Carroll County Beekeepers Association Inc.

UPDATE: Bear Branch Observation Hive Devastation

Good News! The Queen was observed on October 11th laying and the hive seems to be getting back to normal. A close eye will be kept on this observation hive over the next few weeks. So if you stop by Bear Branch and check it out, let us know what you observe

October 10th:  Bear Branch Observation Hive Devastation – On a routine inspection of the Bear Branch Apiary and Observation Hive, beekeepers Rich and Roxane found the observation hive had suffered a catastrophic event.

According to Dawn, the nature center manager, on Friday, October 8th there was a huge die-off. By Sunday the majority of the hive had died. The corpses were piled up almost as high as the deep frame at the bottom of the hive. There were dead bees in the tunnel to enter/exit the hive and piled in the outside screen. When you stepped into the room the smell was overpowering. Dawn had covered the hive with newspaper so this was not visible to the patrons of the nature center.

The hive was removed and the inspection began. Specimens were collected, and will be sent to the Bee Research Laboratory (BRL), or as it is known through out the world “Beltsville Bee Lab”. What  brood there was, was dead and the bees were removing the pupa (see photos). The queen was found but she was not laying and had not for the last week. The last time a beekeeper had checked in on this hive was on October 2nd, just one week before. Everything was in order and the queen was observed laying. 

All the frames were removed and the entire observation hive was cleaned. A deep frame of brood and a deep frame of honey was taken from the apiary, and added. New frames with drawn out comb filled in the remaining two slots. As you might imagine there were bees everywhere and passersby were asked to give the bees a wide berth, even though they were calm considering what they had been through. A good majority of the bees were shepherded back to the entrance/exit and seem to have found their way in.

Time will tell if the hive can recover. The bigger mystery is what caused the issue? Did someone leave the shades up? Did someone spray something into the hive? Was there some other culprit not visible responsible? Hopefully the BRL can answer this question for us.

Pictures are below; Video on YouTube

September 19th: Rich Boger along with a group of beekeepers and on-lookers,  inspected the Bear Branch Apiary. These bees are feeding on sugar water and despite an abundance of golden rod are sucking it down quickly. All the feeders were dry and feed was added within the next day. The colony closest to the tree was queen-less and a new queen was introduced. (We will be checking in on her the weekend of October 9th). There was a small amount of honey in a super which was removed and extracted. The resulting honey was all sold at the Westminster Fall Fest!

Photos courtesy of William Hemelt:

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July 4th: A weekend for celebrating our independence. This year two of our beekeepers took time out of the weekend celebration. Check out how a feral hive was saved from a tree dump. The 8 foot sycamore tree was hollowed out and packed with honeybees. Check out the video on YouTube!