We have 2 Flowhives - one as a Founder member in 2015/16 and another about 2018. In previous years we’ve had lots of honey from both hives . . . . but not this year, from the original hive. 2 years ago we lost all the bees in both hives when our neighbour used a poisonous spray close by. We bought 2 nucs to re-colonise them - one hive is very calm the other is super aggressive.
The aggressive hive has not produced any honey at all since Nov 2021. Something is not right in the brood box - I can’t see any brood or stores in any of the frames. See typical frame in the photo below . . . . . any suggestions about what the problem might be!!??
Many thanks for the suggestion. I’ve read up about AFB - certainly looks like a possibility, so I’ve just bought an AFB test kit and will check the hive tomorrow morning.
Hi Deborah, your profile doesn’t indicate where in the world you are. It’s helpful if you let us know what town, state & country you live in.
I’m also seeing those perforated caps. Chalk brood can also look like those cells with sunken & perforated caps. I can see some obvious chalk brood mummies in open cells. Fingers crossed that all the sunken & perforated caps are over chalk brood. You’ll need to check them all, to be sure.
Thank you for your responses. It is remiss of me to have not put where I live! I live in Research, Victoria, Australia. We live in a semi rural part of Victoria. We have bought a testing kit for AFB and will also look into the possibility that it is chalk brood! Thank you again. Will let you know how we go!
I wouldn’t think that AFB is likely, though not impossible, because of the absence of larvae. At least I can’t see any in the frame shown. Are there larvae on other frames?
If there are no larvae and no eggs it might be that you have queen problems. Have you seen the queen recently? The queen may be gone. You can check for this by adding a frame of brood from the other hive (a frame with some eggs or very small larvae). If the queen is gone you will see them build queen cells on the added frame. If so this is good as you will be changing out your aggressive queen for one descending from the calm hive.
The lack of stores is concerning and indeed might be the cause of the queen going off lay. What is the stores position in your other hive? You had a honey flow until november? Did you harvest this honey or did you leave it and the bees now consumed it?
Sorry for more questions than answers, but sometimes these issues can be caused by an accumulation of several factors.
we tested for AFB - fortunately all clear We also had a local expert (Bron from Bob’s Bees) come and inspect both hives. It would seem the problem was with the queen - the hive has re-queened itself and there are new eggs and larvae evident. So, problem solved and some good lessons learned along the way.
Many thanks to all who responded - it’s wonderful to be able to tap into such a great resource.
I’m only a newbie compared to the amount of experience you have being a founding member!
I’m not qualified to offer any advice but I felt compelled to mention that during my studies I learnt that wax can absorb pesticides and pollutants over time.
It may be worth looking into rotating out your frames, especially if your neighbour sprays. Also hopefully you changed out the old frames when you installed your nuc. There still may be left over residue.
We also had a local expert (Bron from Bob’s Bees) come and inspect both hives. It would seem the problem was with the queen - the hive has re-queened itself and there are new eggs and larvae evident. So, problem solved and some good lessons learned along the way.