Update 11 March 2010

RE the fridge-type mould in the yellow hive's deep supers, sent the photos to a guru, and learned that that's normal in the circumstances. BUT! Could be that the brood cells with a perforated cap indicates American Foul Brood (AFB), but since we have no "stringing/threading" of the cell-contents, the bee-lab chap emphatically asserted that this isn't AFB. I sent off a sample to be tested, just to be safe. The 18 frames can be given to the red hive to clean up, and the raised comb given to the new bees.

Now, during the next month or so, the YBeek and I have decisions to make--options are:

(1) buy a new nuke, and give the new nuke the cleaned foundation combs for the two deep supers, and probably some brood-filled comb exchanged between the two hives;

(2) split the red hive, and give a new queen to the queenless half (should be the lower half of the two deeps, but must find the queen to make sure); or

(3) split the hive and the bees in the queenless half will make a new queen. This is the least preferable option, since last year we didn't much like the temperament of the red hive, and if we split this, we are guaranteeing permanence.

R.I.P. Yellow Hive :-(

The "yellow hive" succumbed sometime during in the past month. Lots of poop dots on the snow outside their hive a month ago... then nothing.

The "red hive" however, is gearing up for spring. During the past several warm, sunny days the contrast between the hives was so extreme that today I was sure enough to take the yellow hive apart, and, yes, a sad sight of "winter kill". White refrigerator-type mould as seen in these pictures, and some brood cells--but no "rope" typical of American Foul Brood (AFB)--although one was sent to the bee-lab for AFB testing, nevertheless. These photos show the empty cells; we also saw dead bees upended into the cells, having died while licking out the last traces of food, with honey-full cells only inches away--this is typical of winter death--they don't seem to be able to explore even inches beyond their basket-ball shaped cluster, once things begin to decline. We also found nine heavy frames full of honey from the outsides of the cluster--this is also typical. This hive may have simply lost its queen.

The red hive is enjoying a pan of 1:1 sugar syrup, and also exploring the contents of the compost heap, and doubtless will be delighted when the pond has finished melting and presents a sufficient supply of water in their preferred location.

Across the road northwards, at the YBeek's house, 200 bees are in the corn. We think these must be from the eight or so hives on the south side of Jerseyville Road, across from the Jerseyville Baptist Church and a couple of hundred yards east. Our bees are too busy with their sugar syrup and the compost heap and cleaning up the frames from the yellow hive to bother to go across the road, and we can see with the naked eye that they don't have a bee-line headed there. All their attention is focussed southwards.

Spring formula (1:1) syrup

The red hive is active, and bees were hanging around the compost heap which is 10 feet in front of the hives, so placed a pan of cedar clippings onto which I poured a couple of cups of 1:1 spring-formula sugar syrup, which the bees are very enthusiastically cosuming. The yellow hive is almost completely inactive: we may have lost them, in recent weeks.