RIP Queen B and The Beebettes

 

 

Sadly we have to report the demise of our lovely Queen B and the Beebettes.

The difference in behaviour between the Beebettes and the G Bees has been more and more noticeable and in the recent spell of mild weather the G Bees were crowding on the landing board of their hive both sunbathing and busily taking off and landing with pollen.

Meanwhile there continued to be no signs of life in the Beebettes’ hive so, with trepidation, we took advantage of the weather to take off the roof of the hive and bang on the side of the brood chamber.  This produced no buzz, no reaction so we took off the crown board.  At this point it became obvious that the fondant (a just in case extra food supply) was untouched.   Likewise the pollen patty.    Then we took out the end frame which was still undrawn foundation.  Progressing the frame by frame through the brood chamber we found the Beebettes hadn’t built up any more than when we last inspected the hive back in September.   There were frames heavy with stores including those around the empty brood cells.   We found a few dead bees emerging from cells and it was a disheartening business.

 

We immediately got out all the information we could find about bee diseases to see whether our bees had succumbed to some disease that we should report to the bee inspectors but it appeared not.  We conferred with more experienced beekeepers too.

When we dismantled the hive we found dead bees covering the mesh varroa floor.  We inspected these carefully for signs of disease like deformed wing virus but they all appeared to be normal little bees.

 

Reviewing our hive records we saw Queen B every time we inspected the Beebettes except at the last inspection before we put on varroa treatment and commenced Autumn feeding.    We assumed she was there somewhere and we just missed her, not least because Queen G always hides but now we wonder.   By October we were recording changed behaviour by the Beebettes on their landing board which we attributed to the time of year.  We also observed wasps entering the hive late in the Autumn when the Beebettes would already have been clustering together.  Our hunch, therefore, is that the Beebettes went in to the Winter without a Queen, there weren't enough of them to defend themselves from robbing wasps and the colony died out.