Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[ladysif]

Okay - about 3-4 weeks ago I opened up the hives.

#1 was on the weak side - noticed a few hive beetle. Cleaned out any larvae I saw and put in beetle traps. But there was brood, honey and pollen stored.

#2 was thriving quite well except for pesky ants. put some peppermint oil on topbars and roof corners. Capped honey & pollen, brood - doing well.

Today - I went out to give them more sugar water
#1 bees are listless. There is no brood, no honey and no pollen stores. There are still signs of a few beetles and some wax moths - but minimal. There is a pile of dead bees in the bottom on the screen. I removed all the comb with any signs of moth damage or crooked. Down to 4 combs.

#2 - thriving but.... no brood, no capped honey and minimal pollen stores. there was some uncapped honey - maybe one comb but it wasn't full. Some signs of beetles, but just a few adults. No wax moths. No larvae. I removed a couple of empty combs - no honey no pollen, but left about 8-10 of them covered in bees.

One of my books mentions filling empty comb with sugar water - I'm thinking of trying this and putting feeders inside the hive. They aren't paying much attention to the jar outside - takes them about 2 weeks to empty.
Any suggestions???