I opened a three deep hive I left over winter, thinking I would harvest any honey in the spring. Well, I watched the hive this AM no traffic, knocked on hive box no sound, I opened them up. I hit enter instead of shift. there were lots of bees but they were all very lethargic, the other hives near this one are working. My first thought is no queen, but they were not aggressive at all. ???????????
Any brood, we were 92f yesterday and you, Paus, are way south of me. Is your area warm enough for inspections?
Three things to investigate every time you open a hive: Mood, Food, and Brood.
-Mood: are they calm or particularly pissy? Are they calmly moving around working frames, or hurriedly scurrying about? How about the sound of the hive? Calm hum? Roar? Angry buzz?
-Food: How are their stores? If no stores exist, it might not be a bad idea to feed.
-Brood: Do you see brood in all stages? Are the cell caps full, pinholed, or sunken? How is the laying pattern?
Sick hives are often lethargic. Not saying they are sick but sick bees can become ...well depressed.
lethargic bees are either cold, starving or sick.
So what would be good next-steps?
My personal inclination would be to requeen and feed if they need it. I might do a sugar roll for mites.
What would y'all do?
Follow up on lethargic hive. That Pm they were normal. A friend told me they may be waiting for virgin queen to return, this could be the case as I think they have lost bees from about 3 weeks ago. ????
Imho wrt Lethargic bees. Look for signs/symptoms or situation that points towards one of these:
- cold bees, damp bees
- malnourished bees
- sick bees
- demoralized bees, disorganized, aimless ... usually from being sick or hopelessly queenless for a long long time
Slow lethargic lazy bees in spring while other nearby hives are vigorous and busy would be a strong signal in my bee yard to sample that hive for nosema. The invisible silent killer. While waiting for sample results, as a field test I would also probably give them a spray bottle wetting of sugar water laced with honey bee healthy, then check again tomorrow to see if they have perked up. If perked up a day after the spray, that would be a fairly strong indicator that they are suffering from belly aches and will need some ongoing help to clear of it.
PS: There is a distinct difference between calm bees and lethargic. You used lethargic.
If they were healthy but just calm and very quiet, it could be that they were just content for the day. Particularly if it was cool outside and they were not feeling like they really needed to do any shopping. Stayed home watching a movie. Chillin.. ;)
Hope that helps!
HP, do you use a stain specific dye for Nosema when you scope, or a gradient, centrifuge, anything? Or just eyes on. I could not recognize Nosema if I look with a scope and was looking directly at it. Never studied that critter.
Just courious as to your method.
Van: check out this site: http://scientificbeekeeping.com/sick-bees-part-16-the-quick-squash-method/
No dye or micro-grids used here (by me). I collect and mash a sample of 10 to 50 bees that represent the cluster. Swish the pulp together in a cup with a few drops water to liquify and homogeneous adequately to be useable on a slide. Place a drop on sample slide. Eyeball guestimate in context of the whole field of view of the scope. The look is for: None --> Some --> Lots --> Too many (hopeless).
You can get very analytical and excessively time consuming with it or your can be pragmatic drawing from experience. Basically looking for presence and prevalence to make operational decisions. In the case of nosema, the thumb meter used on representative samples collected and calibrated to experience gets the job done.
Do not do what I do. Do what you need to do.