Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => DISEASE & PEST CONTROL => Topic started by: bee-nuts on June 05, 2010, 11:27:50 pm
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I have been watching a colony collapse since spring. I do this because I dont have a mentor and I want to figure out what the problems are so I can diagnose them in the future. So today I gave a look and I have stubby little bees that all have their wings spread out and I think thats k wing, right? I did not see split wing meaning four wing just wings out to the side. So I made a call to a beekeeper I know and was informed that this usually indicates tracheal mites. I dont have bees crawling in the grass though or dead bees on the bottom board. So now that I am noticing this spread wing thing I go looking in other colonies and see ten percent or so seem to have it. Some I see bring them back in. It was also a bit cool and not sunny when I did this so Im wondering if that might have something to do with some of them in apparently healthy colonies showing this behavior.
DO I have a serious problem? Do I need to take mediate action? I can get video tomorrow if it helps.
Thanks
bee-nuts
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I an having a hard time finding pictures of k wing examples. I am confused whether I am seeing DWV or K Wing. Can anybody help. I dont know if I will get to yard with cam tomorrow or not. Have some things I need to do and may not have time to go there before I head to work. I pretty worried.
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DWV looks like a crumpled wing. Old bees look like frayed wings. "K" wing looks like a letter "K" on each side. A normal bee the two wings are attached to each other. With "K" wing the back wing is pushed forward of the front wing. A lot of deformed (crumpled) wings of course is indicative of Varroa mites. "K" wings are indicative of Tracheal mites. Frayed wings are indicative of hard working old bees...
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Michael Bush
I think I saw a couple with wings separated making a k. It was right after a good rain near evening and was cloudy so maybe with the bad light I did not see the separation like I should have. I never noticed this before but it was very obvious something was different about wings on collapsed colony. Thankfully I did not seen it in my main yard. I was told from the people I got my bees from that they had not had a problem with tracheal mites for years now and have not needed to treat for it. I was hoping I would not have a tracheal mite problem but it appears I may.
The bees in collapsed colony look stubby like this but there wings looked like the one on left but uniform, not frayed or missing. Last time I looked at them they did not look like this as I remember. Queen is missing now and obviously dead.
Oh, a link to pic Im referring to would help
http://www.flickr.com/photos/max_westby/4068531583/# (http://www.flickr.com/photos/max_westby/4068531583/#)
I may have been a bit paranoid though and mistaken this wing position in other colonys I looked at.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/max_westby/4567110893/# (http://www.flickr.com/photos/max_westby/4567110893/#)
Most had there wings in tight in other colonies I looked at. I will have to look again and take video and post it so hopefully someone can give me a definitive answer.
Thanks for response. Ill get video as soon as I can.
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A couple of anything is meaningless in my opinion. One or two deformed wings, one or two "K" wings, is nothing. A lot may require your attention.
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Yeah, I understand. Ill get video, hopefully tomorrow. You will see something is is going on for sure with the one, even if its malnutrition, something is going on.