kaihoka

During the summer I will occasionally look in at the apiaries around me , to see if all looks normal, I have contact details if something is really not right. However once they take their supers off I keep well away . Bees can get really nasty , they know they have been robbed .

Do you use wood or plastic frames or a mix .

I am very lucky to catch a swarm here . They head for the highest rata normally . Can not see don using 5 ladders to catch one of my swarms .

That is true . But when I read on the forum about all the experiences people have with cow boy operations I am grateful we have decent operators around us . I wish they did swarm more . I check their sites regularly . I think cause they do not arrive till after kiwi fruit pollination swarming is nearly over .

She was starting to lay to many drones and her brood pattern was patchy

True , but it wasnt disease it was my bad management .

I think despite the difficult environmental conditions I have here I do not have all the disease problems other beeks have . There is only ever me and two other beeks here . Both of those guys are are experienced professional operations.

I could have looked earlier but I wanted to wait till the migrants had gone in case when I opened the hive it got robbed . But I think it was my hive that was doing the robbing . What do you do with a hive thats an incorrigible robber .?

No I think they starved like at @frazzledfozzle said . The queen wasnt very good , a bit of a drone layer , and they were constantly being robbed. There were no stores in the hive .

My bees had no problem with the strips . The queen has layed under them . No dead bees , even in my strong hive where there was a concern it might be too much .

@Kiwi Bee i think that is historical footage. i have used a scythe , they have to be very sharp. we have one in our shed. it was retired when we got the brush cutter.

i also think how well i would do as a gardener with decent soil. i have a love/hate relationship with the place lately. unless you hit them and its blade sharpening time again.

@nikki watts it was not so much that nothing flowered but we had constant strong winds when it did . We actually had a good kanuka and manuka flowering. I am surrounded by migrants over summer and some years I do not think there is enough forage . These are pollination hives . I am wondering if when hives numbers drop in next couple of years they will need to come this far . Honestly I do not think it will make much difference . When the stars align the bees can collect honey for hundreds of hives and when they don't any hive will struggle . I went through my other hives today . The dead hive had dead bees inside but also eggs and brood . Another hive needed feeding and had chewed up some of one OA strip . I put a top feeder with colored syrup on that hive . The next hive had lots of fresh nectar , which makes me think think it is the robber hive . The OA strips were untouched . My strongest hive still had honey in the 3/4 box on top . The OA strips were untouched . There was brood , eggs etc under the strips . All active hives had eggs , brood and drones .

.are you going to have to hand many of your guns in .?

You could be right It could have been stealthily robbed. I put OA strips in on the 20th march and there was some honey in there then. I have three hives up near the house that are ok . Now the migrant hives are gone I will open up my hives and look . I expected them to have taken the hives a couple of weeks ago . The weather has been great , no wind , warm sunny bees very active . And no flow . I have taken no honey from my hives this yr .