming trend. Lots of 50 degree days a couple 60+ days coming up but still some 30 degree nights.
One one of those 60 degree days, should I pull this hive apart, try to get any living bees into a single cleaned up deep with whatever stores I can muster and some empty comb? The hive right next door seems much healthier with a couple orientation flights happening already.
Thanks for any advice.