In a message dated 96-09-19 19:53:42 EDT, [log in to unmask]
(Mark D. Egloff) writes:
<< I, personally, feel that the hive is doomed and will not
survive the winter. The only issue to me is, do I combine it
with another or let it die or kill it. I am leaning toward
killing it and removing it from the apiary just in case. >>
You are wise to deal with it now. We all need to be culling the junk
hives that we know will not make it through winter.
By using the Apistan strips and checking drone brood, you have eliminated
varroa as the problem. There is still the possibility of AFB, tracheal
mites, viruses, chalkbrood, queen running out, and pesticides stored in the
pollen.
If there is any real possibility of AFB, get official word from your
state inspector, or from an experienced beekeeper. You will want to destroy
the bees and frames, and sterilize the boxes, cover, bottom board and
excluder. If you eliminate foulbrood as a possibility, you can kill the
queen, and combine them with a good hive, which should take care of any of
the rest of the possibilities.
Tracheal mites are a good probability, if you or a breeder raised the
queen from bees treated for tracheal mites, or if you got the queen from
Hawaii, where they haven't ever been exposed. I got about a dozen Hawaiian
queens in the spring. They were surplus from a migratory beekeeper, who
thought early queens were more important than good queens. These hives are
garbage right now. The Hawaians haven't yet thinned out their stock that is
weak to TM. I'm glad I marked them, as I know where they came from, and can
figure out what happened. One of the symptoms of TM is the refusal or
inability to take syrup. They also smell slightly sour, and many of the bees
look greasy.
The best breeders do not treat their breeding stock for TM. That way,
they know that the stock is not weak. I do not treat for TM, raise much of
my own stock, and rarely have a TM problem, particularly in my own queens.
Chalkbrood makes hard mummies out of the brood. It is either whitish,
like chalk, or grey-black, if the fungus is fruiting. Again this is related
to weak stock, and it's too late to requeen now.
Pesticides..... while one hive may well take a worse hit than others
(bees are creatures of habit, and one hive may fly only in one direction,
while others go other ways), you still would likely see some damage in the
others, if this had happened.
Some quick poisons simply drop bees in the field, and make the hives weak.
Other residual poisons are slower, and don't have much effect of the field
bees, but they are brought back in the pollen, and cause continuing death of
brood and young adults until the poison is used up. What kinds of pesticides
are used in your area? When and how?
If you are suspicious of pesticides in the pollen, cull the frames that
are heavily loaded with pollen, or you will simply kill more bees, when you
combine the hives.
Virus can be indicated by hairless bees, or bald brood (uncapped pupae),
or a bunch of other common symptoms. Requeening is the solution, had you
caught them earlier. If you combine them with a good and healthy hive now,
they should take care of it.
Queens sometimes just run out of eggs. I've more often seen failing
queens lay drone eggs in worker cells, but do, at times, see queens that
simply stop. Look at your queen. Does she look greasy? Tattered wings?
Pinched, triangular abdomen, rather than a nice fat oval? I've seen
beautiful-looking queens that were worthless, so it's not proof that she is
good, if she looks good, but if she doesn't look good, you've got strong
evidence that she's shot.
Good luck. We are just starting to prepare for winter. We'll be culling
the junk, and feeding the good ones. Goldenrod is just getting going, and we
should have about a month more foraging.
[log in to unmask] Dave Green, PO Box 1200, Hemingway, SC
29554
Practical Pollination Home Page Dave & Janice Green
http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html
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