kazmcc
Queen Bee
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2010
- Messages
- 3,147
- Reaction score
- 3
- Location
- Longsight, Manchester, UK
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- None, although I have my eye on one ( Just don't tell Dusty ;) )
All this talk of bees and being gratefully allowed to assist inspections ( thank you Dusty ) is making me think back to my colony, and how they died.
The last inspection I did before tucking them up for winter went like this -
I was using a National BB, single brood, although it was that crappy one we were given when we first started.
Entrance block was in, and mouse guard fitted over the top.
Given a full super, fully capped with stores in the BB also.
OMF with no tray inserted.
When I returned at the end of winter, there were one or two robbers. Dead bees on the OMF, the supers had been eaten into and there were still stores capped - which I don't think the robbers had eaten as it was still early and very few bees attempting to rob, I think they had only just found this source. No sign of faeces.
I have been reading Storch, and his diagnosis suggests suffocation although I would imagine using an OMF would remedy this problem, and for them to have suffocated, they would have had to be already dying in large numbers to cover the floor and stop the flow of air getting in.
I really don't want to be in this position again, and if there were any mistakes on my part I would like to know, and to learn from them before I get another colony. Any insights?
The last inspection I did before tucking them up for winter went like this -
I was using a National BB, single brood, although it was that crappy one we were given when we first started.
Entrance block was in, and mouse guard fitted over the top.
Given a full super, fully capped with stores in the BB also.
OMF with no tray inserted.
When I returned at the end of winter, there were one or two robbers. Dead bees on the OMF, the supers had been eaten into and there were still stores capped - which I don't think the robbers had eaten as it was still early and very few bees attempting to rob, I think they had only just found this source. No sign of faeces.
I have been reading Storch, and his diagnosis suggests suffocation although I would imagine using an OMF would remedy this problem, and for them to have suffocated, they would have had to be already dying in large numbers to cover the floor and stop the flow of air getting in.
I really don't want to be in this position again, and if there were any mistakes on my part I would like to know, and to learn from them before I get another colony. Any insights?