like Facebook follow Twitter watch YouTube subscribe RSS Feed

Massive die off on 6-year old hive – SOS!

Home › Forums › HoneyLove Forum › Massive die off on 6-year old hive – SOS!

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • February 13, 2016 at 9:47 am #10164
    jules ford
    Participant

    Hello, Honeylovers.

    I went to check on my bees yesterday and on the way noticed my fountain wasn’t running – the hot weather lowered the level of the water to below the pump so I turned on the hose to fill it up. When I brought the hose to the fountain it was a horror story – hundreds of dead bees floating in the top tier of the fountain. I dropped the hose and went around to my hive and there was ZERO activity – no one coming in or out. I put my ear to the wood, no sound. I looked at the front of the hive (a trick as it’s very well-protected, and there were piles of dead bees all around the front area and the entrance had dead bees half in, half out and all over the lead-in.

    I quickly donned my suit and grabbed my hive stuff. Didn’t even bother to start my smoker, just pried off the top with a loud CRACK. No bees came. My heart sank. Not a single bee in the top super, I went to my second, the hive was full of honey, and only one, sad, sickly bee was crawling up to the sun – she got to the top and dropped back down into the hive.

    I prepped a massive honey extraction and took all the capped honey out of the second super, went to the third which is a brood/honey level and took some of the outer frames. I never take honey from this level ordinarily but again, there were no bees, so I’d rather take it than let ants and insects have it.

    By the time I got to my bottom super and took out some brood frames I could see what was going on. The entire bottom of the hive had about 2 inches of dead bodies. By this time the honey mess had gathered some interest from bees who were happily munching on the honey. I was so glad to see them I convinced myself that they must have been hiding out, waiting for me to clear their entry to get back into the hive again. Their buzz was such music to my ears I would have welcomed a sting.

    Got the hive totally cleaned out, put tanglefoot along the bottom of the support box to keep ants and other insects at bay and put it all back together hoping they would go in and make new brood. I left the hive hopeful yesterday.

    Today all the excess honey on my cut-out table is eaten, and all the bees are gone.

    What can cause a die-off like this? I’m not a noob, this has been an active hive for 10+ years – we trapped them out of our fence 6 years ago. I’ve never seen die-off.

    And anyone got any suggestions as to what to do now – do I clear out the entire hive? I’d left some brood frames and capped honey when I thought they might be returning.

    Thanks for any help you may have.

    Jules

    February 13, 2016 at 12:11 pm #10165
    jules ford
    Participant

    I posted the story on facebook – two other area hives have faced a similar mass dying off – one in Sherman Oaks and one in Highland Park, CA, in the past week.

    February 13, 2016 at 7:21 pm #10166
    jules ford
    Participant

    And one more comment – I am a fully organic beek, no treatments of any kind, ever. I took some brood cells out today and pulled out some larvae and there were a few varroa mites (fewer than 1/cell), but that’s something this population has always tolerated.

    During the day some of the marauders came back and were going in and out of the hive. I’m torn about whether to go in and remove all the rest of the honey and brood or just keep it in there to see if some other swarm may find it homey enough to stay. i would hate for wax moths or other varmints to take it over.

    February 15, 2016 at 7:32 am #10167
    susan rudnicki
    Participant

    Hey, Jules—I am the Forum moderator, Susan. You must have not seen my post on the Dec 8, 2015 Forum. I had a massive pesticide kill—go back and look at the photos and write-up. This stuff happens because we can not control the miles of territory our bees cover in foraging for pollen and honey. Vector control sprays for mosquitos, people spray or drench the soils of garden plants with pesticides, toxics are in gutter water that bees may be drinking from—there’s no telling where the poisons are located.
    Bees in a situation like this can’t make any brood—they need a Queen. They don’t have enough population to properly care for any brood anyway, which is why all the brood in the hive is fated to expire. They don’t have a workforce to collect food or guard the hive. Wax moths and SHB are going to come in and start decomposing or robbers will come in to grab what is left of the honey. It is dicey as to whether a swarm would move in soon enough to prevent the decomposition process to be arrested. The frames should be extracted of honey or put on a functioning hive so the honey can be saved. The brood frames can be put down for chickens—they love capped brood—or put on a strong hive where the dead brood will get cleaned out and the comb re-used. The question remains—if there are residual toxins in the frames or not. I will say, the poisoned hives I had recovered and a pollen sample submitted to the USDA, testing for 144 chemical residues, turned up “not detectable” levels of residues for every tested chemical on the report they sent back to me. It was a expensive testing and revealed nothing.

    February 15, 2016 at 12:49 pm #10172
    jules ford
    Participant

    I did miss it, Susan, and yes, this is exactly what my hive looked like. Such a heartbreak. I am grateful for your advice on having residues tested. I saved out bees and pollen in the freezer but I’m not in a position to spend a lot to find out nada. I wish I had some chickens to eat the brood.

    Is it appropriate to report this to the CalEPA? Since beekeeping is not legal in my area I fly under the radar and keep my hive private. I don’t want to invite legal ramifications for reporting.

    February 15, 2016 at 1:24 pm #10174
    susan rudnicki
    Participant

    JUles—I have posted a helpful resource for you under another heading on this Forum. Reporting is very important, testing is a your choice. I see you have had bees a long time ( assume just one hive) but are not a HL member? How did you reach out to our community? Do you belong to another club? You should know, most of the folks belonging to HL are keeping bees illegally. Now with the new bee code for Los Angeles City, some are legal, but a lot are not. It would be helpful for both your own education and our work if you become a dues paying member. We often get calls for help when things are going south but it is not the most helpful relationship for either party.

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • The forum ‘HoneyLove Forum’ is closed to new topics and replies.

About jules ford

View all posts by jules ford →

Subscribe

Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter to receive updates.