Thanks to Helen for pointing us to GQT piece on Monty Don's 2 hives. It isn't
often that we get a selection of good quality images so I've taken screen shots
for us to comment on. Please find 4 images attached. The first 2 are from the
TBH; the second 2 are from the still active WBC.
What I see (and don't see) in the TBH:
1. the bees on the hive floor are partially decomposed so they may have died
some time ago
2. there is detritus on top of the decomposing bees so there was activity in
honey cells but no house-keeping (ie undertaker bees). Amongst the detritus are
larger, white crystals of sugar
3. the jumble of bodies makes it too hard to see whether there are a
significant number of Varroa
4. all the comb which they showed was heavily propolised, indicating that it
has been used for brood
5. the comb is entirely empty, but it is brood comb so it's unclear whether
honey has been taken from these cells.
6. there were some cobwebs indicating wax moth grubs (not in my screen cap
pictures)
7. the cell openings look quite tidy, which suggests against robbing by wasps
8. the comb is very regular and even. There is one lump at the side which is
more likely to be brace comb than a Queen cell. There may be a Queen cell on
the far comb and another on the nearest comb, but it's hard to tell.
This episode was broadcast on 10th August. Three weeks before, allowing for
production time, would place its last significant activity in early July
My conclusion: The storm of bees in early July were all robbers. I'd guess that
they were from the adjacent hive. It seems unlikely that the TBC colony died
from cold, given that most of my failures were during March and April. The
robbing would have started and finished sooner. I'm guessing that they survived
Winter but couldn't recover. There may have been a Queen problem.
What I see in the WBC:
1. the laying pattern looks quite erratic which might be a poor quality
Queen or a brood disease.
2. there's an odd looking white splodge where there ought to be a grub near
the bottom right in picture 5
3. the frame of honey is on a National deep frame which suggests it's from
the brood box. I'm confused because I would expect comb from the brood box to
be somewhat propolised. Most people don't use deep boxes as supers.
4. I don't see wired foundation on the honey frame. It may have no
foundation, which would be consistent with it coming from the brood box.
Will
On 11/08/18 23:08, Gino Sprio wrote:
It does look like it's been robbed out, but not sure the cold argument stacks
up.
There's a clip from June this year of the hive, which shows lots of activity
and drones going into the hive, so cold seems an odd explanation of why it died
out.
Maybe swarmed, then failed to re-queen, then robbed out?
On 11 August 2018 at 21:05, Helen Nunn
<helenmaynunn@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:helenmaynunn@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Did anyone see Gardeners' World this week (Friday 10 August)? See:
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bfd94n/gardeners-world-2018-episode-19<http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bfd94n/gardeners-world-2018-episode-19>
Monty Don's TBH had died out, leaving every comb completely bare of anything,
and bees dead in the bottom of the hive. His mentor seemed to think it was the
harsh winter. I wondered if it had been robbed out by other bees? What does
anyone else think? The footage comes about two thirds through the programme -
at minute 43.29 ish.
Helen
On Sat, 11 Aug 2018 at 20:51, Paul Honigmann
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
There is a thread on beekeepingforum.co.uk<https://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk>
about wasps and a wasp expert (Karol) explains some useful stuff about how to
deter them.
He points out that...
* Wasp traps should be upwind of a beehive. If downwind, the wasps may
ignore it and go for the attractive hive scent (its plume).
* An efficient wasp trap may not have many wasps in it. By "efficient" he
means "it kills all the wasps that enter, none escape". So no scout wasps get
away to tell their friends "I found this great food source". Thus,
counter-intuitively, an efficient (i.e. good) wasp trap will probably have
fewer wasps in it than a low efficiency one. Whereas a trap with lots of wasps
in it can be a sign that it is acting as an attractor for wasps to the area -
the escapees go recruit friends - a trap full of wasps may actually be worse
for your hives! What you want is to create a zone where any wasps who venture
in, never return.
* A low efficiency trap is best placed far from your hive so it doesn't
attract wasps to your hive, but lowers the background population of wasps.
* Early in the year, wasps are raising young and want protein, so they
carry off entire insects and larvae. But around now (and more so as Autumn
approaches) they get short of nectar and are looking for other carbohydrate
sources. So they grab bees on the landing board, and rip their head off to get
at the honey / nectar in their abdomen(!!!)
* You can gauge their reasons for attacking bees by whether they are
ripping bees apart on the spot and discarding the remains, or flying off with
them after removing the head and wings and legs.
* "When wasps take bee abdomens for nectar, they don't communicate this
back to the hive in the same way as they would a rich residual food source such
as when they get to the comb so you don't get the same level of swarm feeding.
That said, if they are taking bees it's not a good portent for the autumn when
things tighten up carb wise so it might be wise to keep a closer eye on the
hive as autumn draws in."
I think this means that wasp traps baited with sweet / alcohol smelling stuff
are more attractive in the later part of the year, while ones baited with meat
/ fish are more attractive to wasps when they are raising brood earlier in the
year.
Of course wasps are good for gardens, they eat aphids and caterpillars. I
recently advised one neighbour to just leave a nest alone as it would do more
good than harm. It was well away from my hives.
Paul
Attachment:
gqt_1_monty_dons_tbh_hive_floor_overview.jpg
Description: gqt_1_monty_dons_tbh_hive_floor_overview.jpg
Attachment:
gqt_2_monty_dons_tbh_hive_floor_close_up.jpg
Description: gqt_2_monty_dons_tbh_hive_floor_close_up.jpg
Attachment:
gqt_3_monty_dons_tbh_brood_comb_close_up.jpg
Description: gqt_3_monty_dons_tbh_brood_comb_close_up.jpg
Attachment:
gqt_4_monty_dons_tbh_brood_combs_overview.jpg
Description: gqt_4_monty_dons_tbh_brood_combs_overview.jpg
Attachment:
gqt_5_monty_dons_wbc_hive_laying_pattern.jpg
Description: gqt_5_monty_dons_wbc_hive_laying_pattern.jpg
Attachment:
gqt_6_monty_dons_wbc_hive_honey_frame.jpg
Description: gqt_6_monty_dons_wbc_hive_honey_frame.jpg
