Bee update: the bad, the good, and hive relocation adventures

An inspection of the four hives in our apiary yesterday yielded both good and bad results. One hive is doing very well, two are good, but the other hive has a case of something called sacbrood virus (SBV).

Classic signs of sacbrood virus. The caps on brood cells are discolored, slightly sunken, and often partially opened. The dead larva (a few of them marked with red arrows) are dark colored and partially dried into a banana shape.

The first hive I opened up for examination happened to be the SBV infected hive. I could tell something was wrong as soon as I examined the comb, but, not knowing what was wrong, I took a few photographs, closed the hive back up, and then checked my books for information. Fortunately, the symptoms (described in the photo caption above) were that of SBV and not American foulbrood disease. I'll outline the steps I took to deal with the SBV later in this post.

An example of a healthy comb from the second hive.

With the problem in the first hive identified I sterilized my hive tool and returned to the apiary to began examining the remaining hives. The next hive I looked at was in excellent condition. This hive had a large population and a healthy assortment of brood in various stages of development.

A clean bottom board on the second hive is another sign of a healthy colony. This is about as clean a hive as I've ever seen.

The third hive I examined, though not as strong as the second hive, was also doing well. Note that the cells on the left half of this comb are slightly larger (i.e. for rearing drones) than the cells on the right side (for rearing workers).

Another interesting feature of the third hive was an abundance of what is called "queen cups" along the edges of many of the combs. A closeup of a queen cup is visible in the center of this photograph. Though it's interesting to see a large number of queen cups in only this hive, it doesn't necessarily mean the colony is going to rear a new queen or swarm anytime soon. I will keep an eye on the queen cups though.

The forth and last hive was also doing well with lots of brood and newly laid eggs. In this photograph many capped cells indicate that a large batch of young bees will soon emerge from their cells.

The improvised stand for the diseased hive that will be relocated.

With the hive inspections completed, I next turned my attention to dealing with the diseased hive. Information I've read about beekeeping indicates that hives infected with SBV will usually resolve the issue themselves. In severe cases the hive should be requeened or relocated. As I'm not a proper judge on the severity of an SBV infection, I decided that it would be prudent to relocated the hive away from the other hives. To do that I needed to first build a hive stand (see above photo).

Mowing the tall grass in the new hive location with the brush cutter as seen from one of my surveillance cameras.

With the new hive stand completed I then needed to select a new location for the sick hive. Eventually I decided to place the hive within the fenced area of my water well and buried water storage tank. The electric fence should help protect the hive from any bears or curious bison.

Bringing in the hive stand.

Leveling the hive stand. I'm not sure why the surveillance camera placed a motion detection box around my crotch.

Two bait hives that will hopefully entice any swarms.

With the new hive site prepared there was nothing left to do but wait for dark to move the hive. While I waited I did some tractor maintenance work and also set out two new bait hives intended to attract any future unanticipated swarms.

A contrast enhanced evening image captured by one of my surveillance camera of me removing the diseased hive from the apiary.

The night move of the sick hive mostly went well. I lightly smoked the hive entrance holes to send the bees into a calming feeding frenzy, plugged the holes with sponges, and transferred the hive to the bed of my pickup without any issues. The slow careful drive to the new hive location also proceeded without any problems. However, as I pulled up to the new hive location and prepared to transfer the hive from the bed of the truck to its new stand the bison herd came excitedly galloping up to me with the big bull in the lead. They seemed to be in a fearless and curious mood and the fact that the big bull was in front meant that they were anticipating a bag of sweet feed. "Just my luck," I thought, as I pondered what to do next. I didn't trust them not to try to overturn the hive, now resting on the pickup's tailgate, in an effort to find out what the was inside. I once caught a bison in the act of trying to steel a bag of concrete mix out of the front-end loader bucket of my tractor while I was at the other end of the tractor augering a post hole. The bison saw the bag sitting there and probably thought there was sweet feed inside and made a grab at it with her mouth. I happened to be walked back to the front-end loader to retrieve the concrete mix when I caught her tugging on the bag. I shouted, she realized she was caught and sprinted back to the herd. The bull's approach to an unattended object is more direct and potentially more damaging. In the case of the concrete mix bag, the bull, if it had been him instead of the female, would have probably attempted to rip the bag open on the spot with his horns and, when I shouted, have calmly given me a look as if to say, "hey human, wanna give me a hand with this?"

With these experiences in my mind and the bull not more than ten feet from the hive I decided to take a chance and began walking boldly towards the bull clapping my hands loudly. The whole time I remained ready to spring into the bed of the truck if the ploy failed, but it worked and the entire herd ran away to a new location about 30 feet away. As the herd milled about, I took advantage of the confusion and transfered the hive from the truck tailgate to its new stand within the protection of it's electrified fence.