Part of a Bee Culture Article.
Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 5:02 am
Part of a Bee Culture Article.
March 2011 Bee Culture article by Jim Tew Entitled: Keeping Bees – As Best We Can With What We know.
If you subscribe to Bee Culture you most likely have already read this.
This section of the article just struck me… as here is a well educated long time beekeeper that got hit by something. I hope none of us get struck by anything like this.
Part of the article:
During the second week in January, snow had fallen and was crunching beneath my feet as I returned from my storage barn. It was a bright day so it was easy to see the little black spot on the brilliantly white snow. It was a dead bee that I duly noted. “Humph.” A few more crunching steps and yet another black spot. “Whoa!” In fact there were dead and dying bees everywhere. Many were dead but just not finished dying. What in the world is going on? My three beehives were near the storage barn. They were from packages in the spring and had built up nicely. I had given them full frames of capped honey (as has been discussed in innumerable previous articles). I provided fully drawn combs on which they could initiate a brood nest. They accepted the new queens without signs of supercedure. They exhibited good flight all spring and summer. Now, this. Where were all these bees coming from?
In fact, they were coming from the middle hive of my three hives. It was 28 degrees F outside on a bright, still day. Yet the hive was alive with frantic bees at all entrances and a small pile of dead bees accumulating on the ground. They appeared agitated and frantic; as though they were all trying to leave at once. They seemed absolutely eager to die. As I stood there, watching in confused amazement, a few bees departed on suicide flights. What was going on? Nosema? CCD? Old combs? Nectar from GM plant sources? I don’t know.
March 2011 Bee Culture article by Jim Tew Entitled: Keeping Bees – As Best We Can With What We know.
If you subscribe to Bee Culture you most likely have already read this.
This section of the article just struck me… as here is a well educated long time beekeeper that got hit by something. I hope none of us get struck by anything like this.
Part of the article:
During the second week in January, snow had fallen and was crunching beneath my feet as I returned from my storage barn. It was a bright day so it was easy to see the little black spot on the brilliantly white snow. It was a dead bee that I duly noted. “Humph.” A few more crunching steps and yet another black spot. “Whoa!” In fact there were dead and dying bees everywhere. Many were dead but just not finished dying. What in the world is going on? My three beehives were near the storage barn. They were from packages in the spring and had built up nicely. I had given them full frames of capped honey (as has been discussed in innumerable previous articles). I provided fully drawn combs on which they could initiate a brood nest. They accepted the new queens without signs of supercedure. They exhibited good flight all spring and summer. Now, this. Where were all these bees coming from?
In fact, they were coming from the middle hive of my three hives. It was 28 degrees F outside on a bright, still day. Yet the hive was alive with frantic bees at all entrances and a small pile of dead bees accumulating on the ground. They appeared agitated and frantic; as though they were all trying to leave at once. They seemed absolutely eager to die. As I stood there, watching in confused amazement, a few bees departed on suicide flights. What was going on? Nosema? CCD? Old combs? Nectar from GM plant sources? I don’t know.