Hello, well things have been going so well until. I just went out to check on my bees and I found about 20 dead bees sitting on the landing. We’ve had record floods all week long. No water was up on the hive at any time but the night time temps have dropped into the 30s tonight is supposed to be 49 and tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and back in the 70’s. I took the top cover off and looked. Those are alive but very slow moving. They have been bringing in tons of pollen and nectar trees, flowers and weeds that are blooming. What the heck should I be doing???
Sounds like they got caught out in the cold or in the rain, water will make it hard for the bees to move across the landing board and they will get stuck in the cold there. There is not much you can do, temps will warm up and the bees will recover.
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Thanks a million for responding so quick Roderick . I was starting to worry.
Hi Chris,
Rod had a quick n easy answer to your sadness. Sooner or later few dead bees are more than normal. A worker bees life expectancy really isn’t that long during
busy Spring,Summer, even Autumn months.
Oh, I’d prepare yourself for the Fall population decline each end of season n early winter. Often hundreds n possible thousands on the ground then.
But still wise to know n ask. Not all bee die-offs are normal n good. Time n experience will help but best to ask n keep out of hot water n bee troubles.
Cheers,
Gerald.
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Thanks Gerald , I appreciate it.
No problem Chris.
Those ole Undertaker worker bees are always leaving a few on the front porch ! But I still scanner then over. I like pulling my SBBoard slide out … Without disrupting the hive with a weekly inspect … On the off week I pull that out n check for stuff. With doing that often I can often see a possible trouble come or it just tells me there okay. I clean it off completely so what ever I find is only two weeks old. I even quickly pull during the winter when I don’t want to be opening the lid/top on those many chilly winter weeks.
Just another 2 cents worth !
Cheers n take care,
Gerald
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Hi Gerald, the white background certainly makes the wax moth poo quite obvious. I also found it was excellent at showing chalkbrood mummies.
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