Strange Bee in the Hive

BeeV · June 13, 2011, 09:28:19 PM

While checking the IPM board for mites today there were four or five strange bees on the board. They were small,(they had to have fallen through the bottom screen) though fully developed, had a black thorax with an abdomen that is half black and half brown. I have rather typical looking Italians. Is there something going on in the brood nest or are these robbers that didn't make it and couldn't be gotten to for clean up?

AllenF · June 13, 2011, 09:35:32 PM

A pic would be nice

BeeV · June 13, 2011, 10:30:26 PM

Hope this works....

http://img26.imageshack.us/i/strangebee.jpg/

BeeV · June 13, 2011, 10:46:19 PM

OK. I think I got this image thing figured out.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Hemlock · June 13, 2011, 11:27:55 PM

Could the bees have gotten into the board area when it was open last?

Do you use an oil on the board. That would discolor a dead bee.

Brian D. Bray · June 14, 2011, 12:21:43 AM

That bee looks as if had drowned in honey and been cleaned of said honey by the other bees.

BeeV · June 14, 2011, 07:55:37 AM

I use a little cooking spray on the board to make things stick, so this bee was a little wet, however, there was a live one that was walking around that was dry. Thats what made me take note.

A bee could have gotten in when it was open, but I did it in the evening last time so there wasn't a lot of outside activity and there were three dead and two live in there.

Things that make you go hmmmm.

CapnChkn · June 14, 2011, 02:24:04 PM

I'm in central TN, I see you're in East TN. Is this is a smaller bee with a solid black tip, thick bands of black growing thinner until they turn amber in the third part of the abdomen, close to the thorax? Is the tip a glossy black?

I've seen a bee like this around the hive that died out last year. I had read the "veteran" robber bee would have this same look because the hairs would have been ripped out. I have watched the hives looking for this same strange looking mellifera, but haven't seen one this year.

The robbers I see look kind of like they got halfway through a waxing, while these bees looked as if they followed through. They were about 1 or 2 mm smaller than the home bees, and the tip was a shiny black. I never got any photos, and I saw them around sporadically, and enough to give me the idea they weren't body modifications.