Beekeepers on here? Lost a whole hive today

[JRobyn]

One of wife's hives swarmed Sunday. She was able to get most of the swarm into a new hive. Opened up the old one today to find it was infested with some sort of larvae, but evidently NOT wax moths. No adults were present, only the larvae, and hundreds and hundreds of them, along with some sort of "slime". Ruined the honey. No pics yet; I'll try to get some tomorrow. They look very similar to plain old maggots. She's really bummed.

p.s. After googling around some, it looks like she was hit with small-hive-beetles.

 

[Buty]

Yes, sounds like small hive beetles.

 

[JRobyn]

Didn't get any pics - the little buggars are too small, but collected a few and examined under magnification. YUP. Small hive beetles. The 4 sets of legs on the front confirms it.

Now wife is on warpath. Will relocate the hives to keep them away from the area where the larvae have gone into the ground. Will probably nuke the area with Triacicide or similar. Anyone know if there is a nematode that likes to eat their larvae?

 

[dickfoster]

Man oh man life is sure tough for beekeepers these days. Now you're fighting big chemical, the gubberment and nature too. Bad for all of us.

 

[ddb123]

Move the hives to full sun if possible. Use some kind of entrance reducer. I reduce my entrances down to about 1/3 year-round. The size of hive entrances is a result of Langstroth hive design, not colony need. Colonies in the wild typically have small holes for entrances. An upper entrance instead of a lower entrance could also help.

SHB won't overtake a hive unless it is already hurting from other factors. The bees can usually keep them under control.

 

[ovrszd]

Off topic, sortta.

2 years ago I had 5 wild honey bee hives in large oak trees, that I knew of. Last year only 4. This year all are gone. This is in 60 acres of mostly large oak trees.

In a couple weeks I'm seeding 38 acres to a Pollinator mix thru CRP. I'm hoping in years to come I can attract more.

Any ideas why the decline?

 

[dickfoster]

Off topic, sortta.

2 years ago I had 5 wild honey bee hives in large oak trees, that I knew of. Last year only 4. This year all are gone. This is in 60 acres of mostly large oak trees.

In a couple weeks I'm seeding 38 acres to a Pollinator mix thru CRP. I'm hoping in years to come I can attract more.

Any ideas why the decline?

A lot of folks point the finger at systemic pesticides. But there is a lot of politics and money involved from big chemical like Bayer etc. I saw a piece where the systemics were banned in France and I think the rest of Europe and the bees starting coming back. Kinda hard to argue with that little piece of evidence.
The gubberment is not always our friend. Their principal interest is keeping their butts planted in those seats while political contributions and big money help keep them there.

 

[NorTracNY]

I guess I'm happy that I don't have much hive beetle issues. Just long cold winters. ddb123 is correct that a strong hive that is doing well will keep hive beetles and wax moths at bay.

ovrszd - Tom Seeley from Cornell has an excellent presentation on wild bees. Don't be surprised if they return. The population is certainly going to vary. It's impressive that you found 5 bee trees in your woods. Is it by accident or did you actually spend the days triangulating and searching for them? Seeley reports that when he goes looking for wild hives, he's successful 80% of the time, but it takes almost 10 hours on average to find each hive.

 

[ovrszd]

I guess I'm happy that I don't have much hive beetle issues. Just long cold winters. ddb123 is correct that a strong hive that is doing well will keep hive beetles and wax moths at bay.

ovrszd - Tom Seeley from Cornell has an excellent presentation on wild bees. Don't be surprised if they return. The population is certainly going to vary. It's impressive that you found 5 bee trees in your woods. Is it by accident or did you actually spend the days triangulating and searching for them? Seeley reports that when he goes looking for wild hives, he's successful 80% of the time, but it takes almost 10 hours on average to find each hive.

I am retired and live a Blessed life. I spend many hours a week in the timber. I've found about 50% by sitting quietly in the timber for maybe an hour in one spot watching flying insects. Discovered that the closer I get to a hive the less activity I see in regards to random flying insects. I learned how to scour trees for signs of hives. I can spot a hive hole at quite a distance. I found the other 50% by doing timber maintenance work and disturb the hive. "What's all the bees doing buzzing around me"?

 

[SPYDERLK]

Man oh man life is sure tough for beekeepers these days. Now you're fighting big chemical, the gubberment and nature too. Bad for all of us.

I dont know much about this, but what I do know makes me VERY afraid. ... The foot is the target of a shotgun.