Hi Helen
Some had their heads buried deep in the cells – classic starvation. But
surely the colony should have moved along the hive to access the stores??
On 14 Apr 2021, at 17:38, Helen Nunn <helenmaynunn@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi
I discovered today the demise of the swarm we got last May from South Parks
(sorry Jane!) which we put in my oldest TBH, which has a bit of a history of
short-lived colonies. There was almost no activity yesterday while the other
two hives were really busy. so today I opened up and there were perhaps 200
bees at the most, all dead. A group on the floor (which was propolised, by
the way) and a couple of groups either side of the two empty combs nearest
the entrance. There were 13 bars altogether and I took out about four with
lots of honey on them from the further end, and two with a bit, from about
bar 4 to 8 inclusive. Bars 1-3 were empty with these small clusters of bees
on them. Some had their heads buried deep in the cells – classic starvation.
But surely the colony should have moved along the hive to access the stores??
This is the colony which had the episode of possible poisoning last June, but
it seemed to recover and in March I saw pollen going in, which ought to
indicate a queen laying???
I'm a bit baffled. Any ideas please? Meanwhile I'm getting sticky.
Helen
PS sorry about the photos titles - I name my colonies from where I got the
swarm!
<april SP.jpg><SP dead April.jpg><south parks dead, April.jpg>
