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> wrote:
Did anyone see Gardeners' World this week (Friday 10 August)? See:
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>
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
