Massive wake up call

The weather has been hellish up here lately, not great for 2-3 weeks and hellish for last 4 days. Today I went to my out apiary to be greeted by a hive with lots of dead bees in front of the hive. Upon opening there were 2 to 3 inches of dead and dying bees on the floor. The entrance was almost blocked. This was a swarm I had lured in late June, superbly placid, perhaps to much so for their own good. They were fed initially and had put everything into drawing frames and rebuilding, they were coming along nicely.
I class my self as a novice, a "2 and a half year old". Although I was aware that ALL of my hives have little in the way of stores, I did not consider that they would literally starve in mid summer. My thoughts at this time were all geared towards the honey crop.
I had considered taking pictures but was too ashamed to do so. You can picture the scene, partially uncapped brood, heads buried in cells (alive or dead?)..the huge heap of dead bees on the hive floor.
Thankfully the queen is still alive and there were eggs in evidence. I had some syrup made up as I had an hunch that I should be prepared after 3 days of zero foraging. I dribbled some of this directly on the bees on the frames, a little on the floor, hoping to save those that were failing and then applied the rest on a rapid feeder over the feed hole.

So, I guess I dodged a bullet in a way. However tonight I feel quite ashamed to be honest. Hopefully my poor judgement will allow a few other novices to be more vigilant.

never be ashamed of mistakes until you make them more than twice (I like to give myself leeway for being an idiot twice!!). I once took the guard off the fan in my incubator and was so happy when I saw the eggs hatching and woke up the next morning to 20 decapitated chicks. I felt not just stupid but like a cruel evil b*****d. Mistakes mean we have learnt and will improve next time.

I'm sorry ginger19. Don't beat yourself up. You have done everything you can, including sharing your experience so that others don't suffer the same. I hope your colony can be saved. Good luck

Hmmm - that was a big boob too Greg, we all make mistakes! I keep chickens also and have recently noticed Scaley Leg Mite on quite a few of my chucks, another eye off the ball.

Back to the bees, I would appreciate any advice going forward for this colony. My plan was to go back tomorrow and clear the floor, add more syrup if required. I have a nuc that I had planned to unite with this one, it has been queenless for a week after I nipped the queen who was old. I guess it would be best to wait a week before doing this.

This year has been atrocious for foraging in the north of England I've been feeding one of my hives for the last 2 weeks now... No thoughts of a crop from them, I just want enough build up so I can overwinter them and try again next year. Flipping weather!

It's quite common for swarms to run out of stores in long periods of wet British weather as their main concern is to build up quickly which usual ends up them using most of their stores for brood rearing.

Ginger19 said:

Hmmm - that was a big boob too Greg, we all make mistakes! I keep chickens also and have recently noticed Scaley Leg Mite on quite a few of my chucks, another eye off the ball.

is.

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Get the Vaseline out !! I actually lost a chicken to scaly leg !!!!
"How" you ask,...
Well I had brought it into the house to apply Vaseline e to its legs(washing the leg with me the meths helps too) iput the chook back out,made a coffee and when I went outside, one dead chicken. Why? You ask, because my dog got jealous of the chicken. The only other time she's hurt one was when I was holding one and she jumped up and bit its arse.
Ginver19, don't bee hard on yourselfyourself.
Individual bees die all the time, while the.colony liveslives, nothing is lost. It's just a little setback and another lesson.

fred scuttle said:

This year has been atrocious for foraging in the north of England I've been feeding one of my hives for the last 2 weeks now... No thoughts of a crop from them, I just want enough build up so I can overwinter them and try again next year. Flipping weather!

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Hardly better down south - my apiary anyway

Ginger19 said:

have recently noticed Scaley Leg Mite on quite a few of my chucks

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I know its a bit but what are you using for the scaly leg mite? We dipped our birds legs in a jar of olive oil and it seemed to work for a while. It came back though

I'm sorry to hear about the chicks Greg. That can't have been a pleasant experience. My Brinsea has only ever been used to incubate queen cells, although I did lose one once because I didn't have them in Nicot cages....you live and learn!

Ginger19 said:

Hmmm - that was a big boob too Greg, we all make mistakes! I keep chickens also and have recently noticed Scaley Leg Mite on quite a few of my chucks, another eye off the ball.

Back to the bees, I would appreciate any advice going forward for this colony. My plan was to go back tomorrow and clear the floor, add more syrup if required. I have a nuc that I had planned to unite with this one, it has been queenless for a week after I nipped the queen who was old. I guess it would be best to wait a week before doing this.

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Queen laying rate is likely to decline from now on, especially where you are with inclement weather in bucket loads at almost any time of year. Feed liberally for as long as they take it, providing they do not clog laying areas with excessive stores. At the end of the day you may have to think about, for instance, uniting with another hive, shoving them in a nuc for overwintering or heavily insulating where they are now if numbers left are too small to fill a whole BB. There is also the autumnal varroa treatment due soon and feeding to build stores up in the autumn/winter. Ready made syrup eg Amrosia/Belgosuc is formulated for bees and does not go off like plain sugar syrup. Worth having a some handy? Many BKAs buy it in bulk for resale to their members.

B+. said:

I know its a bit but what are you using for the scaly leg mite? We dipped our birds legs in a jar of olive oil and it seemed to work for a while. It came back though

I'm sorry to hear about the chicks Greg. That can't have been a pleasant experience. My Brinsea has only ever been used to incubate queen cells, although I did lose one once because I didn't have them in Nicot cages....you live and learn!

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OK explain incubating queen cells in your incubator! The whole process and reasob

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Ginger19 said:

Hmmm - that was a big boob too Greg, we all make mistakes! I keep chickens also and have recently noticed Scaley Leg Mite on quite a few of my chucks, another eye off the ball.

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That can happen to anyone. I had a big tub of Vaseline and I added pure benzyl benzoate to a 5:1 ratio (5 of Vaseline) and paint it on all their legs. One treatment and they were fixed.

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Amari said:

Hardly better down south - my apiary anyway

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Yep. Supers get lighter on every visit #:-/

I used sudocreme baby cream for scaly mite. It did the trick.

Ivermectin spot on?

Firefly said:

Yep. Supers get lighter on every visit #:-/

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Glad I'm not the only one! Inspected on 16 July and there were signs I'd have some honey this year. 12 days of wet and windy weather with cool temperatures later and no honey left in the supers although there's plenty in the brood box.

They do say beeks should only remove the surplus honey and it looks like there won't being any of that this year. I suppose I could leave the supers on for the ivy although they say its honey is an acquired taste!

CVB

Erichalfbee said:

Ivermectin spot on?

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Hi EricA, what is the dose for eg. large, medium, bantam, please? (and can it be obtained other than from a vet?!) ta muchly

(apologies to OP for joining the tangent...)

bontbee said:

Hi EricA, what is the dose for eg. large, medium, bantam, please? (and can it be obtained other than from a vet?!) ta muchly

(apologies to OP for joining the tangent...)

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PM