Month: September 2013

Apparently 3 hornets

and several hundred varroa mites

Yesterday I went to top up the feed on my bees, after a week of varroa treatment. I took out the board and saw hundreds of varroa, above is a close up so you can see the details.

Today, I went back to drop off more syrup to the site and in the rain found three huge hornets. I photo’d them to check they were not the Asian hornets we are told to be on our guard for and because I don’t think I have seen any before; they were huge. Knowing that their diet would consist of my bees, I then dispatched them; with surprising difficulty, they are quite hard to squish as it turns out.

So I went to visit one of my apiaries today and noticed one of the hives with no activity at the entrance. On opening her up there was nothing inside; no brood, stored pollen or honey. All that was left was half a handful of dead bees in the bottom and a whole lot of powered cappings on the floor. Now there were a lot of wasps around, but this hive had had the smallest of the three entrances of the hives there and the one with the front door wide open was thriving in spite of the wasps.

So what had happened? Robbed and killed off by wasps? Marie celeste style absconding? Colony collapse disorder? Mass pesticide-induced bee loss by losing their way while out foraging?

I guess I will never know; but I will surely freeze the frames before using them again incase it was disease related. As there were next to no bodies I doubt it…