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Thread: What next ....

  1. #21
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Calluna4u View Post
    ... or sterilise with acetic acid fumes and just refill with bees in summer. ...
    I am in a similar situation as Bridget. I have a dead nucleus that became queenless. I even found a tiny queen cell in there.

    Some of the frames and combs with honey have quite a few streaks of faeces on them. I'm always worried that an acetic acid treatment on such combs won't be sufficient - particularly when the streaks are also left on comb surfaces with honey and pollen stores. Do you think scraping off as much of the streaks as I can and then treating them will be sufficient, or should I just melt the wax and boil the frames?

    Kitta

  2. #22
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    I read your reply in the other forum, C4U - so, I'll scrape and treat and stop worrying.

    Only some of the combs are lightly streaked, and they're all good combs.
    Kitta

  3. #23
    Senior Member Bridget's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Calluna4u View Post
    Got an old metal bin or the likes? (Maybe even an old Burco boiler around somewhere? For small scale work they are perfect)

    Chop the old combs out of the frames and set aside for melting.

    Half fill bin or tank or whatever with water and add a kilo or so of washing soda (under a pound from Tesco) and bring to the boil (using a gas burner?)

    Immerse the whole frames for a couple of minutes in the boiling mix, take out, wash down to take off any scum, and allow to dry. PERFECT job, the grooves will all be clear and also under the wedge bar, even all the propolis is gone. Wax slides in just as if the frame was new.
    Well actually this is what we did just a couple of weeks ago ....
    We even were using the Tesco soda. For once we were doing it right and will do the same again with these frames. However I found that melting down the wax was a real waste of time. I got very little decent wax out of it and was t worth the hassle.
    I am lucky that we get these barrels in at work and our maintenance guy did a good job in making it for me. It was boiled up using the gas paella stove!


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  4. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bridget View Post
    Our strongest colony on brood and half has suddenly died. Treated with Api Boixal end of Jan and seen flying since then. Not out today when the others were so checked and all dead.
    The base was absolutely covered with bees (poly hive, mesh floor), the brood box had about 6-7 heavy frames of stores, all uncapped.
    The super was empty of stores with a very small cluster of bees in one corner which looked as thought they had starved, heads down. I suspect they had become isolated.
    on top of the super was a block of fondant about 1/3 eaten, on top of that the eke with polystyrene to fill the space. there were dead bees above the polystyrene block which had died, and sign of dystentery, presumably as they could find their way back/stress.
    No sign of deformed wings. This was my strongest colony, queen only about 18months old. I didn't find the queen and there was no brood.
    I'm sending a bag of bees to SASA Fiona Highet - is this the right thing to do.
    Some photos - small brood starvation and isolation, super frames no stores left and a lay effect like they had tried to eat the wax (though it might be the thin wax I had in for the heather) five brood frames full of stores, close up of brood frames with stores, base of dead bees.
    Attachment 2578Attachment 2579Attachment 2580Attachment 2581Attachment 2582

    Now I think we will make a bonfire of all the frames so not to risk any further contamination and give the hive a good clean.
    I am a bit flummoxed - I understand why the bees in the super died. I think as the hive retracted in size they mainly moved down leaving a few behind who couldn't keep warm and find the fondant. But as to all the bees on the base ...?
    There is one single word in the post that comes into the equation and it is ''retracted''.

    An abnormally low air pressure system will cause the lungs of people, horses, dogs and bees to retract during daylight or darkness. This leads to hypoxia. Kingussie is between 200-400 metres above sea level.

    In the case of kept bees, the owner might find the whole hive filled with dead bees following a depression, particularly in Scotland at high altitude.

    I would suggest that all Scottish and Irish bee-keepers should keep a close eye on weather forecasts and warning of approaching depressions.

  5. #25

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    I sense depression coming on any minute

  6. #26
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chairman dave View Post
    ...
    In the case of kept bees, the owner might find the whole hive filled with dead bees following a depression, particularly in Scotland at high altitude.
    ...
    Oh. That explains my dead nucleus, and not the load of Nosema spores I saw on a glass slide under my microscope.

    The little buggers were still moving about on the slide. Now that did more than depress me.

    I'm going to scrub the hive again with bleach, and I'm back to worrying about steaks of poo I might have left on the combs. Perhaps I'll just melt them all down.

    Like Bridget, I'll send a sample to SASA to confirm my finding as this was my first use of a microscope to identify disease.

    Kitta

  7. #27

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    6 frames and wax from Thornes about £12
    I do hope those were streaks of poo Kitta, steaks sound more like a cow might moved in
    Anoxia ? )
    Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 28-02-2016 at 12:57 PM.

  8. #28
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    Streaks! Streaks of poo from my anoxic bees. (I had to look up anoxia.)
    Kitta

  9. #29

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    Quote Originally Posted by chairman dave View Post
    There is one single word in the post that comes into the equation and it is ''retracted''.

    An abnormally low air pressure system will cause the lungs of people, horses, dogs and bees to retract during daylight or darkness. This leads to hypoxia. Kingussie is between 200-400 metres above sea level. In the case of kept bees, the owner might find the whole hive filled with dead bees following a depression, particularly in Scotland at high altitude. I would suggest that all Scottish and Irish bee-keepers should keep a close eye on weather forecasts and warning of approaching depressions.
    About two weeks ago I found lots of dead bees (old) on the mesh floor of a large colony and following the comments of Calluna C4, I put it down to a Q that had stopped laying at the end of August when the hive had masses of bees and great slabs of sealed brood (she was still present in mid-Oct but no eggs).

    Having read your comment on hypoxia and depressions and mused on DRs observation on depression, I then Googled on "hypoxia in honey bees", trying to decide if both of you might have had cabin fever and found a summary of a 1997 Comp.Biochem.Physiol, 117A,445-455 paper. It seems that large colonies are susceptible to hypoxia after all, particularly large colonies. The SBA site is so interesting.
    AC

  10. #30

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    Holding my breath !!!? 💨
    Well researched AC it seems the bees do it deliberately so they can enter a comotose state and extend their lives
    I think it's having the opposite effect on me
    Wonder where that leaves OMF's

    The dog is still using up too much oxygen
    But now I think that's a good thing, sadly he is also producing methane which we could all do without
    It has helped motivate me into holding my breath for longer though 😵


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