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Author Topic: Dead hives  (Read 4735 times)

Vinnie

  • Joined Mar 2016
Dead hives
« on: March 17, 2016, 05:42:22 pm »
Well a very sucky day. Our hives died over winter we had 5. So we think it must have be condensation and then they froze. Because they have lots of honey stores, not many mites, no beetles and not AFB. Weird that they all died though. One was a 2 year hive that one had some mites, the others were new packages from last spring. In the fall though they didn't produce that much honey for us. But the queens were active in all of them So have to start up again this spring have order 4 packages. Any advice would be great  :'( ???

DavidandCollette

  • Joined Dec 2012
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2016, 10:42:25 am »
Are you a member of the local bee keeping group?   They have swarm collectors who collect swarms and redistribute to members who need them. Far  cheaper and just as reliable

Vinnie

  • Joined Mar 2016
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2016, 02:13:52 pm »
As far as I know we unfortunately don't have a local beekeeping group, we have a province bee association. And we have joined that but there isn't much commuication. There are just a few keepers in our area. So hopefully we can catch a few swarms this year. :fc:

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2016, 03:03:15 pm »
Where in the world/ UK are you Vinnie ?
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

Sudanpan

  • Joined Jan 2009
  • West Cornwall
    • Movement is Life
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #4 on: March 18, 2016, 04:38:25 pm »
To lose all 5 is a real blow - very sorry to hear it. It might be useful to get a sample of the bees from each hive and gt them checked for any diseases as to lose all of them at once sounds pretty catastrophic.
Hope you get some swarms this year  :fc:

Vinnie

  • Joined Mar 2016
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #5 on: March 18, 2016, 04:59:46 pm »
We live in the southern part of Alberta Canada. There are big commercial bee keepers but not many small ones. So you can get packages and stuff from them if need to.  We may send in a sample that's a good idea. We had a warm spell so we have cleaned out 3 of them already. Didn't want any critters moving in and having a honey feast

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #6 on: March 19, 2016, 12:50:47 am »
Ah,
 I avidly read Ted Hoopers book on Canadian beekeeping .
 I guess you rarely successfully overwinter the bees as your in the freezer for six months of the year  ;)

 Whilst beekeeping I saw an article where Russian bee keepers were bringing neuc size boxes of bees into their cellars to over winter the bees , having inverted jam jar feeders sat a sleeved hole that kept the bees back inside the box on top of the neuc lids .
Connecting each neuc entrance via a meaty screwed in place blocking  batton to a flexible 1 & 1/2 " pipe , taking the pipes  out via the edges of the panel through a window that had been boarded up & filled with insulation.

 Their  success rate for over wintering was very high , plus they had their own bees to make up into the new hives once the air temps reached 50 oF ( 10 oC) 
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

Vinnie

  • Joined Mar 2016
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #7 on: March 19, 2016, 04:14:49 am »
Yep we freeze for 6 months  , cook for 4 months and 2 mystery months  ;)That's interesting about the Russians would you have a link to the article , sounds like something we have to look into. Year (2014) we only had 2 hives and we put them in a shed and they lived. So we will probably do that next time but since we had 5 hives the shed we had was too small. So we did what everyone else does and wrapped them, must not have been strong enough.

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #8 on: March 19, 2016, 09:36:59 am »
It was in the British Bee  Keepers  magazine,  possibly an edition from 1996 to 2000 .
 I'll have a play on the Internet later on  to see if I can find a YouTube article or similar .
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #9 on: March 19, 2016, 10:59:22 am »
Firs reference to it ... had a speed read of this , the links look good as well .
http://www.beesource.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-227731.html

More to follow perhaps

This is a specific page but the whole book appears well researched even for the 1020's.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_te9cOm4WoUC&pg=PA346&lpg=PA346&dq=beekeeping+in+a+cella


I've just spent an interesting hour watching this guy a Canadian bee keeper Mike Palmer.
I like his overwintering and management ideas .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFanJbaigM4

Our UK keepers could benefit tremendously from watching  his tube videos as he is giving successful commercial keeping knowledge/ info of a quality that  exceeds much of that our back yard keepers can get hold of .

 Happily he has several other youtube videos covering many aspects of keeping .
« Last Edit: March 19, 2016, 12:25:28 pm by cloddopper »
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

Vinnie

  • Joined Mar 2016
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #10 on: March 19, 2016, 05:17:10 pm »
Thanks for those links. Yes Mike Palmer has a lot of good advice in his videos. In the one article the guy didn't have to much success with cellar wintering. Ventilation was a real problem. It will be a lot of work but since we are basically starting from scratch again, I think I will try building sheds that can hold at least 2 hives. I think the problem for us was the up and down of the temp this winter. Just have to make sure there is enough air flow. Sounds like hours of research ahead :-\ well at least I have a sometime before next winter

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #11 on: March 19, 2016, 10:05:49 pm »
Having pea flour mixed with dried pollen as the bee bread sunbstitute also is some thing you'll need to work out so tyhat when new bees are hatched they can be fed in the cellar hive.

 One thought wrt ventlation in the cellar was to use varroa screen mesh to make two trays . One to fit over the top of the hive using spacers to hold a crown board up abve it  and a removable one for the bottom so you can take the bottom one off every few week and empty it of dead bees etc.

 The beauty of th tray idea is that you can incorporate a nozzle in the side to put the flexible tubes on so that if the temp gets to 50 the bees can get out on their own for a very short cleansing flight .
 Another thought is that if a cellar is damp a humidistat and closed circuit portable humidifier could keep th cellar dry enough .
#
 Eric my Canadian FIL lived very close to Niagara Falls . He used to have such a set up in his subterranean rec. room cum storm shelter in the basement of his bungalow . 

It was exceedingly effective for he also had a small shower room down there for the guests who stayed  over & were using the rec room as a second double bed room with an additional bed settee as well if needed .

 There was never a trace of a fusty/ musty smell you so often get in that type of cellar conversion.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2016, 01:05:17 pm by cloddopper »
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

Vinnie

  • Joined Mar 2016
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #12 on: March 20, 2016, 01:38:20 am »
I haven't heard of pea flower mixed with dried pollen, I will have to look up where we can get that or the recipe for it.
For the new bees I have made so they all can have screen bottoms, it really helps reduce mites. Once the mites fall through the screen they can't get back in.
Good idea about the tube just have to make sure that if some died in the hose they didn't plug it up .
That's sounds like a really neat cellar he must have put a lot of work into it

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #13 on: March 20, 2016, 01:10:23 pm »
Sorry Vinnie it should read as "  pea flour "  not flower.

 It's ground chick peas found in most health or Asian food shops ..over here in the UK we sometimes see it on the  oriental food section shelves in the bigger supermarkets .
Basically it's just a form of protein that the bees can use easily to make bee bread to feed the grubs , adding some dried pollen to it gives it a boost .
« Last Edit: March 21, 2016, 10:32:51 pm by cloddopper »
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

Vinnie

  • Joined Mar 2016
Re: Dead hives
« Reply #14 on: March 20, 2016, 02:05:39 pm »
 :D. Either one I didn't know they would eat that. We are pretty much newbie beekeepers only have done for a couple of years. I have made protein patties with soya which they didn't seem to like. I will definitely give the chickpeas flour a try

 

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