Latest / Honey Bee Obscura Podcast / Plain Talk: BSI - Bee Scene Investigation (276)

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Plain Talk: BSI - Bee Scene Investigation (276) · Honey Bee Obscura Podcast

0:01
Jim Tew: Hello podcast listeners.
0:04
Jim Tew: Let's walk back to the bee yard.
0:06
Jim Tew: Spring is here.
0:08
Jim Tew: Grass is already growing.
0:11
Jim Tew: Birds are happy.
0:14
Jim Tew: We'll walk back to the barn and I want to do some if the robbers are not too bad I want to see if we can do some forensic work back here
0:24
Jim Tew: and see what happened with these two packages while they died during the winter.
0:28
Jim Tew: I know that one passed on early on because it I had a perpetual clean issue with it.
0:35
Jim Tew: So let's have a look.
0:37
Jim Tew: Listeners, I'm Jim Tew.
0:39
Jim Tew: I come to you here once a week at Honey Bee Obscure where I just try to talk about something conversationally to do with plain talk beekeeping.
0:52
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0:54
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1:26
Jim Tew: Oh man, this is a crazy place back here.
1:31
Jim Tew: That forensic stuff I was telling you we were going to do.
1:35
Jim Tew: We're not gonna do that because the bees are robbing like crazy.
1:39
Jim Tew: And those are two that died.
1:42
Jim Tew: So all I could do was find out this is gonna be smoker stuff.
1:47
Jim Tew: I want to say again, I cannot believe this many of my bees are alive
1:52
Jim Tew: as long and as cold as it was.
1:55
Jim Tew: So I'm at a loss now.
1:57
Jim Tew: I'm not sure what to do.
1:58
Jim Tew: I don't want to suit up
2:01
Jim Tew: But I got a suspicion with this kind of robbing going on at these two.
2:06
Jim Tew: Why wouldn't you ask me why wouldn't I stop that robbing?
2:10
Jim Tew: Well I wouldn't mind having it cleaned out and if I can set instead of doing stimulative feeding just let them go over there and clean that equipment out for me and then I'll put packages on it
2:21
Jim Tew: So I feel like it's staying in my yard.
2:24
Jim Tew: I know that I know there could be bees some other places.
2:28
Jim Tew: But even then I'm helping them some because uh I hope they cast a swarm that I'll pick up
2:34
Jim Tew: You know, you just have a sense about a bee yard, don't you?
2:38
Jim Tew: And my sense is with this kind of rambunctious flight and that one colony being robbed out, that they're probably in a feisty mood
2:50
Jim Tew: Okay.
2:52
Jim Tew: Just so you know I'm not totally crazy.
2:54
Jim Tew: I went stopped everything.
2:57
Jim Tew: Walked all the way back to the shop
3:00
Jim Tew: Got on some light protective gear just in case because it takes me too long to heal now, so I don't want to cause any
3:12
Jim Tew: Major disconsternation to myself.
3:18
Jim Tew: I'll pull my veil over my head
3:21
Jim Tew: Pick up a hive tool here, fix my glasses, put my hearing aids back on where I knocked them off
3:32
Jim Tew: Open the door.
3:34
Jim Tew: I'm met by bees.
3:38
Jim Tew: I seem to think there's something in here.
3:51
Jim Tew: Well, I don't know what to say about this.
3:52
Jim Tew: The bees are all up top.
3:55
Jim Tew: What does that mean?
3:55
Jim Tew: I would have thought they would have died in a cluster.
3:58
Jim Tew: That's actually worthy of a picture.
4:02
Jim Tew: There's just all the bees they're dead and they're dead up on the inner cover.
4:10
Jim Tew: I've never seen anything like this.
4:17
Jim Tew: And they had done a good job of propalizing it down.
4:21
Jim Tew: They had some dysentery, not much
4:29
Jim Tew: They weren't trapped by the snow because I had an upper entrance for them.
4:36
Jim Tew: So there's a little bit of dysentery.
4:44
Jim Tew: And there is actually no honey here
4:52
Jim Tew: So I see the what little bit of honey they had has been robbed out.
4:57
Jim Tew: But I've never seen anything like this.
5:00
Jim Tew: I gotta keep the mic going.
5:02
Jim Tew: I'll come back and make a picture
5:04
Jim Tew: and posted on the page on how oddly these bees died.
5:08
Jim Tew: They didn't die in a cluster.
5:09
Jim Tew: They died up on the inner cover.
5:12
Jim Tew: What were they trying to get away from?
5:14
Jim Tew: This is going to be a question for you guys.
5:17
Jim Tew: Tell me what happened here if you see this picture.
5:21
Jim Tew: I was expecting to see a tight small cluster.
5:25
Jim Tew: It was a medium-sized cluster
5:28
Jim Tew: And here I am thinking I'm a forensic apriculturist, and I can't tell you what those bees did.
5:37
Jim Tew: I'll put this back just like I found it so I can make a picture of it for you using a handheld mic it bumps around
5:48
Jim Tew: Now this may not work if I open this and they come roaring out a black widow spider
5:59
Jim Tew: Think so.
6:04
Jim Tew: Yeah, these are robbers.
6:05
Jim Tew: There's a lot of hunting in this still.
6:08
Jim Tew: So I can't tell you why this one died.
6:12
Jim Tew: Oh, there's still a lot of honey up here
6:17
Jim Tew: Ask me about Varroa.
6:20
Jim Tew: No, I didn't treat for Varroa last season.
6:23
Jim Tew: Everybody knows the reasons why.
6:26
Jim Tew: So I guess Varroa could be on the list.
6:29
Jim Tew: Or it could just be that a queen died
6:38
Jim Tew: See if I can pull out the tray in the back.
6:42
Jim Tew: Oh, they have really been uncapping honey
6:47
Jim Tew: But there's no indication of a of a Baroa bomb.
6:50
Jim Tew: I mean there's nothing.
6:50
Jim Tew: The colony, since it's just me here and I can say whatever I want and I'm just talking to you.
6:57
Jim Tew: The queen in this colony died during the winter
7:00
Jim Tew: You know, I had cut trouble with the other queens too.
7:04
Jim Tew: So I'm going to go ahead and say that that's what's happening.
7:08
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7:16
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8:01
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8:04
Jim Tew: Listen, uh, listeners, I don't want you to be as casual.
8:08
Jim Tew: About robbing as I am.
8:10
Jim Tew: I've told you I'm kind of a proponent of the logical concept for bees cleaning up each other's mess
8:19
Jim Tew: But that it causes a certain franticness in the yard.
8:25
Jim Tew: I mean these bees should be bringing back pollen
8:29
Jim Tew: But I don't know if they're just going over the just a few few yards away to those other one colony that still has something in it.
8:37
Jim Tew: There is some pollen going in
8:41
Jim Tew: Yep, this this is frenzied flight.
8:45
Jim Tew: Right after Maple, we go into a little bit of a dearth.
8:48
Jim Tew: Right after the first sources
8:51
Jim Tew: So I I'm thinking that's what's happening here now.
8:57
Jim Tew: You know, I had that
8:59
Jim Tew: Last podcast segment where I told you that these colonies had not been open in so long, what should I do?
9:07
Jim Tew: Leave it alone?
9:09
Jim Tew: One thing about these screen bottom boards is that when they drop pollen, it goes through the screen and the bees can't get to it.
9:17
Jim Tew: I guess they would want to get to it.
9:20
Jim Tew: And then the carpet beetles move in.
9:24
Jim Tew: So you have beetles down below.
9:27
Jim Tew: Just looking quickly, I don't see any might fall.
9:30
Jim Tew: Now I'm not doing a close check, close look
9:34
Jim Tew: But I've decided to kind of breathe in a bag about this whole thing.
9:38
Jim Tew: If I set up a second yard
9:42
Jim Tew: Then I'm not gonna be able to get to it.
9:45
Jim Tew: And all I'm gonna do is complain to you about not going to the other yard all the time
9:50
Jim Tew: So I've decided to do what I did last year.
9:55
Jim Tew: Just buy two packages, which means I've got to cancel some packages, which hope somebody reminds me to do that.
10:02
Jim Tew: buy two packages and replace those that died out.
10:07
Jim Tew: And the other thing is my neighbors are putting in a nice big garden.
10:11
Jim Tew: And you know my luck, I've always had
10:15
Jim Tew: hypersensitive neighbors.
10:17
Jim Tew: I mean they seem to be the real deal.
10:20
Jim Tew: They carry epipens.
10:22
Jim Tew: They're putting in a large garden and one, two, three, four
10:28
Jim Tew: Five, six, six colonies here.
10:32
Jim Tew: That would be eight, and that's a gracious plenty.
10:34
Jim Tew: Their garden is probably
10:37
Jim Tew: 120, maybe a hundred yards from me.
10:40
Jim Tew: But you know if a swarm goes, you know where it's gonna land.
10:43
Jim Tew: It'll go right to their property.
10:45
Jim Tew: So I've decided to cut my enthusiasm
10:51
Jim Tew: And just get two packages to play with.
10:54
Jim Tew: So I can complain about Queens and whatever like I did last season.
10:58
Jim Tew: And then I gotta do something with these bees.
11:00
Jim Tew: If whereas I thought they would be hammered dead in the winter, these bees are gonna be swarming their butts off here
11:06
Jim Tew: in just a short time.
11:07
Jim Tew: So one reason I didn't mind that honey being robbed out is I'd like to break those things apart and set up a couple of swarm traps just to see if anything will come in
11:17
Jim Tew: But I'll probably never do it.
11:19
Jim Tew: It's just me making plans.
11:20
Jim Tew: It's a beautiful day.
11:22
Jim Tew: I realized that I've had these nice quiet talks with you back here during the winter.
11:27
Jim Tew: If just me and the occasional bird.
11:31
Jim Tew: Well all that's going to change.
11:32
Jim Tew: The motors are already starting.
11:34
Jim Tew: Lawns are being rolled.
11:36
Jim Tew: This guy with my neighbor's out putting in his garden
11:40
Jim Tew: So we're going to be entering the the season of the moor here very soon.
11:45
Jim Tew: I'll never be able to have a quiet day again.
11:48
Jim Tew: Gotta deal with that.
11:50
Jim Tew: Everything looks all right out here, listeners.
11:52
Jim Tew: I mean it's other than the bees being the least bit testy, I did go put a veil on.
11:57
Jim Tew: They would obviously want a bite of me
12:01
Jim Tew: In fact they're kind of getting worked up a little bit, but I do have a veil on now.
12:05
Jim Tew: But it just I you know I guess that would be a a reason to try to restrain Robin because it seems to agitate the yard
12:13
Jim Tew: Why would that be?
12:15
Jim Tew: Since I've talked about and thought about robbing for untold numbers of hours.
12:21
Jim Tew: When one colony is being robbed out, are bees each checking each other's access.
12:28
Jim Tew: You know what I'm trying to ask?
12:30
Jim Tew: If one if one colony is being robbed
12:33
Jim Tew: Are all other colonies being checked to see which one is the right one?
12:40
Jim Tew: Otherwise, how would bees know to leave this colony right here, two feet from me?
12:46
Jim Tew: And then go 15 still 25 feet down the way there to where that empty colony is.
12:53
Jim Tew: I'm guessing it would be trial and error, but I can't confirm that for sure.
12:59
Jim Tew: Listen, I told you in the previous episode that I'm I'm right now I'm slip shod beekeeping, so don't do what I do.
13:07
Jim Tew: I'm
13:08
Jim Tew: I'm I'm not a young beekeeper anymore and I'm just enjoying life and I'm not doing things the way I know I should do.
13:15
Jim Tew: So just because you're listening to me, please keep in mind where I am in life.
13:20
Jim Tew: And I hope you're not there.
13:22
Jim Tew: I hope you still want to cooking colonies up and scrape frames and keep things in order.
13:30
Jim Tew: Because right now I've got a a lot more bees than I thought I would have and I need to to be do something with them.
13:37
Jim Tew: It's like is it like raising rabbits?
13:39
Jim Tew: I've never raised rabbits in my life, but it seems like
13:42
Jim Tew: You go from feast to famine.
13:44
Jim Tew: I thought I would have maybe one colony alive.
13:48
Jim Tew: And now if each of these things swarms once or twice, I want to have more bees than I know what to do with.
13:53
Jim Tew: So while I'm thinking I can control this.
13:56
Jim Tew: Beekeepers, do I dare say it?
14:01
Jim Tew: Am I so far gone, so long in the tooth?
14:07
Jim Tew: that the swarms can just go.
14:09
Jim Tew: Before Varroa some years there would be so many swarms that you couldn't find somebody to get them.
14:15
Jim Tew: Everybody had all they wanted.
14:18
Jim Tew: Those days are have long since been gone.
14:22
Jim Tew: So back in the early, late mid-70s, early eighties, sometimes it was
14:28
Jim Tew: It was actually tricky to find somebody who'd drop everything and go pick up a swarm and a heavy swarm year.
14:33
Jim Tew: Is that where I am?
14:35
Jim Tew: So when these colonies swarm, just wish them well.
14:39
Jim Tew: I could never do that though.
14:42
Jim Tew: If I would be the guy who'd be putting 'em in cardboard boxes or whatever
14:47
Jim Tew: I'm rattling on and on.
14:48
Jim Tew: It is so nice to be outside and to be with the bees and it not be freezing cold.
14:54
Jim Tew: And of course, tomorrow's gonna be back in the 30s, but today is beautiful and the bees are making the most of it
15:00
Jim Tew: I think I'm gonna stop at this point.
15:03
Jim Tew: What I think I've figured out so far is that the one colony had an odd death
15:09
Jim Tew: a small amount of dysentery, and all the bees dyed up on the inner cover.
15:15
Jim Tew: I don't know what that means.
15:18
Jim Tew: The other colony, I see no signs of of any kind of varroa bomb.
15:22
Jim Tew: There's you know if they had died of varroa, there'd be bees everywhere, with varroa on the on the you know the this insert that I had under the screen.
15:32
Jim Tew: I'm guessing that they had a defective queen too.
15:36
Jim Tew: And they lost the queen in the middle of the year and then waned or something.
15:41
Jim Tew: I d I don't know.
15:42
Jim Tew: I'm guessing.
15:43
Jim Tew: Because it doesn't look like it was Varroa, there's not signs of that.
15:47
Jim Tew: The other colonists, when I open the bottom pens
15:51
Jim Tew: I don't see a lot of Aurora drops there.
15:53
Jim Tew: That doesn't mean anything.
15:54
Jim Tew: I'm wonder how people ride me telling me how slip shod this is, but all I'm doing is just doing a quick check, a quick look on a nice day
16:05
Jim Tew: I hope you have a nice afternoon and I hope your bees are thriving and looking good too.
16:11
Jim Tew: I know parts of the country are really
16:13
Jim Tew: really hot right now and I just submitted an article to the Journal just the basics of providing water.
16:23
Jim Tew: That's an exciting routine.
16:26
Jim Tew: So those of you in having
16:28
Jim Tew: hot weather I hope your bees are surviving okay good too.
16:31
Jim Tew: I'm just putting a post-up picture in think you have an idea what happened.
16:35
Jim Tew: I hope I'll do my best to find very bad
16:44
Jim Tew: Until you buy until this time next week.