Wednesday 14 August 2019

Top Bar Hive is Dead Out

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Channel: Brueggens Bees  

Top Bar Hive is Dead Out

Well it didn't quite make the three year mark. The bees did not survive this past winter. I take the blame myself. I rarely inspected this hive, so it doesn't surprise me really.

Based on what I see here, I think they likely went queenless late last fall and just slowly withered away. The amount of dead bees on the floor of the hive tells me they did not just up and leave one day. It tells me that the population slowly withered, and at a point there were not enough house bees to clean out those that starved. But it's not full winter starvation, because there are not dead bees with their heads shoved down in cells looking for food.

Something else interesting, is there is no evidence of wax moths. Normally I'd expect to see an empty hive like this all webbed up and the combs chewed out by the moths. But I don't see a single sign of them. Makes me wonder if there is something to do with the active smell of bees that draws moths where a dead and stripped hive simply doesn't. Perhaps the moths are drawn to the smell of pollen like SHB are.

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Video length: 2:36
Category: Education
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