Next to my 2 Top Bar Hives on the allotments is a National belonging to another
beekeeper. It was populated by a swarm I gave them, i.e. same bees, same place,
diferent hive types. The National colony is a couple of years old. It's died
while the TBH colonies carry on. (Yes Anne the bees you gave me are really
vigorous.)
I was fully suited up, trying to badger-proof my TBHs with power tools. (In
case you are not aware: bees hate the vibration from e.g. drills, and if the
tools are coloured black & yellow like a hornet you can be sure of a
particularly warm welcome.)
I looked in the National to see if I could find out why they died. First thing
I noticed was pools of condensation on the top bar of frames. Second thing was
lots of honey in the supers on top. Further down I found a queen excluder and
at the bottom of the hive, in the brood box, were the bulk of the bees.
[Question for National users: is it normal to leave the QE in over winter?
Surely this means the bees cannot get to the stores and warmth at the top of
the hive because they do not want to leave their queen?]
The bees were dead, and mouldy, the mouldiest bees I've ever seen, implying
they'd been dead in damp conditions for some time. They were spread in clumps
over several combs.
Perhaps there was a ventilation problem leading to too much damp, thus
uncontrollable mould. I attach some poor pictures. There was nice honey above
the supers but in the brood box the honey cells' surfaces were slick with
condensate. The hive wasn't leaky, its walls and roof were sound.
Interesting how one hive had this problem while the two next to it, of
different topology yet essentially the same bees, were OK. The two TBHs had
their bases closed for winter though one is bent with age and probably allowed
a reasonable amount of ventilation. The other TBH colony is always a small
cluster over winter and presumably didn't generate as much condensation from
their breath... I suppose ventilation is more a problem for large colonies.
Paul
Attachment:
Condensation_on_top_of_frames.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Attachment:
Wet_honey_and_mouldy_bees.jpg
Description: JPEG image
