The other day I was told that there is something like a hundred hives sitting on the ground in the Northern Sunshine Coast Hinterland, all infested with SHB. Apparently the owner has thrown his hands in the air & given up on them.
We are making further inquiries to try & at least stop the SHB population buildup, if it’s not too late.
Ten minutes later: I just got a phone call, it is too late:(
This is what happens. Just one hive, if left unchecked gives SHB the ability to breed up 100’s of 1000’s of new SHBs.
Apparently the hives were in a cow paddock, I’m guessing the cows knocked some hives over which would allow the beetles to breed up in those hives to start the ball rolling.
What you say has a lot of merit Jeff, it probably goes for a lot of treatment free beeks in varroa areas when their colonies get over run.
I guess with more people keeping bees now, possibly credited to Flows invention and marketing, the beetles population will be increasing and spreading markedly.
Time to start the breed and release of sterile beetles like the fruit fly.
It’s worth reporting to the Queensland DPI Jeff, ,they will take measures to fix it. It’s not fair to all the beekeepers in the area that one person’s neglect is responsible for the downfall of other people’s hives in the whole region. This will become a SHB breeding ground for the next 6 months if not dealt with.
100 hives simply abandoned? That’s an awful lot of investment in time and money to get to that many hives- and then to let them go to wrack and ruin? Surely they could have got someone in to try and do something.
what would be done now? keep us updated jeff- it’s an interesting (but horrible) story.
Hi @Rodderick, @skeggley & @Semaphore. Apparently it happened a couple of years ago. A bloke tagged along with some people who picked up a colony from me the other afternoon. As it appears, this bloke was offered the hives for free to salvage whatever he can from them. Now I know why this bloke was so interested in my boxes with all of the repairs I made to them. He must have been contemplating doing lots of repairs himself, to the boxes containing dry rot.
