Bee Troubles

Swarm hive has been heavily hit by the wasps. But there is hope, latest photo of a frame shows they are repairing the damage, and there are still bees in the hive. No idea what the overall health is, but, well, there's hope.

Log entries from past month or two:

10/20/12

Big problem with wasps in the swarm hive. They're going in
and out regularly. Tomorrow begins a series of sub-freezing
night temperatures. I hope that puts an end to the wasps. I'm
afraid they may have destroyed the swarm hive.

10/22/12

Snowing tonight, low 26. Last night low 26. Hope this will kill
the wasps. Not much chance of looking in hive until 28th maybe.

10/29/12

Warmed up in the last couple of days. Today high about 58. Wasps
seen coming and going even after the cold temps (night times into
the teens) of the last week. Today bees coming and going from
both hives, also wasps.

Opened up both hives. The swarm hive has suffered the worst, with
frames centers to about 75-80% having caps removed. The outer
frames are less affected, but still heavily hollowed out. The
large number of uncapped cells seem to have honey in them, maybe
1/3rd full. Contrast to the same frames in August is very
dramatic, when they were completely covered with capped honey.

Looking down into the middle boxes and removing some frames we
saw the same pattern. Looks like brood cells and pollen cells
have been opened and then refilled with some liquid, probably
uncapped honey. There were some capped brood cells and at least
one larva in the pkg hive.

The hive populations of both hives looked like what maybe normal
for this time of year. There were quite a few bees in each hive.
Bees were concentrated in the center frames.
Also wasps were observed, perhaps there were 10 to a hive,
estimating?

10/30/12



10/31/12

Maggie says yarrow plants in garden have pollen. Judy next door
says nasturtiams blossoming.


My theory on the wasps is that somewhere in the neighbourhood
there is a wasp nest that is protected from the temperature
extremes by someone's attic, garage, or other enclosed space.
We have had some successive mid-teen nights and cold days that
i would think would have killed off an outside nest. That could
account for how this is a big problem this year. Also, September
very hot on through the first 2 weeks of October.


11/21/12

After a couple feet of snow last week, warmer but cloudy
temps last week and lots of melting, and heavy rain last night
for a couple of hours. Temp 40 deg outside. High today probably
45, not much sun.

Pkg hive seems to be doing ok, as observing a lot of dead bees
being carried out.

Opened up the swarm hive, expecting to be all dead bees, and
lo and behold, there are quite a few bees in there, at least
as many as a package i think. Furthermore, appeared on the frame
i pulled, that they have been repairing the damaged cells. So
quite a bit of honey in that one frame, which is in the upper
box. Photo by Alex. Outside behavior seems virtually
non-existent. I did see one bee near the upper opening on the
outside which appeared to be perishing from the cold, but at
least one bee had ventured outside.