Total loss?

fcderosa · July 12, 2008, 12:35:14 PM

I had a hive that went queenless for a while. I introduced a new Queen, 10 days later I removed the cage and was happy to see brood. That was two weeks ago. I opened the hive today to find a total wax moth infestation. All frames covered, cocoons all over the place and moths actively crawling all over the place. It still has a small cluster but I couldn't find a queen or any brood. Is there any reclamation or should I cut it all out and commit all to the solar melter :(

JP · July 12, 2008, 12:38:48 PM

Save what bees you can and combine them with another colony after you have inspected them for mites, 86 the rest, put everything out in the sun and let the waxmoths die a slow painful death!

After a week, clean things up and reuse for later.

...JP

fcderosa · July 12, 2008, 12:59:37 PM

The thought of pan fishing comes to mind :-x

annette · July 12, 2008, 01:39:32 PM

Quote from: fcderosa on July 12, 2008, 12:35:14 PM
I had a hive that went queenless for a while. I introduced a new Queen, 10 days later I removed the cage and was happy to see brood. That was two weeks ago. I opened the hive today to find a total wax moth infestation. All frames covered, cocoons all over the place and moths actively crawling all over the place. It still has a small cluster but I couldn't find a queen or any brood. Is there any reclamation or should I cut it all out and commit all to the solar melter :(

It sounds like although they finally had a queen going good, the population had gone down too much for them to defend themselves from the moths. I just had a similar experience with one of my hives. They were queenless for too long and the population went down. Guess the lesson I learned is, while I try to get them up and running with a new queen, very important to give them frames of capped brood from another hive to keep the population up ( I knew this, but did not want to keep distrupting my one and only other good hive) I would shake the remaining bees on the ground in front of another hive. They will be accepted into the other hive.

Annette

Ross · July 12, 2008, 05:18:44 PM

Come on folks, reduce the space when the population goes down. Your hives will be healthier a bit crowded than trying to defend a big hive with a few bees. Take the supers off and give them to a strong hive to clean up.

rast · July 12, 2008, 05:36:54 PM

Yep, Ross is right. And keep the entrance real small so it takes very few bees to guard it.

JP · July 12, 2008, 07:20:25 PM

Quote from: Ross on July 12, 2008, 05:18:44 PM
Come on folks, reduce the space when the population goes down. Your hives will be healthier a bit crowded than trying to defend a big hive with a few bees. Take the supers off and give them to a strong hive to clean up.

He really didn't specify whether the colony was low on numbers but if so, Ross is exactly right, small numbers in too much space is a recipe for shb and waxmoth.

The problem sometimes is when they swarm out on ya and you didn't know it and hadn't the time to realize it until its too late.

...JP

annette · July 12, 2008, 11:19:18 PM

Quote from: Ross on July 12, 2008, 05:18:44 PM
Come on folks, reduce the space when the population goes down. Your hives will be healthier a bit crowded than trying to defend a big hive with a few bees. Take the supers off and give them to a strong hive to clean up.

I believe what happened to me, is I opened up the top telescoping cover to give them more ventilation, not understanding that the population was so low. It actually looked very crowded to me.

SgtMaj · July 13, 2008, 01:07:41 AM

bag 'em and freeze 'em before putting in the solar wax melter, lest some escape from it before frying.

fcderosa · July 14, 2008, 11:34:59 AM

Thought the colony was strong enough, had honey, had pollen, now nothing but a small cluster and coccoons. I beginning to wonder if the new queen took what she could and left?

rast · July 14, 2008, 12:10:30 PM

I don't believe she takes them, they take her. That is why they will quit feeding her prior to swarming, to get her down to flying weight.

JP · July 14, 2008, 12:41:09 PM

Quote from: rast on July 14, 2008, 12:10:30 PM
I don't believe she takes them, they take her. That is why they will quit feeding her prior to swarming, to get her down to flying weight.

Correct, she flies with them, often leaves after most of the bees have already swarmed out, but if she can't leave they will come back.

...JP