Doing Well. Not Great.

First opportunity to open the hives in eight days. Over the last week, there has been high winds, daily afternoon thunderstorms, below freezing nights, barely 50 degree days, and a snow storm that dumped eight inches and melted off the next day. These bees have been through a lot for one week. The queens, now marked with blue dots, are still working hard. There are signs that brood is hatching (Maybees? ha ha).

Doris is strong and numbers seem to be increasing. There is fresh eggs, larvae, capped brood, and open cells where bees have emerged. This hive will likely have to carry all the weight this season.

Deloris did not fare the cold snap well. She started out with slightly fewer bee numbers. Now there are so few, I am concerned she may not recover at all.

 This frame shows a few spots of feces. There is dysentery streaking on the front of the hive. The bottom also has signs of dysentery.

You can see there is barely enough bees to cover the comb that is already built. There is brood on only three sides of two frames.

They have pollen. There were foragers moving in and out of the hive, just not many. They ran out of sugar water and did not have any honey stored. Starvation may have been a key factor in their demise over the last week.

There seems to be more dead bees in the bottom screen than there were on the frames. That is a heartbreaking sight to see.

I will need to check the dead for signs of nosema diseases. I am also going to dust them with sugar to help out with some of these mites. I moved the pollen patty directly over the brood. I am also going to add a feeder directly over them so they do not have to break their cluster to get to the sugar water.

Forecast is calling for more afternoon thunderstorms for the next ten days, and probably for weeks to come. The freezing temperatures have subsided for now.

I will be out again today to do some more cleanup in Delores' hive.

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