i am beginning to wonder if i am in a bad area for beekeeping. none of my hives have stores. that wouldn't be so bad if they were building up. they seemed like they were. now they seem to be losing ground. none have expanded into extra supers. most are still at the 1 deep stage. even my swarm hives are not building up as they should. i see no disease other than some chalkbrood in two...an on going problem. i do not seem to have a mite problem. i know part of this is due to the very crappy weather. if they get out to forage for 1/2 a day, it's a good day.
on the other hand, they do not seem interested in being fed, so they are not starving.
i really wasn't feeling to bad about things until dane's honey report. nothing to do but wait it out, i guess, but at this rate, i'll have to combine and feed to get through winter.
My bees arent gathering much either Kathy :(
Just for grins, I decided to feed the hive i made from the split. They are guzzling syrup down like beer!
The rest of my hives are like yours, hardly anything in the upper big box. This time last year i was getting honey but I also fed the bees all summer. I'm thinking about feeding all the other hives now(if they take it).
I havent gotten any swarms in my area either. This doesnt mean there arent any, it just means there arent any for me yet. Last year i got two swarms right in my front and back yard!
I really thought I had a gift for beekeeping. I thought bees came to my yard because they liked it here and it was better than any place around......Maybe it was that way last year but things are different this year...Maybe its just a weird thing this year....or maybe,......Its because of the "Meth Cloud" over this territory! (My wife blames everything on the "Meth Cloud") :roll:
your friend,
john
Quote from: kathyp on June 05, 2008, 10:45:45 PM
i am beginning to wonder if i am in a bad area for beekeeping. none of my hives have stores. that wouldn't be so bad if they were building up. they seemed like they were. now they seem to be losing ground. none have expanded into extra supers. most are still at the 1 deep stage. even my swarm hives are not building up as they should. i see no disease other than some chalkbrood in two...an on going problem. i do not seem to have a mite problem. i know part of this is due to the very crappy weather. if they get out to forage for 1/2 a day, it's a good day.
2 reasons: 1. lack of nectar in the flowers as a result of the drought like conditions over the last 2 years, and 2. The weather here in the PNW this spring has been a few days of working weather and then they're hive bound for a week or more. It's June and we're still having high temps in the mid 50's to low 60's. The bees are continually restarting this year. I discovered my Italian hive died out because of the weather. It would warm up enough for the queen to begin laying a larger pattern and then get cold or cool off and the bees clustered, leaving brood exposed. It was not fun to watch and I couldn't boost them with brood from my other hives as the Russian bees have survived the ups and downs in the weather but are behind in development also.
Quoteon the other hand, they do not seem interested in being fed, so they are not starving.
They are getting just enough during the good weather days to hold them over. Sunny days it gang busters out there in the bee yard, the rest of the time it's a dribble going in and out.
Quotei really wasn't feeling to bad about things until dane's honey report. nothing to do but wait it out, i guess, but at this rate, i'll have to combine and feed to get through winter.
Dane's in honey heaven, his wetlands area is an island of bee forage, which is lucky for him. Other's in the PNW, like me and KathyP are having problems like I described above. Last year I had to feed starting in August due to the drought, if it doesn't warm up and dry off for blackberries (about 2 weeks away) I'll have to do the same thing this year just to get them through the winter.
[/quote]
glad it's not just me. two years in a row of this :-(.
feed, feed, feed
I agree with TwT..............throw the juice to them. They will take it if they are hungry.
agree w/ feeding. When the weather improves, they will be ready to produce some honey for ya'. I think everyone is collegially jealous of Dane. He has astounding flow. astounding...
We're in the same boat here. High yesterday about 60, and raining most of the day. I haven't even set out the tomatoes yet this year. Like everything else, the bees are at least a month behind and looking a bit anemic
Kathy, oh dear, don't get too worried about it. I know that is easy to say, you, I and many others are experiencing some really strange weather going on. Nothing short of strange. We have had had nothing but rain for days and days, and I mean hard rain....things are sopping wet and it is a bummer. I haven't even been able to get outside to do anything and things are very far behind. I am gonna whine a little bit here, so bear with me, you have to see that things are not just your place. I haven't even got my veggie garden in yet, a few things, but nothing really, nothing yet in my tomato greenhouse either. Many seedlings are started, just waiting for the chance to get into the ground, but notta. The phacelia is beginning to bloom, but the bees can't get out to get to it, and that goes for alot of stuff that they are missing out on. The blackberry flow will be starting soon, I just hope the weather breaks for it. Last year, they didn't forage blackberries at all here in our Lower Mainland, that was a terrible thing for the commercial beekeepers. Things are not just good, and everything is really set back.
Now this is the biggest example that I can set for anyone as far as the bad weather conditions. My asparagus patch is about 17 years old. Every year (after the three years of not picking it initially to set big crowns underground) I pick for about 6 weeks. The asparagus always sets out the most beautiful and fat shoots, I am talking monster asparagus.
This year there is not very many shoots at all coming up, what is coming up is thin and spindly and it is about 1 month late. We have only had two meals from this crop. That is so extraordinary I can't even begin to tell you. The shoots may still come, but I have my doubts. AND.....I have not seen one single asparagus beetle, now that blows my mind. Usually I am out picking and squishing these little creeps continually, narry a one.....that goes to show the weather conditions this year.
Brian spoke of the drought that occurs that will affect things a couple of years later. Probably very true and I don't doubt it one little bit. BUT...we have not had a drought here, ever that I have known of...but things are still affected terribly.
I can't even get out to check on my bees to see if they have food or not. I know a couple of weeks ago I gave frames of honey to some of the smaller colonies, nucs that I had made from my gangbuster hive that had so many stores, so I am hoping that they are doing OK. That is all I can do right now with my bees, nothing.
So, Kathy, now think of this.....we know that summertime will be soon coming. I believe this to be true. She is just a little bit late, well, alot late this year, but she will come. Then your bees will get out. By that time girl, all that borage that you have sowed will be going gangbusters and they will have nectar/pollen galore....and you planted buckwheat too, I think, right? Well, that should be coming on too. I wish that you could have found somewhere to plant the anise anisata, I could have sent you seed for that too, it is easy to sow and grow and is a perennial. Maybe next year, you just have to tell me what seed you want, I will help you out here, you know that.
So girl, keep your chin up, the beautiful dog days of summer are coming, your bees will get out, they will be happy, they will build up, keep that smiling face, things will get better. No more "major depression setting in", nope, you can't do that, not gonna let you, hee, hee, :-P ;) :) :) :) Go and have that beautiful and wonderful day, dream of the sun to come and our beautiful lives that we all live and share. Cindi
We have not had rain since February! I am surprised to see how much honey is being produced. The only thing I can think of, is that our Winters are mild and still afford food sources, and that many of the food sources we have around here are drought tolerant and still produce.
Dane mentioned Photinia ( we call that the freeway plant, as they used to plant them down the median strip of the freeways here ), Australian Bottle Brush, Grevillea, Eucalyptus and the like ( many are Australian Natives, as well as South African )...
Kathy I sure hope your girls can find what they need to store themselves and a bit for you as well...
Now if we only had some of your rain...aaahhh balance is a great thing eh??
already tried syrup and it molded. they didn't take much. just to be safe, i used a little dry sugar until the weather changes. i'm sure it will be fine. probably not much of a honey year.
yes cindi, i planted all that stuff. i also let all my fields go unmowed to see what would come up. i have tons of vetch and all kinds of wild flowers. didn't even know that stuff was there! :-). always have mowed and sprayed by now.
Keep the faith all, the weather is the biggest factor I think. My bees are the same, of course this is my first year of beehaving. Few years till I can obtain the BeeKeeper status. I still have to much to learn. My bees seem to be just hanging out as well. Not really building up, but not really losing ground either. Sorry to hear about it seeming to be territorial up there in God's country (Brian, Kathy)
Brian, I would think that with this years wet weather the flowers would be busting with pollen and such. Do the flowers really carry over the previous years weather? I am continually amazed at what this new hobby teaches me.
For sure.
Thanks all for sharing the info, I would be absolutely out of my mind without the ability to ask and find out.
Frantz
Its been more than 60days here without measurable rain, highs in upper 90s and 50% humidity. The hives started out fantastic April and 1st half of May. Now, except for one small (less than 3 cups of Bees to start with) thats doing amazingly well, nadda zip nothing.
Feeding all they will take. They are bringing in pollen (black pollen probably Bahia Grass - white unknown pollen) and seem to bee hard at work. Just nothing to show for it. :'( :'( :'(
Brian, Kathy & Cindi, I'm with you here in the drizzle, damp cold. :-x The highs are only around 60 if that. We should be having those as the lows @ night! I'm still feeding as there are tons of flowers & grasses but the rain & cold keeps the girls in the hive. A few brave ones go foraging but not like on warm days. See quite a few drones dead around the hive, maybe went out to play & got too cold? Or maybe too cold, not enough stores so they girls booted em out? It's too wet even to work on the chix house! The girls are tired of being stuck in a storage box & put in the pen during the day, then crammed back in to go back to the stock tank in the main barn @ night....they are getting heavy too! :shock: One good thing is that they are really used to being handled! Kathy, things will look up. Will be interesting for you to see what comes of not mowing, a good thing every few years I would think! Now think of the "chin up" song from Charolets Web!! (the older musical version) Jody
Quote from: kathyp on June 05, 2008, 10:45:45 PM
i really wasn't feeling to bad about things until dane's honey report.
<scratches "make Kathy feel bad" off list of things to do> ahhh, my work here is done. :evil:
hehe
Unless your hives went down and came back near nectar-locked from the almonds, I don't think this year will be a fair comparison Kathy. It's true that my location is seemingly ideal, but I think their having the brood chambers stored to capacity really accelerated the harvest this season. And the weather :roll: 100°F days early Spring.. .now today is a high forecast of 56°F with wind & rain! It's a bit too cold to harvest the supers I've pulled (my honey-house = yurt, unheated). Whenever there's a sun-break the bees here really come out en mass.
Are your blackberries budding? They look like they're soon to pop here. With all the late (intermittent) rains I think this season may actually end up being very productive for you Kathy (& other area beeks who might have more arid forage grounds). I know the rains are sure making everything grow, grow, grow! Jungle out here! :-P
Would some wetlands honey make ya feel better? I can send ya a pint! :-*
Cheers,
Dane
dane (http://www.longdog.karoo.net/smilies/throwup.gif)
:evil:
blackberries are a few weeks away. weather is supposed to be better next week.
Quote from: poka-bee on June 06, 2008, 12:43:29 PM
Brian, Kathy & Cindi, I'm with you here in the drizzle, damp cold. :-x The highs are only around 60 if that. We should be having those as the lows @ night! I'm still feeding as there are tons of flowers & grasses but the rain & cold keeps the girls in the hive. A few brave ones go foraging but not like on warm days. See quite a few drones dead around the hive, maybe went out to play & got too cold? Or maybe too cold, not enough stores so they girls booted em out? It's too wet even to work on the chix house! The girls are tired of being stuck in a storage box & put in the pen during the day, then crammed back in to go back to the stock tank in the main barn @ night....they are getting heavy too! :shock: One good thing is that they are really used to being handled! Kathy, things will look up. Will be interesting for you to see what comes of not mowing, a good thing every few years I would think! Now think of the "chin up" song from Charolets Web!! (the older musical version) Jody
My daughter just came into the house saying I had to see the bees, they were dead in piles under the hive. She was right--Starvation in June due to poor weather. Who would have believed it.
We're going out in the morning and see what we can salvage. 1st impressions are I'll have to knock my Russians down to 5 frame nucs and essentially start over. I might even have to combine the Russian Hives into 1. My daughter's OWC's are doing the best but each hive has about 3 pounds of dead bees under it and there is alot of dead bees head down in the cells. Looks like winter die off big time.
I knew I had lost my Italians due to the weather but up until this week the others had seemed to be doing alright and I had even supered them. The amount of dead brood is horrible to see, the cannabelism of the eggs has left no brood in any of the hives.
Looks like I'll have to feed the rest of the summer just to salvage 1 or 2 hives. Worse case scenerio is I'll have to start over next year.
It snowed yesterday down to 4000 feet and more projected for tonight.
Very Depressing. It's not the varroa that's killing me it's the weather. Forecast for the next week (7 days) is more rain, show at elevation, and temps in the 50's, maybe creeping into the 60's--still it's March weather in June.
KathyP, re-check your bees and start feeding if necessary--There was not a drop of honey or nectar in any of the hives I checked.
brian, that sucks.
before the rain came this AM, i dumped some dry sugar on all and removed my extra supers. that will have to do until tomorrow or the next day. it is supposed to get better starting tomorrow PM, but it might be to late. everything depends on the blackberries.
Brian, mine are the same. Saw a some yesterday, then went out today & oh my goodness! I had to take the bottom screens off & dump em out. I didn't feed this last week cause they were going gangbusters, had tons of liquid in cells. Now only some capped brood & pollen,the rest dry as a bone. I sprayed the combs, landing board & top bars w/sugar water & put baggies back in. This last hour they are flying & cleaning sugar water from landing board. Also sprayed the piles of bees, some are straggling out. Put empty boxes w tops over em to keep the rain off & propped the lids. Maybe some will make it home. I feel so dumb cause a few days ago there were tons of drones outside..now I know they were evicted. It's so cold, only got in the upper 50's. I may scrape the piles of bees (some are moving very slowly) into a couple of cardboard boxes & bring in the warmer house for the night, can't hurt, may help. Hope the queens are ok, Will know in a few days will look for larva or eggs. Off to a rip-snortin good start to beekeeping :'( . Jody
don't feel bad jody. i lost one earlier in the spring. just didn't catch the problem quickly enough. it happens. we are all learning a lesson this spring.
Just quick, the boxes in the house worked to some extent..bees can & do get out of the tiniest cracks in boxes! :shock: I was wondering why all the cats were in my room staring @ me this morning instead of getting into trouble like usual. There are around 200 bees flying in my kitchen! I won't open the boxes till it gets warmer outside (if ever) but gotta catch the flyers before hubby wakes up :roll: It's so cool to watch em clean each other off as I sprayed the piles/sugarwater & stirred em around last nignt. Guess bees are like most other hurt animals, warmth & food/liquids help! I know it's but a fraction of the dead but at this point every one will help! Jody
Jody,
That is sooooo cooool!!!
Bees in the housE!
That sounds like the title to a book :-D
your friend,
john
:lol: Great idea John!! Maybe Samuel Jackson will make a movie! All flyers are out in the hives now. Walkers I put in the top super where the sugar water is. Each hive went through around 3 cups of sugar water last night. Making more now, waiting for it to cool a bit. I did put the piles of bees from each hive into a different box. I'm roasting in here though between hot flashes & furnace blasting to 80 :-P More & more of the bees are climbing out of the piles though.
Cats want nothing to do w my little friends, as the bees are in the laundry/kitchen area. The cats aren't even going to the food dishes which is highly unusual for my little dumplings! :lol: More of "Bees in the Kitchen" later! Jody
Lookin' forward to the next chapter, Jody!
I just went to walmart for a big bag of sugar...I looked in again this AM and I think theyre eating most the honey stores so I better feed tehm if I want to keep them :-\
Ok,...."Big Brown", the next Triple Crown Winner is waiting on me...Gotta few bucks on on the race. I gamble VERY RARELY but horse racing makes me ballll :'(. I watched
Smarty Jones a few years ago but put no money on him. When I see horses run down that straightaway I almost choke because of the big lump in my throat!
your friend,
john
they are flying today and into everything that might feed them. good sign for survival, but honey production is still iffy.
Quote from: kathyp on June 07, 2008, 06:25:19 PM
they are flying today and into everything that might feed them. good sign for survival, but honey production is still iffy.
I just spent the entire day dismantling dead beehives. I was able to salvage a Hive of Russians (combined what was still alive) and 1 of OWC. So I now have 2 out of 5. Both salvaged hives were out of stores also, the drones had been killed, all the eggs and larvae had been eaten, and they were starting to eat the Pupae as most of the capped cells showed signs being opened. I found 2 partial frames of bee bread in the Italian hive and gave each remaining hive 1. While I worked it warmed up enough for them to fly and they went wild--after any and everything that remotely smelled of honey. My daughter left the lid on the syrup container (5 gallon bucket) aschew and a good number of bees got in and drowned.
I did leave a starter hive in the yard in case a swarm from somewhere else comes by, but my remaining bees have been so hard hit that swarming is out of the question for the rest of the year.
Took us an hour and a half to go through all the hives and consolidate everything down to 2 hives. Made sure each of the hives had frames of clean drawn comb for storage and so the queen could begin laying again. I then spent the remainder of the afternoon cutting comb with dead brood out of the frames and putting the emty frames in the boxes. I have 8 boxes of frames with starter strips and some bits of comb. The corner of my barn, where I keep the bee stuff, is bursting. I won't have to build boxes or frames next year or probably the year after, if I buy some more bees.
I plan on asking about some nucs, If they have mediums although I do have 2 deep nucs I can swap frames from, at the beekeepers meeting Thursday night.
I now have at least a ten pound pile of dead bees in my compost pile.
So sorry to hear about all your troubles up in the Northwest. I didn't realise the weather there would stay cold for this long. Maybe things won't turn out as bad as you think. We had a cool, rainy spring. But this past week it's been close to 90 every day.
& the moral of the thread is....
no matter how horrible you have it, Brian's got it worse! :'(
Quote from: kathyp on June 07, 2008, 06:25:19 PM
they are flying today and into everything that might feed them. good sign for survival, but honey production is still iffy.
Kathy - I made a "forage image blog" thread (http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,15884.0.html), perhaps we can compare/contrast our forage areas.
My bees are going out, at least a little, even when it's cold & wet like this. I hope it warms & drys up a bit soon!
Cheers,
Dane
Brian, Jody, anyone else that has lost their bees to starvation. I feel horrible for you, whodda thunk that this weather would have been so bad that bees are starving. There is no bright side to this, so I can't bring you up by any words. I just wish you well.
I had an almost starving situation a couple of days ago, I think I caught this colony just in the nick of time. I saw many very lethargic bees on the bottomboard, lots of them. I knew that they were starving and I immediately got the shim back on it and fed some food with the baggie feeder. I dribbled a whole whack of honey on the top of the frames first and let it dribble down, not enough to hit the bottomboard and cause any problems with wet bees or anything, just enough for immediate feeding. It was not my intention to do any work with the bees that day, we only had some very intermittent periods of part sun, but I did anyways. I went through all the colonies and put the shims back on and gave them all a baggie of honey/water that I had mixed up for them. They were all low on stores, I could see that, but no starvation issues.
We are going away for four days today, I am heading out this morning to put new baggies of food on their shims, that will hopefully hold them over for a few days.
This weather on our west coast has been excrutiatingly cold a wet, we all share that same weather pattern and it has been very bad for the bees.
I venture that the weather has made everything about two weeks or more late. That shows through with many of my shrubs and perennial plants, the asparagus is the biggest teller of this tale. The asparagus has been coming up for a couple of weeks now, but only two dinner harvests, the spears are pencil thin and hardly any. That is the first time since I had grown them (over 15 years now) that we have not had magnificent harvests of big, fat, fat, asparagus. I have never seen the patch so poorly growing.
The pink Bridal Veil X Bumalda is just beginning to open its buds. It has always been in full blown out bloom by June 1. Over two weeks late too, not a bloom on any of the blackberry yet. Maybe the warm weather will soon come?????
Try to keep your chins up with the bee losses, I know that it is very hard to do, but be grateful that all was not lost. That is so difficult, so easy to say, but don't get sad or give up, just try to keep on keepin' on. AND.....have that great day, wonderful day, we do live in a beautiful world. Cindi
I just returned from a vacation last night so did not get in to see the bees yet, but before I left I was feeding 2 of my hives that had hardly any stores. My one really strong hive that I was counting on to produce something for me seems to just be eating everything they make. The honey supers are light in weight.
When I get into them tomorrow, I will know the truth of this matter. I am really wondering if they will even make enough for themselves this year. I also was extracting honey last year this time.
I will have to stay on top of feeding them, unless things change. What a drag!! So KathyP you are not alone.
Annette in hot, dry, Placerville, they may be rationing water this summer.
Well, last time I remember any honey to speak of was in 2005. It has been one non-stop problem after another for me. It has gotten to the point I do not even look for honey, just happy when a hive is doing ok.
Last year, not a drop of honey in the spring- then, in mid summer, some small flow produced a wonderfull rather dark honey. I had enough for my needs. I extracted by hand. I have thousands of dollars in extracting eqpt. sitting there getting dusty. I too feel depressed. Oh well....one day......
BTW...this year...nada. Just enough honey for the ants.