The Red Colony hasn't survived. The Q. was my favourite but quite old. I should have replaced her but in July she was laying well. The bees tried supersedure but the virgin didn't mate and they were left queenless. I tried to introduce a young mated Q (white) but by now it was getting too late in the season for the brood to build up - so not enough bees to cluster successfully.
When I discovered the few dead bees with plenty of stores I closed up the hive to prevent robbing. Yesterday, I removed all hive parts, brood comb (empty) and super(quite heavy) and took them into the workshop for a thorough inspection. Looking for signs of disease - found none - not even Nosema splodges! So - what to do?
Blowtorch all parts - into every corner after scraping off propolis. There may be spores hidden in cracks so I must be thorough! All outer parts of this WBC hive to be painted. Once this hive is cleaned and reassembled it's ready to be reused.
Every colony will be put in a cleaned hive - once the weather warms up to around 15C. QBuzzzzzz
No comments:
Post a Comment