Bee Troubles Grow

Today, another neighbor called me concerned about her bees. She saw foreign bees fighting with hers at the entrance to their hive trying to keep them out, and wasps were entering unfettered. Given the trouble that has been going around since the fire, she was duly concerned.

I contacted a bee keeper up in Central Valley to ask advice. Check for the queen, they said. But hurry, you may still have time, but the season is getting late. So I headed over with my suit to help her search the hive for the queen. What we found was not good.

Very few bees inside. There were also many foreign invaders. Wasps, unfamiliar bees, and ants. We spent about an hour checking frame by frame, then cleaning out manually all of the creatures that were inside that were not supposed to be there. Then we reassembled the hive. Nope. No queen. We came up with a strategy to remove the entrance feeders and go with internal feeders to discourage robbing. Also we would try to re-queen the colony. And we put the smallest entrance reducer we had to make the hive more defensible. I was still concerned just because of the small numbers of bees that seemed to be left, but right now, this seems the most we can do at this point in the year.

We actually sat for quite some time, at the front of the hive, watching who enters and leaves and the mortal combat at the entrance. The robbers would come, sometimes two, three at a time, then one or two bees would engage. They would embrace, with stingers pointed at each other, hoping to get a fatal sting. Sometimes they would roll off the entrance, still embracing, and fall into the grass. Occasionally, one would land a sting, the other going still. And often, during such a skirmish, an opportunistic wasp would slip by the battling guards, and enter the hive. Sad, but fascinating.

I returned to check my hives as well. Unfortunately, the weak hive I had reported a couple of days ago had failed completely. Nobody home but the robbers. All of the brood that had been there, had perished. I cleaned all of this out, and blocked up the entrance to no more critters would get inside. I didn't want other bees to go inside either in case of disease.

Checking two other hives, one seemed normal, I found the queen milling about (on the last frame, of course!). The other I couldn't find her. While that hive seemed much much stronger than my neighbors, I plan to implement the same strategy with internal feeder, smaller entrance, and re-queen. Tomorrow I'll check some of the others.

Such depressing work cleaning out a dead hive. Kind of like wandering around in someone's house after they abandon it. And so quiet compared to the usually hum of happy bees tending their young. I still cannot get over the silence. I really hope to sort this out. Tomorrow I'll make a few calls and seek more advice.

Later in the evening, tending my basil, I had to be careful when pinching off the flowers not to accidentally squish a bee. Despite the troubles, the garden is still full of bees from the other hives. It brings hope and resolve to see that life goes on. The bees go on. Pollenation goes on. I only hope I can learn how to keep all of the hives harmoniously in balance in the coming seasons.