Dead hive inspection

It's a beautiful, crisp Sunday afternoon in January. The sunshine made it warm enough that I wanted to go outside to do a better inspection of Sweet Beezus, the dead hive. I removed five frames that contained either honey or brood cells and placed them in a sealed bag to bring indoors for a closer look later.

On the recommendation of Linda Tillman, a local master beekeeper who maintains a very thorough and informative blog -- and who doesn't mind answering a novice's questions -- I did the "toothpick test" for American Foulbrood. AFB is a spore-producing disease that systematically destroys a hive by infecting the bee larvae. One of the first signs of AFB is sunken capped brood (sometimes with small chew marks in the caps) and "ropey" larvae. The test is simple: insert a toothpick into a capped cell, wiggle it around a bit and pull it out; if the toothpick is slimed with a mucous-like, ropey substance, the hive's infected with AFB. There is usually a foul odor to accompany this.

Thankfully, I found neither ropey larvae nor a foul odor in Sweet Beezus. There was very little capped lavae at all. And when I took the supers off and sifted through the dead bees on the screened bottom board, I couldn't find the queen. So, the hive was without a queen for quite some time.

In the past, I've always been afraid to keep the hive open for more than a very few minutes in case the queen escaped. One of the most important lessons I've learned from this experience with hive death is that I cannot be afraid to open up the hives all the way down and examine all of the frames once in a while to be certain that there IS a queen and that she's laying eggs.

On the positive side, since there is no evidence of AFB, I can use this hive again. If it had been infected, I would have to burn the frames and at least scorch the insides of all of the hive components, if not burn them all, to make it safe for new bees. Also, according to Linda, I can use the existing frames that already have comb drawn out on them, courtesy of the bees that are now gone. This will make a great home for a new colony because they won't have to work quite as hard to get things going and the queen will have cells ready and waiting for eggs.

I had enough smoke left in the smoker to open one of the other hives for a few minutes, so I took a peek in Rocky. The Rocky girls have been busy eating the fondant and pollen patties, and when I took out some of the frames in the top super, they were LOADED with honey! It's a beautiful golden color and smelled so good. Too bad I can't harvest it for myself, but this is their food source for the winter.

Mourning a loss.

A couple of years ago, I met a fellow novice beekeeper who had lost his two hives during the very cold winter. Sadly, he found the bees in clusters on their frames in the center of the hives, as if they were huddled together to keep warm. We both assumed that the bees had died due to an extended frigid period (for Georgia, anyway) that January, which could certainly be true. But there are many other reasons honeybees die, including starvation, pests, diseases, loss of the queen or old queen...all of which stress the bees.


This morning, I made a sad discovery of my own. I lost Sweet Beezus — the girls were dead, in clusters on the frames and below the hive. I pulled out frames from both supers and didn't see any signs of mites, although there were a few dead small hive beetles. No sign of Foulbrood, either. There was a good bit of honey stored, so my best guess is that either the girls couldn't withstand the cold temperatures last week or the queen died (or was incapable of laying new eggs).

This is my first experience with hive loss, so I'll have to research how to clean out the hive and what to do next — whether to order a new package of bees or try to attract a swarm to live there.


Another new experience: I made fondant candy to feed the bees. This is easier than trying to supply them with sugar syrup, which can freeze during the winter months. The fondant is made by heating a mixture of sugar, corn syrup and water to 238° and then letting it cool before beating it until it turns white. The candy solidifies, but is soft and easy to cut. In addition to the fondant, I wanted to feed the bees some protein in the form of pollen patties (dark strips pictured on left next to fondant).


Both the Apollo and Rocky bees seemed healthy, thank goodness. When I took the covers off each hive, the girls started buzzing and coming up to investigate. Here's a photo of the Rocky bees coming up through the inner cover, happy to discover someone had provided dinner and dessert.

R.I.P. sweet girls of Sweet Beezus. Thank you for making some wonderful honey. I'll do my best to honor your memory by repopulating your hive!