Feel free to post any comments questions or corrections.
E. Non-disease disorders
How can you tell if brood has died from chilling rather than disease? What can you do to reduce the chances that the brood gets too cold
What are the symptoms of a pesticide poisoning of a colony? What can be done to reduce the risks of expositing your bees to pesticide spraying?
What are the symptoms of a queenless colony? How do you go about requeening it? Is the process different from requeening a queenright colony?
How can you tell if a colony has laying workers? What can you do with a laying worker colony?
What are the signs that the bees are trying to supersede their queen? What should you do?
How can you tell if brood has died from chilling rather than disease? What can you do to reduce the chances that the brood gets too cold
Chilled brood looks similar to, but is different ?????from the disease chalkbrood.
Avoid chilled brood by :
Keep your inspections very very brief when temps are below 50 degrees F.
Provide adequate ventilation to avoid condensation. The resulting icy water dripping on bees can chill the brood.
Inspect your bees only on days when there is little or no wind (especially during cold weather). Harsh winds chill brood.
What are the symptoms of a pesticide poisoning of a colony? What can be done to reduce the risks of expositing your bees to pesticide spraying?
Symptoms:
A huge dead pile of bees in front of the hive.
Aggressiveness
Lack of foraging bees on crop that is attractive to bees.
Wobbly or jerky movements, spinning on the back.
Regurgitation of honey stomach contents and tongue extended.
Bees slow down as if they have been chilled.
The risk of poisoning can be reduced by :
Educating your neighbors and asking them to spray at times when bees are in the hive like near dusk.
On the day your neighbors plan to spray cover you hive with a wet bed sheet. The sheet will minimize the amount of bees that fly that day. Remove the sheet the next morning.
Register your colony with the state apicultural office. Reputable arborists check such lists before spraying in a community and will call you before spraying.
What are the symptoms of a queenless colony? How do you go about requeening it? Is the process different from requeening a queenright colony?
As soon as an hour after the queen is gone the lack of her pheromone is known by most if not all of the bees. Within a day sometimes more or less the bees will undertake emergency supersedure behaviors. The bees are noisier, you will notice the difference as soon as you remove the cover. They will be more defensive. If queenless for a week there will be a lack of eggs and supersedure cells will be found.
How do you go about requeening it?
Remove one of the frames from the brood box – pick a frame that has little or no brood as it will die. Shake all the bees off the frame and put the frame aside as it will not be used for a week. With one frame removed create a space in the center of the brood box. Use this space to hang the queen cage between the frames. Make sure to remove the cork from the cage to expose the candy plug and make sure the candy end is facing up so if any nurse bees die in the cage they will not plug the entrance. The bees will eat the candy plug and free the queen. Caution you may want to put the cage in the hive for a day to see how the bees react to the new queen. If they are biting the cage trying to get at the queen to kill her you may want to hold the queen in t cage a few more days. At a minimum, when requeening, they need to be queenless for at least 2 hours. 12 to 24 is ok. More and they will have a queen cell of their own started.
Is the process different from requeening a queenright colony?
At a minimum, when requeening, they need to be queenless for at least 2 hours. 12 to 24 is ok. More and they will have a queen cell of their own started.
How can you tell if a colony has laying workers? What can you do with a laying worker colony?
The overall pattern on a frame will be spotty with some cells unoccupied, some with multiple eggs, some with normal looking larva and perhaps some capped drone cells.
Depending on how early it is discovered and what part of the season will depend on what may be done. If it is discovered early in the season ,maybe it can be combined with another hive. If it is late in the season the hive may expire no matter what is done.
What are the signs that the bees are trying to supersede their queen? What should you do?
The colony will produce another queen in the same way as in emergency supersedure but the insurance of the current queen still present. The first queen to emerge will destroy those not yet emerged. Often howeverthe new queen and her mother will remain in the colony laying eggs. Eventually the old queen expires leaving her daughter in charge.
The beekeeper can let the process go the natural way or remove the queen cells and introduce a new queen.
refer to class notes