Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[semiautonomous]

I'm not sure if this is something to be concerned about or just old bees wearing out naturally. Over the last few days I've started seeing some bees crawling around on the ground around my TBH's and today there are much more of them as well as quite a few dead ones. I cant see any mites on them or sines of wing deformity but as a new beekeeper I'd like some input to hopefully put my mind at rest or tell me what i need to do if anything.

Here's a quick vid I just filmed today.
http://youtu.be/MzlLhgNVS8A

Thanks in advance.

[Swing Swang]

Can't comment on the bees, but you've got a nice sound recording of a chiff chaff.

[Dexter's shed]

I couldn't make out the ones at start of video, but the ones at the end looked like drones, so perhaps kicked out as not needed anymore

[semiautonomous]

[Dexter's shed]

[andy pearce]

As I am two or three miles from you as the crow flies I can tell you I have huge drone ejection...piles of them in front of some hives...more than normal. I also think it is low nectar flow...yours and my bees are lucky to be so close to the river where there are good moisture levels to keep them ticking over til it rains.
A

[MikeRobinson]

FYI: It gets pretty dry here during the mid-summer, so I keep a metal five-gallon chicken-waterer sitting on top one of the hives, with the trough (very!! important!!) completely packed full of rounded river-stones (and large gravels) from a garden supply store. The stones give the bees ... which cannot swim ... something to land on as they sip water from the very small spaces between the stones. They retard evaporation so the water lasts quite a long time.

Changing the water is easy: bring a bucket of water with you, scoop and dump the gravels into the bucket, remove the lid, refill the container, then replace the gravels from the bucket. I do this every few days, so the bees never have to deal with a shortage of fresh drinking water. When it's dry, they hit it a lot. When it has rained, they ignore it.

My entire bee-yard, such as it is, is underneath a grove of trees in the middle of a pasture, well-protected from the sun. It's many degrees cooler under there than in the direct sun. (Great place to hang out and watch the bees.)

[semiautonomous]

Sorry its taken a while to get back on this, I've been having trouble getting this site to open properly recently.

Anyway thanks again for the replies, seem like they were mostly drones after all. I guess the dry weather had limited the food coming in and the pore things weren't getting fed. Thanks Andy, good to know its not only me. Now we have had a bit of rain things seem to be back to normal.

Thanks for the tip MikeRobinson. I have actually got a half barrel mini pond that is totally choked with water forget-me-not right next to the hives so they shouldn't have to much trouble getting water.

[GrayGuy]