Chuckov Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 Went up to do the weekly check last night and unfortunately our hive is full of wasps and there is not a bee in sight but a bunch of dead ones on the hive floor Looks like they have either absconded or are all dead. It was awful to see a zillion wasps scrambling all over the frames where only last week there were bees - that's how quickly it's happened. We have been queenless since the beginning of June, and when the girls didn't manage to rear another queen we combined our dwindling colony with another colony who were meant to be queenright but, on the day of combining, were unfortunately also queenless but with a couple of promising queen cells. Unfortunately I guess the dwindling numbers and queenlessness made them easy targets - and despite our best efforts the wasps won. They've robbed every single last drop of stores and our hive is now light as a feather.... A bit of a disappointing end to our first season's beekeeping but we are being supported by Warwick and Leamington BKA and as such we're hoping to pick up a stronger nuc instead of a slightly dodgy swarm and then we should be able to start again after the winter at full strength. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucky Mama Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 I am sorry to hear your news. I have a friend who recently lost 2 hives to wasps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckov Posted August 17, 2009 Author Share Posted August 17, 2009 Thank you - I guess it's all part of the great weave of mother nature!! I think it's one of the reasons also that our BKA support you for an entire cycle - you never quite know if it's going to go your way or not! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 Went up to do the weekly check last night and unfortunately our hive is full of wasps and there is not a bee in sight but a bunch of dead ones on the hive floor Looks like they have either absconded or are all dead. It was awful to see a zillion wasps scrambling all over the frames where only last week there were bees - that's how quickly it's happened. We have been queenless since the beginning of June, and when the girls didn't manage to rear another queen we combined our dwindling colony with another colony who were meant to be queenright but, on the day of combining, were unfortunately also queenless but with a couple of promising queen cells. Unfortunately I guess the dwindling numbers and queenlessness made them easy targets - and despite our best efforts the wasps won. They've robbed every single last drop of stores and our hive is now light as a feather.... A bit of a disappointing end to our first season's beekeeping but we are being supported by Warwick and Leamington BKA and as such we're hoping to pick up a stronger nuc instead of a slightly dodgy swarm and then we should be able to start again after the winter at full strength. Sorry to hear that - perhaps it's something to do with Warwickshire That's exactly the situation we found ourselves in.....plus a lot of waxmoth Glad you're getting help from Warwick and Leamington BKA - we moved from that group to Stratford BKA as we didn't get much help from W&L I've had no email access since Friday and we didn't go to the apiary meeting on Sunday - emails sorted today and found an email saying that the SBKA had some nucs for sale - at yesterdays meeting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 oh no.. is it too late Lesley, could you ring someone? If they had them yesterday and didn't sell them all, you could still get one? Sorry to hear about the wasps Chuckov, it's been worrying me since Lesley's post, as there were a lot hanging around the hive, but I did an inspection yesterday and mine were all fine. Hope you can get off to a good start next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 I'm still waiting to hear Olly - I emailed straight away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staffordmum Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Having sucessfully exterminated a wasp nest from one of our two beehive composters, I am concerned at this news ... Our garden, and house for that matter, are rife with wasps currently. What's going on? Rgds, Pat & Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenanne Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 I guess the same way it's been a good year for bumbles, it's been a good year for wasps, too! Wasps will rob hives particualrly succesfuly if the colony is weak. Poor you though, I hop you manage to get up and running again next year with a nuc or whatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
