Pesticide Poisoning or CCD. What can be done?

Hi, there is no way of keeping a frame clear of pollen, however if a colony is weak in numbers, they will always cluster around the number of frames that will hold them. The cluster might only occupy 3 frames for example, hopefully with a queen in the middle & some brood. With SHB, it’s important that the frames outside the cluster don’t contain any brood or pollen. That’s something a beekeeper will need to manipulate. It is ok if those frames contain some honey, but not brood or pollen.

Assuming a weak colony only occupies 3 frames & you want to boost the numbers, after disease has been ruled out, it’s important to add only one frame of brood initially, otherwise there will be too much for the bees to guard. As the colony starts to grow, you can keep adding more brood, one frame at a time until you finish up with a strong colony.

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Hi Katarina,
Initially I had the apithor on the core flute in the lower position, and it really helped to get SHB down. From then on I noticed that every other day I had a couple of dead bees next to the apithor. I reckon, the bees go down there to chase the beetles once they work out how to get there, and then stick their tongues into the trap. Or the poisoned beetles come out of the trap again and get into contact with the chasing bees.
I did a few weeks without the traps, then reintroduced, same thing.
Now I just keep the slider in the upper slot, no more traps, and no beetles anyway. Maybe it’s getting too cold for them now.
I think the apithor needs more field testing, more distance to the poison from the outside and some means of trapping a beetle in there for good, so she can’t come out once poisoned.

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Dear readers
I need your opinion about a problem I faced.
in about just 20 days 80% of my bees disappeared. this is winter here and really cold, in Iran. Queens are still in the hives. But worker bees disappeared. I am wonder if pesticide poisoning happened. But there are not the significant died bodies around the hives.
I am suspicious of ccd. But sth is wrong.
1_The Queens are in the hives
2-the weather is too cold about - 5
3-i do not have significant dead bodies
4-the test for mites is negative
Is it possible that bees leave the hives without their Queens in a whether about - 5?
And if bees died why i do not have dead bodies around the hives?
I really need to know the reason. your professional ideas would be really helpful.
thank you in advanced. i am looking forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards

Hi @mahshidam. The only explanation I can think of is that the bees may not have disappeared at all. Apart from normal mortality, a lot more bees will be clustered around the already constricted brood in order to keep it warm, which could give the appearance that a lot of bees have disappeared. Especially if you’re only guided by how many bees occupy the honey super. That can wax & wane quite dramatically with extreme temperature changes.

With a constricted brood, which happens as winter approaches, you will see a decreased population. This is beautifully illustrated in the Youtube video “City of Bees”.

Bees wont leave a hive without a queen.

Cheers

Dear jeff,
Thank you very much for your reply. Helpful information. So you think that it would not be pesticide poisoning, right?
About the cluster, i checked. The number of bees declined significantly.

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Hi Mahshid, you’re welcome. I wouldn’t like to say one way or the other. You would be best to seek advice from someone in your area.

All I can do is point out a possibility, based on the best of my knowledge. In that video they say that a colony can grow to 80,000 during the summer, then shrink to 15,000 during the winter. That’s roughly an 80% drop in population with that scenario.

Local knowledge will be handy.

cheers

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