Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: leechmann on February 25, 2009, 02:16:21 pm
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Has anyone watched the you tube video, ( My honey bees died). The guy had 5 hives. 3 of them up and died, in a 24 hour period, while the 2 other hives are alive and well. It says that they may have starved as they had 2 weeks of terrible weather. What are your thoughts?
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This is the video he is refering to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5T55hwPKeo
I personally think that this was the result of pesticides.
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I have never personally experienced pesticide kill but that is what i have pictured in my head what it would look like that is for sure.
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The limited frame he showed had no sign of honey or nectar, so starvation is very possible. I have had hives almost starve in the middle of a drought. When they are in full brood rearing mode, it doesn't take much a food shortage for them to use up what they have and starve. I think some folks in the PNW will chime in about their issues last year.
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yeap this was taken from the coments posted at the end page -they are the keepers own words-
Ends up that the bees died of starvation. We had a strange and long period of rain and very cold weather. These hives were new package installs only 2 months old and were focusing more on brood production than food stores. If I'd known they were short on stores I could have fed them simple syrup and prevented this disaster. Threw out almost all the comb. Saved most of the hive components. Will use them again next season. Did catch a swarm later that summer though which is doing fine.
8-) RDY-B
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The limited frame he showed had no sign of honey or nectar, so starvation is very possible. I have had hives almost starve in the middle of a drought. When they are in full brood rearing mode, it doesn't take much a food shortage for them to use up what they have and starve. I think some folks in the PNW will chime in about their issues last year.
Usually, in the starvation mode, most of those brood cells would have had the caps chewed open and and pupae still in the white would have been consumed, at least in the later stages. There would hove been a lot of wax debre mixed in with the dead bees on the bottom board as well as bunked bees in the cells.
Looks to me like it was a combination of starvation and toxic source that did the colonies in, 3 found the source and 2 didn't. The contaminated source might not have been attractive under normal conditions but were when the bees were in the early to mid stages of starvation.
I think it is a dual kill, starvation and possible persticide contaminated forage. It makes the most sense with the visual evidence presented.
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The limited frame he showed had no sign of honey or nectar, so starvation is very possible. I have had hives almost starve in the middle of a drought. When they are in full brood rearing mode, it doesn't take much a food shortage for them to use up what they have and starve. I think some folks in the PNW will chime in about their issues last year.
Usually, in the starvation mode, most of those brood cells would have had the caps chewed open and and pupae still in the white would have been consumed, at least in the later stages. There would hove been a lot of wax debre mixed in with the dead bees on the bottom board as well as bunked bees in the cells.
Looks to me like it was a combination of starvation and toxic source that did the colonies in, 3 found the source and 2 didn't. The contaminated source might not have been attractive under normal conditions but were when the bees were in the early to mid stages of starvation.
I think it is a dual kill, starvation and possible persticide contaminated forage. It makes the most sense with the visual evidence presented.
Brian, so it's possible that with 2 hives side by side, one will find a nectar source and the other one won't?
My perception is starvation would be a gradual event, like running out of stores, then consuming brood as you said, then finally lights out. Could I actually inspect, see full frames of honey in the brood box, and then come back 2 weeks later and find a dead colony because they ran out of food?
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The limited frame he showed had no sign of honey or nectar, so starvation is very possible. I have had hives almost starve in the middle of a drought. When they are in full brood rearing mode, it doesn't take much a food shortage for them to use up what they have and starve. I think some folks in the PNW will chime in about their issues last year.
Usually, in the starvation mode, most of those brood cells would have had the caps chewed open and and pupae still in the white would have been consumed, at least in the later stages. There would hove been a lot of wax debre mixed in with the dead bees on the bottom board as well as bunked bees in the cells.
Looks to me like it was a combination of starvation and toxic source that did the colonies in, 3 found the source and 2 didn't. The contaminated source might not have been attractive under normal conditions but were when the bees were in the early to mid stages of starvation.
I think it is a dual kill, starvation and possible persticide contaminated forage. It makes the most sense with the visual evidence presented.
Brian, so it's possible that with 2 hives side by side, one will find a nectar source and the other one won't?
Yes. The commumication is between bees within a hive not between bees in the field or between hives.
My perception is starvation would be a gradual event, like running out of stores, then consuming brood as you said, then finally lights out. Could I actually inspect, see full frames of honey in the brood box, and then come back 2 weeks later and find a dead colony because they ran out of food?
Yes, and if a prolonged cold snap was part of the equation you could find capped honey in the outer extremities of the hive while the area within the cluster would show canabalized brood and bunked bees.
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Wow, now thats a good answer. When I started this post, I was hoping for experienced bee keepers, such as you folks, debating this deal. I only hope that I anyone else would never have to experience what this guy did. So the more I learn the better my chances are. Thanks guys, nice job.
Leechmann
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Did to me, full of honey, two weeks late they were dead as dead could be. Lost three that way.