[hbrittan]

I'm now wondering if my bees have a virus or Nosema. There are some with K wing. I thought my bees were swarming, there were queen cells built, but the queen was still here. I killed her, there were no eggs layed, and got a new one. She was acting weird (lethargic) and not laying eggs. I'm starting to get pretty frustrated. I live in SLC and we just had a cold front come through. Two days of rain and temps into the 40s at night and 50s during the day. They came out a little yesterday and were tossing out a ton bees. Lots of dead drones. Today there are a couple handfulls of bees and lots of them crawling on the ground. I haven't noticed any smells if I just open up the hive and peek in. Is this just from the cold weather? It's a new package this year and I heard that you don't need to treat in the spring with a new package. I'm also wanting to go as natural as possible. Does anyone know what's possibly going on or how to help? I couldn't see any mites on the bees and didn't see any deformed wings. There isn't much larvae and I haven't seen any thrown out.
I'm going to try and get in tomorrow since it's been about a week since I introduced the new queen. I'm worried I'm going to lose the hive.

 

[hbrittan]

I've noticed for a while that I find them all around the house and can't fly. I thought that was just them getting old. Some seem do have darker abdomens and I thought that was maybe just genetics. They are italians, so I thought they should be lighter.

 

[Delta Bay]

What kind of food supply do they have in the hive? Are they storing nectar, capping some honey, pollen. It could be they are hungry but if they look fine in that department then it could be something else.

 

[Moon]

I've read through some of your other posts and I'm not trying to be condescending when I say this but I think you need to take a step back, do a couple deep breaths, and relax. You've gone from a newly installed package April 18th where the queen was released on the 19th or 20th to concerns over swarming, laying worker, nosema, bee paralysis, and then eventually killing your queen and replacing her. If you can start providing pictures with your questions it will give everyone who is trying to answer a better idea of what you're looking at and help you diagnose it.

You say you are running mediums, you have two boxes on and the bees are reluctant to move into the top box. You also mentioned they are back filling the brood nest with nectar. How many frames are drawn out in your lower box? How many frames are drawn out in your upper box? How many frames of brood do you have and how many are filled with honey. How much drone comb do you have (it's pretty common to mistake drone comb for queen cells when you're new to this and learning, I still do it sometimes depending on how the frames are drawn out)

Please if you can, post some pictures and I will try to help you further, if not myself I can guarantee there are dozens of other beekeepers on these forums that can you point you in the right direction based off of the pictures you have. I've got all weekend off so if you can get into your colony, get some pictures of what you're looking at and post them hopefully we can get you sorted out by Monday.

 

[Slow Drone]

K wing is a symptom of several diseases not just Nosema Apis. K wing is also present in a healthy hive just not as noticeable. K wing does not always signify the presence of disease. Lots of K wing is often noticeable in both Nosema Apis and an infestation of Tracheal Mites. Hives with Nosema Apis will repeatedly attempt to supercede and population will slowly dwindle. Fecal steaking on the hive body, topbars, and face of the comb can be a visual symptom of Nosema Apis. Could be the cold front moved in the bees clustered and left the brood exposed and uncovered. Moon points out pictures would help make a diagnosis less difficult. If you are concerned with disease always send a sample in for diagnosis and confirmation. The lethargic queen does warrant concern. Bees may not be properly tending her for one reason or another.