Went out to feed hives yesterday and had a very nasty surprise with a lifeless hive. The bees were spread all over the frames, lots of bottoms sticking out with not a drop of food in the frames. Found the queen also appeared lifeless, fortunately after I had picked her up I put her back on the frame. This was the strongest colony I had, being a split with a new queen in July. I have seen no wasp activity at all in this area so there was no robbing.I had not removed any honey from this hive ...
We had a beautiful day today, maybe the best for about a month and a half. The bees were flying like in midsummer and bringing in masses of pollen. I took the opportunity to do a lot of checking and rearranging. I made a little table in my notebook and recorded colony number, queenright or not, strength and level of stores. It is funny how they all seem to be better on a sunny day as I was worrying a lot in the dank weather a fortnight ago. At my main site ...
Updated 06-11-2012 at 11:50 AM by Jon