Thanks for the heads up Jon....reminding me to winterize my high rise apideas and check their feed. This winterising's been a bit topsy turvy with one thing and another. Had some CBPV II here last winter in a colony...shiny bees etc but can't see the thoraxes on your sunny pics to see how mauled/bald they are.
I am only over wintering ten poly nucs this winter, they are kielers, and i hate the things, so this will be the last time i use them... I said this last year..
Just got home from putting these kielers into empty brood boxes, on top of strong colonies, surrounded by cedar shavings and topped off with an insulated roof. All the rest of my mini nucs are in cedar four way boxes. I tend to use a third of a strip of Apivar (cut length ways) in the mini nucs if needed, they don't tolerate thymol well being so small.
A lot of them are black and shiny which combined with the short abdomens suggests varroa and virus damage.Originally Posted by susbees
Mine are well fed at this stage as I have been feeding them thymolated syrup for several weeks now.
Looking at the wings - most of which are intact - I don't think that deformed wing virus is the culprit here. These also tend to still be reasonably hairy. If they are shiny then susbees might well be right and they might be suffering from chronic bee paralysis virus. Are they even blacker than expected?
Yep.Are they even blacker than expected?
I would say a touch of CBPV is a good call.
You're gonna what them?!!
An Americanism? Winterise perhaps?
Reminds me of Beefheart. Booglarize those Apideas.
Last edited by Jon; 13-11-2013 at 09:25 PM.
Is short abdomen associated with the virus or is that due to the mite sucking the haemolymph from the pupa?
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