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  • The Lazarus affect

  • Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
 #1272  by Cable_Fairy
 03 Nov 2018, 11:58
I hope someone can reassure me nothing is wrong. I was given a polynuc of bees at the end of August , and because they were very aggressive I was advised that they be put in a larger hive. I bought a WBC at the beginning of October and they appear to be happy, certainly a lot quieter.
They did not have time to build up stores in a super, but filled two new frames with stores in the brood box. I have a feeding EKE and a glass quilt on top of the brood box and can see the bees huddled in the middle frames and on top of them.
I wander around the hives at least once a day and have noticed dead bees on the floor, however yesterday after noon the front porch was covered, (a lot of them had loads of pollen) so I collected them up by hand and placed them in a plastic box and took them up to the potting shed. As soon as they were in the warm about half of them suddenly woke up, and after about half an hour I took them down to the hive where some calmly wandered inside. I have the rest totalling about 30 which are dead. This morning there are some more just laying about, the temperature is 10.5.

Is this normal, the bees in the other hive (National with super on bottom) are going in and out and I cannot find any dead ones.

Many thanks
Dave.
 #1273  by Patrick
 03 Nov 2018, 14:08
Hi Dave

There could be a few things going on here. As an aside, I hope you were indeed given the nucleus because you should not have been expected to pay for very aggressive bees and the given reason that they just needed more space is queationable.

You say you have two colonies and your wbc has a feeding nuc - by this do you mean you are feeding that one but not the other? Are there are any signs of bees tussling around the entrance?

I wonder if the nuc was made up with bees that are now naturally reaching their normal end and you are finding them on the porch mixed with oldies being cleaned away whereas old bees in a national without a Portch fall in the long grass and disappear or get predated.

We often forget that when a queen lays a thousand a day in due course a thousand a day must inevitably also die off - it’s just that mostly they are foraging and just never return. I know it’s not quite like that in practice but you know what I’m getting at.

I don’t know where you are but our weather is all over the place and flying bees getting chilled and becoming moribund is highly likely. It’s why flying this time of year can be risky.
 #1276  by Cable_Fairy
 03 Nov 2018, 16:56
Patrick,
Many thanks for your reply, firstly the bees were not too aggressive when I got them, but it increased every time I inspected them, now they seem reasonably quite. They were really packed in when I transferred them. I am feeding them both, my observation about the configuration was mealy to get you in the picture, and as for the National Bees falling in the grass, both hives are on Yorkshire stone slabs, the grass will come next spring.
I don’t know where you are but our weather is all over the place and flying bees getting chilled and becoming moribund is highly likely. It’s why flying this time of year can be risky.
High up in the Pennines, and it is rather chilly which is perhaps what is happening, they are exhausted after flying a long distance. I have noticed that some do tend to land on their backs, and have great difficulty righting themselves.
I have tried picking them up this afternoon and they quickly become lively so it must be something to do with the cold.
 #1277  by Patrick
 03 Nov 2018, 23:25
Aha, that sounds a fair reason, I forgot you were in the Pennines - also apologies my response had several typos which made it a bit confusing. I was typing in haste before heading off to watch the England v Sth Africa rugby. It showed..

If they are stationary, out of fuel and get cold it all grinds to a halt.