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sustainahillbilly

Problem with new hive

sustainahillbilly
12 years ago

I caught a swarm on Wednesday and put it into a new hive. I'm providing sugar water but they aren't taking it. The first couple days they did orientation flights and yesterday they were foraging heavily.

Last night we had a heavy rain.

This morning when I went out there were around 5 dying bees struggling around on the hive platform in front of the entrance. I knocked them down and discovered around 15 more dead bees under the hive along with a few more of the struggling ones.

The struggling ones are flopping around or laying on their backs moving their legs. They seem disoriented and partially immobile.

The rest of the hive looks healthy and is clustered together on frames (I haven't opened the hive yet because it is still somewhat cool out so I was looking at them through the entrance hole). Once it warmed up they started foraging. But I've seen a few more of the sick looking bees come out of the hive and fall off the platform since then.

Any ideas? Is this normal for a new swarm hive or a disease/pest?

Here's a video of it:

Here is a link that might be useful: Swarm Hive w/Problem Video on Youtube

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