Beekeeper’s Notes July 2015

Published on: 3 Jul, 2015
Updated on: 3 Jul, 2015

Bees Dying By The Hundred!

In the latest in a series of Hugh Coakley’s Beekeeper’s Notes, he writes about one of the disease problems that bee colonies face.

American scientists recently reported that planet Earth’s third mass extinction phase is on us now. That is serious stuff.

When a beekeeping friend called to say that there were hundreds of dead bees in front of his hive, it did make me think. It must be really bad if even leafy Surrey is involved.

Dead bees litter the ground in front of the hive.

He said that some were even dying as they landed on the hive.

It raised lots of questions. Could it be that the bees were foraging in an area that had been sprayed by insecticide?

Was it down to disease? There were no obvious signs on the outside. No unpleasant smell, no tell-tale specks and smears of bee poo – only dead and dying bees.

Possibly, starvation in the June gap? There can be a shortage of pollen and nectar-rich plants in the gap between spring and summer. This can hit a colony badly if they have nothing to survive on.

Others we asked suggested that possibly the poor old bees were just clapped out after working their socks off during the spring.

A strong hive with bees busy on every frame.

When we looked in the hive, we were expecting to see carnage but that was not the case. There were plenty of bees as you can see from the photo above.No sign of dead bees inside, no starvation or obvious disease. The queen was laying eggs like a factory load of battery chickens. The frames in the hive were covered in ‘wall to wall’ developing brood.

The prolific queen moving about the hive. She has a yellow spot painted on her thorax to make her easier to spot.

The photo below shows that queen had laid in virtually every available location and had completely covered the frame. It looked like a strong, healthy hive.

A healthy looking frame. A bee larvae is developing inside each hexagonal cell. The queen can lay 1,500 to 2,000 eggs a day.

So what was happening?

My colleague called in the local government bee inspector who straight away recognised the problem. He said that he had seen a number of hives in the region similarly suffering and he thought that it was a bee virus. In particular, he named it as chronic bee paralysis virus which is quite rare, but the inspector felt that it was getting more frequent.

Luckily, there was no treatment required as the hive is strong and, cross fingers, they will get over it.

So no mass extinction in Guildford yet – but it does make you think.