Can you help Joanne figure out what is going on??

annette · June 22, 2011, 01:13:52 PM

Hi guys

Joanne is a fellow beekeeper here on the forum. She is not able to post photos as yet so she sent me this photo of dead bees she is finding around her hives. It is getting worse and worse. They are stumbling around and every day more and more dead ones.

Here is the photo:

Anyone have any ideas??

caticind · June 22, 2011, 01:26:49 PM

Well, most of them are drones. Including one, bottom right, that is a late stage drone pupae. A little of what looks like deformed wing virus, but most of the drones are whole.

Nothing conclusive from the photo. Has Joanne done a varroa count lately?

JP · June 22, 2011, 01:55:00 PM

One way or another, varroa is the culprit here.

Begin with sugar shakes.

How are her other hives (if any) doing?

May need to requeen with a more hygienic queen.

...JP

caticind · June 22, 2011, 03:08:27 PM

Further thought: It's likely not pesticides because most of the dead are drones, which don't forage. If this photo is representative, that is.

G3farms · June 22, 2011, 07:14:57 PM

that is what I am seeing also, varroa looks to be the culprit with the deformed wing virus and late stages of pupa.

annette · June 22, 2011, 07:34:32 PM

Her mite counts have been at a safe threshold, so I am perplexed about this.

The other hive she has is going strong and no problems.

I will pass this info onto her.

Thanks for the responses.

Annette

caticind · June 22, 2011, 07:55:18 PM

Hmm. Varroa is the only obvious pest from the photo, but there is not a lot of DWV pictured. If her counts are normal...

Is this image representative of the dead bees? Are they really almost all drones?

JoanneMarie · June 23, 2011, 03:08:58 AM

Thanks for the info to date. Most of the dead bees are whole drones, only a few are in the pupae stage. I have not done a varroa mite count recently. I will put the bottom board back in and do that. Annette and I did a full hive inspection 5 weeks ago and everything looked great. We added an additional box with foundationless frames to expand the brood chamber. I did and inspection one week ago to see if more room was needed for honey stores. I did not go down into the brood chamber, but the bees I saw in the top two supers looked fine. There were about the same amount of dead bees today as yesterday. I will post again with my mite count and do a hive inspection.