Subject: Re: Six super winter!?

From: [email-masked] (Durk Ellison)
Date: Sun, 5 Feb 1995 14:04:41 GMT

Hi Jordan,

30-Jan-95 00:08, Jordan Schwartz: wrote to All:
        Subject: Re: Six super winter!?

 JS> I spent a while going through my book trying to figure out what did them
 JS> in before I settled in on simple cold.  I had apistan in there, so I
 JS> don't think this did it, and there didn't seem to be any signs of
 JS> foulbrood or the other common killers.  In any case, with the hives
right
 JS>
 JS> next to each other, I couldn't imagine one having something that the
 JS> other didn't...Thanks for the warning though: its a good point.

 JS> Jordan L.K. Schwartz       !  University of Washington
 JS> [email-masked]      !  Department of Psychology
 JS> http://weber.u.washington.edu/~jlks/jordan.html

 JS> -!- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.11
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 It would be interesting if you could give a more detailed account
 of what you saw when you opened and inspected the dead hive.

 Bees killed by Varroa, AFB and EFB are rather easy to detect.
 AFB and EFB by the smell and Varroa by searching the debris.

��Ŀ
   ����> Best regards from, Durk Ellison

--- Terminate 1.51/Pro
 * Origin: Durk Ellison        BeeNet     Finland (240:2358/100)

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From: [email-masked] (Jordan Schwartz)
Date: 17 Feb 1995 04:55:24 GMT

> AFB and EFB by the smell and Varroa by searching the debris.

The first thing I noticed upon opening the hives was virtually 
unmistakable lack of bees.  This was my first tip that the hive was 
dead.  There was no scent (which would have indicated foulbrood), nor 
were the dead larval bees (of which there were few) ropey.  Instead, they 
appeared normal, just not moving.  In fact, it appeared that a handful of 
bees were emerging from their cells when they died (i.e. they were half 
out, half in, fully developed).  There was no visible sign of disease, 
except that a few of the pollen cells had a white coating over the top (I 
assume this is fungus of some sort normally cleared out by the bees).  
Maybe two cells had what looked like waxmoth in them, but I assume that 
this sprang up because the hive was so weak, not the other way around.  
There was a pile of dead bees on the bottom board, but given that the 
whole hive was represented there, it was clear that it was weak when they 
died (or else many left to die).  

There were heavy stores of honey (thus the start of this thread: what do 
I do with it, since I don't have an extractor, and its not worth my while 
to extract only two supers worth), so they didn't starve.

Jordan L.K. Schwartz       !  University of Washington
[email-masked]      !  Department of Psychology
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~jlks/jordan.html