Hive Autopsy Begins

Saturday, I began the autopsy of Bee Glad... and Metpropolis. I was planning on continuing my examination of both hives on Sundy but the weather did not cooperate.

Bee Glad... probably died because of what I suspected originally: starvation in the midst of abundance. The top two deeps were jam-packed with honey with no empty comb cells for the cluster to move up through. (Below is pictured a typical frame)


The cluster was in the bottom box. Many of these bees were found dead, head-first in cells. There was only one place where "spotting" might indicate a Nosema problem.

I collected some bees for microscopic examination.

Metpropolis' autopsy does not seem as definitive. Again there was plenty of untouched honey and pollen in the hive. However, despite my best efforts in the fall, the bees still moved the honey to both sides of the brood nest. This probably happened because I moved the top bars of honey around a little too early in fall, giving the bees enough time to rearrange things during the warm spell in late October. Because the honey was located on both sides, the winter cluster had become too diffused and separated throughout the brood nest, and when extreme cold occurred the bees couldn't keep the cluster temperature warm enough.


Two other things are worth mentioning about Metpropolis. First, the hive still had an usually high percentage of drones in it when it died. Whether this is an indication of some underlying problem is a question that needs further research. Second, I was able to find the queen. (pictured below) She looks healthy but I will do a closer examination of her body in the future.

Week 16: Today in Metpropolis

It didn't look like I'd be able to inspect this morning. It was cloudy and threatening. By noon, however, the weather was sunny, hot and humid and the bees were out flying. This week the bees were bringing in a dark, almost turquoise pollen.

I began with Bee Glad... but quit in a bit. They were somewhat aggressive today and while I did not get stung I was really not focused enough to deal with that. I did get to scrape off some burr comb they built under the propolis trap. The comb was sticky, full of nectar, which made me sticky as well. Earlier in the week, I'd put an entrance reducer on this hive to give them a bit of an edge against the wasps trying to enter. I placed a shallow super on today.

I had more success in my inspection of Metpropolis. The residents seem to be doing just fine. The queen (whether the original or one raised by the bees in this hive) looks like she is healthy and productive and the bees are bringing in plenty of honey. I've been worried about this hive getting too crowded so today I took two bars of almost entirely filled with capped honey out and added an empty bar and the follower board to one end. (I had taken the follower boards out to make room for two more bars.) The two capped bars I put in storage for possible use in the fall wrap up.

The supersedure cells seem empty, atleast they are not yet capped. I think they were built as a safety measure.

Metpropolis Inspection

I inspected Metpropolis yesterday and moved a few combs around. The hive has drawn up three bars almost entirely of capped honey. Two others are almost there. The rest of the hive has bars with different proportions of honey, capped brood, and pollen. The three supersedure cells are capped. I pulled one comb filled with capped drone brood for inspection and found a few mites on the larvae. The hives were brimming with workers and a good portion of drones. I couldn't find the queen in all of it however. The bees were fairly gentle considering some of the manipulations I made.

Either the queen has slowed down her egg laying, which is entirely possible at this time of the year, or she is deficient, as the queen cells seem to indicate, because there was only a scant proportion of capped worker brood, and I had difficulty seeing any earlier stages of worker larvae. The bees don't act like they're queenless, but the supersedure cells indicate that they seem to have some problem with the current queen. I will monitor Metpropolis carefully.