The Intensive Care Unit

[AliciaH]

When I was doing my OA drip on Tuesday, I found out that one of my hives (I thought it was dead) actually had about 1/2 cup bees and the queen still alive.  I put them in a nuc with lots of nectar and capped honey (there is some pollen on the frames, too).  Then I set them up inside my barn with the entrance facing out the window with a heat lamp.


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I know the odds are pretty dismall.  But they would have frozen with no intervention, so I figured trying couldn't hurt anything.

I'm just wondering if there is something else I can do?

[Kathyp]

the odds are not good, but i pulled it out with some bees in an observation hive a couple of years ago.  it took forever for them to build back up, but they did it.  no harm in trying.  sounds like you did what you could.

[BeeMaster2]

I have an observation hive in my closed in patio with out side access that has 2 handfulls of bees and the queen. Being in FL and per our local bee inspector, it is time to get the hives to start building for our first flow at the end of the month, I am feeding them 1.5 to 1 sugar water to get the queen to start laying more. She just started laying a week ago, but the bees can only handle about a 2 1/2" area of brood on both sides. I would add more bees and brood but my other lang hives are very weak.
Jim

[rdy-b]

  put it back in the bee-yard and swap its location with a strong hive-a frame of brood will help this process to be success
  some brood is key so the queen has new bees to tend to here-RDY-B

[beee farmer]

Lots of love, care and a prayer or two, make sure they have enough but not too much stores.  Good Luck.

[JWChesnut]

I agree with Rudy B.  
By moving it, you will lose whatever foraging bees you have.  
(are Bees still flying at your location?) 
 Put it in the position of a much stronger hive, and the foragers will return to the weak hive and be accepted.   That will help balance the population enough to warm introduced brood.   When you have determined there are enough bees in the hive to warm another frame of brood, exchange a frame of brood with a strong hive.

In the absence of foraging, can you do a newspaper divided combine using only workers/brood and stores from another hive, stack the nuc two high until they combine, and then reform into a standard deep.

That said, some insulation and lots of sugar will also help.

[Kathyp]

way cold up here folks.  probably no flying going on in the great outdoors. 

[rdy-b]

  as long as they fly with in three days -otherwise they reorient and it wont mater
 you need to have the queen on a frame of brood(the more brood the better ) and nurse bees first- so that will take a day
 dosent have to be a big fly day just so some of the field force from the parent occupies the struggling
 hive-i have done this as late as feb here in cali-if you got a live queen i can get a hive out of it-- :lol: RDY-B

[AliciaH]

kathyp, nice to know that it's at least possible!  With the added warmth, do you think the queen will lay a few eggs?  Or am I hoping for two much?

This nuc is actually almost directly behind where the original hive was placed.  Hopefully, if one gets brave enough to head out, it won't get lost (more likely, it will freeze in minutes).  I don't normally lean towards artificially keeping the bees warm during winter, but in this case, I'm pretty sure their demise was connected with the mite issue I went into winter with (my fault, which is why I was dripping).  And now they don't have enough to stay warm on their own.

I wish I could pull brood from another box, but as kathyp said, it's cold up here and everyone is clustered tight.  I could go searching, I suppose, but if I break the other clusters in this weather, the damage to the hives I open will be far greater than losing this small number of bees.  If they keep going long enough, then maybe I can swap some bees around when a better opportunity presents itself.  I'll definitely keep the suggestions in mind!

beee farmer, why do you say not to have too many stores?  She does have room to lay, if that's what you are referring to, but the other three frames and nectar/capped honey/pollen.

Thanks, everyone, for the input, you always give me good food for thought!

[Hemlock]

Yes this can be done.  Has been done.

*You are giving them heat, that's good.  Make sure the ambient temp is constantly 50°F so the bees need not cluster.  They don't have the population to do it anyway.  This will give the queen more opportunity to lay.

*Give them a Sunny environment.  When i did this i gave then 15 hours of light a day.  It kept the few bees active preforming necessary hive tasks maintaining the hive.

*Give them brood.  When you can give them two frames of brood from another hive, with the nurse bees still attached.  I might not be until January/February but that will be fine

*Feed them non stop.  Syrup or pollen.

*You have neared success when the queen has filled several frames with eggs.  You have succeeded when those eggs have hatched. (April)

my strongest honey producer this last year came from two cups of bees the previous year.  She also spent Winter in ICU.

[AliciaH]

Thanks, Hemlock!

So give them syrup, too?  I have some so that would be easy to do.  Is that because the syrup will better simulate a flow and encourage the bees to act more "spring-like"?  Under the heat lamp, the syrup would even be a bit warm!

[Hemlock]

Further explanations

1 - BEE ICU

2 - Update 1

3 - Update 2

4 - Last Update

Good luck

[AliciaH]

Wow, she really did hang in there, didn't she!  Interesting the steps you went through with the top entrance and all.  Also interesting that they didn't take the syrup right away, but eventually did.

I have a nuc inner cover with a hole cut out for a mason jar.  I can try that and see what happens.  The hole is placed just to the front of where the bees are hanging out, if my stethoscope is any indication.  I hear bees in several places so they are not clustering, at least during the day. 

Thanks for the links!

[Kathyp]

Give them a Sunny environment.  When i did this i gave then 15 hours of light a day.  It kept the few bees active preforming necessary hive tasks maintaining the hive.

i think this might be as important as the temp.  animals are regulated as much by the season (length of day) as by the temps.

[JackM]

Sunshine it itself can be difficult this time of year up our way, I wonder if grow lights would help, they do produce a great quantity of waste heat?

I am already so ready for spring.  Too many dreary days already, plus the cold....at least it isn't windy too....yet

[AliciaH]

The window you see the hive facing out of is east.  There is also a window you can't see to the right of the picture that faces southeast (it mirrors the window you can see on the left).  This is not ideal, I know.  But it is as much light as I can give them and keep them indoors where it is easier to keep their temperature up.  Oh, and the reason they are not in the southeast window is because they are exposed more to the wind there.  Most of our wind comes from the southwest and it whips around the corner of the barn pretty good in that spot.

So far, I can still hear them moving around. When I checked on them today (2:00 PST), they were making that clicking/chewing sound and that sound was all over the top of the box.  So, they are warm enough to be out of their cluster and moving around.  I just hope that's a good sign. 

But hey, it's only been five days since I put them in there.

Gonna go write another letter to Santa...   ;)

[BrentX]

I am sure enjoying this thread.  I look forward to reading the next chapter for this little hive. 

[yockey5]

I too, am hoping they make it, and that you keep us updates.

[AliciaH]

Bad news, they're gone... :'(

Despite my latest thread on how to inspect them (the advice was to leave them alone), it was 50, sunny, no wind today.  One of the reasons I wanted to peak at them is because of the nagging feeling in the back of my brain.  The level of noise had changed, both in volume and in voice.  So, I took the opportunity to look inside.

What I found interesting is that it looks like they died of starvation -- the one thing I wasn't really expecting.  The majority of the dead were in a cluster with about 3/4 of the bees dead head first in cells.  There was still lots of honey on the exterior frames, but in spite of the heat lamp, they didn't move to it after depleting the nearer stores nor, apparently, were they able to bring enough of it back to the bees in the cluster.  The heat lamp was supposed to help with this and every time I peeked through the little crack, the bees were moving around the box, so I'm a bit baffled. 

My theory is that the bees I'm seeing in the hive now are robber bees stuck there for the night or for bad weather.  I'm going to leave it and let them continue to rob it out.

But thank you for all the good wishes that you sent my way during this process, I'm just sorry it didn't work.  It was only 1/2 cup of bees and a queen.  To say it was a long shot is an understatement.

[BlueBee]

Sorry to hear they didn’t survive the ICU.  It’s always sad when some bees don’t make it, but I think we learn more from our failures than our successes.  At least we remember our failures more than the successes!  Trying to get only ½ cup of bees through winter is amazing.  Kudos for trying.  You did well to keep them going this long.  RIP.

[Hemlock]

[Tommyt]

 :lau:



 :imsorry:

[AliciaH]

 :lau: :lau:

Thanks for the laugh, Hemlock!

And you're right, BlueBee, I'll definately remember what happened.  Hopefully, I won't have to do this again.  But if I do, I already have modifications in mind...