Post by Rich Pedersen on Feb 24, 2011 18:13:36 GMT -7
I'm a new beekeeper (well, in the process of getting started) and I just took ownership of the equipment and hive of a friend of mine that tried this hobby a year ago. She couldn't put enough time and attention into it and knew that I wanted to start, so she sold everything to me.
About a week before I picked up the hive, we went to visit it. It was a sunny, but cool late-morning. There was light, but fut fairly steady bee traffic in and out of the hive. On "moving day" it was about 50 degrees out and we waited until dark. I blocked the hive entrance and made sure there were no gaps anywhere. Then I ratchet-strapped the entire hive into one piece before carefully shifting into onto a furniture dolly to move it to the bed of my truck. The hive was transported about 6 miles to its new home. Later that night, I removed the entrance block.
During the following couple of days, I did not see a single bee anywhere. Not outside the hive and not at the feeder (a top feeder). I noticed there were a fair few dead bees on the bottom board, so I lifted the two deeps off of it to clear them away. The entire screen was covered with dead bees. I assumed it was an accumulation since last year. I kept holding my ear to the hive to see if I could hear them buzzing and I thought I could hear something, though it occurred to me that it might just be the sound of the nearby highway echoing through the hive (like when you put your ear to a conch shell and hear the ocean).
After taking a beekeeping class and seeing a hive that had considerable activity despite the inclement weather, I got enough courage to look into my hive a bit further. I removed the feeder and top lid to expose the frames in the top brood box. No bees appeared. I peered between every frame. No bees to be seen. Then I separated the two deeps to look at the bottom one. No bees. At that point, I started checking each frame and cleaning things a bit. Took a bunch of pictures which you can see here:
www.flickr.com/photos/57032848@N00/sets/72157626049752068/detail/
So, they were there about a week before the move. They were moved further than 2-miles from their home. All openings were blocked during transit. There were no living bees in the hive and no brood. However, there were actually some honey and bee bread stores.
My question to you: What happened to the bees? Any theories?
About a week before I picked up the hive, we went to visit it. It was a sunny, but cool late-morning. There was light, but fut fairly steady bee traffic in and out of the hive. On "moving day" it was about 50 degrees out and we waited until dark. I blocked the hive entrance and made sure there were no gaps anywhere. Then I ratchet-strapped the entire hive into one piece before carefully shifting into onto a furniture dolly to move it to the bed of my truck. The hive was transported about 6 miles to its new home. Later that night, I removed the entrance block.
During the following couple of days, I did not see a single bee anywhere. Not outside the hive and not at the feeder (a top feeder). I noticed there were a fair few dead bees on the bottom board, so I lifted the two deeps off of it to clear them away. The entire screen was covered with dead bees. I assumed it was an accumulation since last year. I kept holding my ear to the hive to see if I could hear them buzzing and I thought I could hear something, though it occurred to me that it might just be the sound of the nearby highway echoing through the hive (like when you put your ear to a conch shell and hear the ocean).
After taking a beekeeping class and seeing a hive that had considerable activity despite the inclement weather, I got enough courage to look into my hive a bit further. I removed the feeder and top lid to expose the frames in the top brood box. No bees appeared. I peered between every frame. No bees to be seen. Then I separated the two deeps to look at the bottom one. No bees. At that point, I started checking each frame and cleaning things a bit. Took a bunch of pictures which you can see here:
www.flickr.com/photos/57032848@N00/sets/72157626049752068/detail/
So, they were there about a week before the move. They were moved further than 2-miles from their home. All openings were blocked during transit. There were no living bees in the hive and no brood. However, there were actually some honey and bee bread stores.
My question to you: What happened to the bees? Any theories?
