Last week, one of my queens - Aline - stopped laying. I thought maybe I had accidentally skooshed her, but then I saw her bopping around on the frame. Happily not laying any eggs.
Bitch.
I asked my mentor whether I should do anything more, and he asked about the pollen. If the hive is not pulling in pollen, he explained, the queen will be reluctant to lay. Hold off, he said.
I was mostly worried because last year I lost my one and only hive to small hive beetles that overran the hive when the queen stopped laying, and it broke my spirit. And this year, there are lots of beetles, and Aline is not laying.
But Russian bees particularly will hold off laying in the absence of pollen. So I gave her another week.
Every night - all week long - I woke up with dreams of slimed frames, with beetles and larvae crawling all over the hive. Every. Single. Night.
I opened the hives. The inside of my worrisome hive was damp. We have been having a lot of rain, but the inside of the hive is not supposed to be wet, regardless. Wet means the bees are not doing their job of climate control inside the hive.
There was a cluster of bees in one corner, but otherwise, the honey I had left for them - not harvested, because it is the first season - was starting to melt.
I pulled the first frame and it was covered with webbing from wax moths and slimed with beetle larvae crawling all over it. The hive was destroyed.
I took the super - the top frames of brood with the honey, and set it to the side and opened the brood chamber. Aline had been laying, which means that my mentor was right - she just needed some time. But....
But she was laying in the middle of destroyed comb. Comb overrun with small hive beetles.
Every single beekeeper I talk to about SHB tells me that the way to keep the beetles at bay is to raise strong hives.
Great. How do I do that?
Turns out, it is genetic, as much as anything. So the answer seems to be, have a bunch of hives, and cull those who are not strong.
I have four hives. Culling out my weak hive means I have just lost 25% of my entire bee yard.
There is still a lot of summer left, so I cleared out the box, set all of the frames aside for a hard clean-and-freeze session, and put the queen into a smaller box. Less room to have to protect. I have no idea whether she can survive (EDITOR'S NOTE: she did not) or whether the diminished numbers will end up dooming the whole hive.
Worse still, I don't know how to prevent this with my other hives.
So I will mourn the loss of Queen Aline, and use the boxes to prepare for next season. And next season, I will use what I have learned better.
Bitch.
I asked my mentor whether I should do anything more, and he asked about the pollen. If the hive is not pulling in pollen, he explained, the queen will be reluctant to lay. Hold off, he said.
I was mostly worried because last year I lost my one and only hive to small hive beetles that overran the hive when the queen stopped laying, and it broke my spirit. And this year, there are lots of beetles, and Aline is not laying.
But Russian bees particularly will hold off laying in the absence of pollen. So I gave her another week.
Every night - all week long - I woke up with dreams of slimed frames, with beetles and larvae crawling all over the hive. Every. Single. Night.
I opened the hives. The inside of my worrisome hive was damp. We have been having a lot of rain, but the inside of the hive is not supposed to be wet, regardless. Wet means the bees are not doing their job of climate control inside the hive.
There was a cluster of bees in one corner, but otherwise, the honey I had left for them - not harvested, because it is the first season - was starting to melt.
I pulled the first frame and it was covered with webbing from wax moths and slimed with beetle larvae crawling all over it. The hive was destroyed.
I took the super - the top frames of brood with the honey, and set it to the side and opened the brood chamber. Aline had been laying, which means that my mentor was right - she just needed some time. But....
But she was laying in the middle of destroyed comb. Comb overrun with small hive beetles.
Every single beekeeper I talk to about SHB tells me that the way to keep the beetles at bay is to raise strong hives.
Great. How do I do that?
Turns out, it is genetic, as much as anything. So the answer seems to be, have a bunch of hives, and cull those who are not strong.
I have four hives. Culling out my weak hive means I have just lost 25% of my entire bee yard.
There is still a lot of summer left, so I cleared out the box, set all of the frames aside for a hard clean-and-freeze session, and put the queen into a smaller box. Less room to have to protect. I have no idea whether she can survive (EDITOR'S NOTE: she did not) or whether the diminished numbers will end up dooming the whole hive.
Worse still, I don't know how to prevent this with my other hives.
So I will mourn the loss of Queen Aline, and use the boxes to prepare for next season. And next season, I will use what I have learned better.
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