Beehive Mystery at the Roanoke/Cashie River Center When the River Center opened in 2000, one of the most popular exhibits was our observation beehive. That original hive unfortunately did not survive our first winter, but we put in another hive in the spring of 2001, and amazingly that hive was able to sustain itself for the next 13 years. Then earlier this summer I began to notice there was not much activity in the hive, and before long I could tell it was basically dead. I was disappointed, not only because the hive exhibit is so popular, but also because as a beekeeper myself I am very aware of the hive collapse epidemic. So I began taking the exhibit apart to figure out what had happened. We knew the hive had swarmed in May – a natural process where the old queen leaves the hive and takes about half the bees with her. A new queen hatches inside the hive for the bees that remain, and genetic line stays strong. This had happened with our hive every year since 2001. After the swarm in May the bees did not rebuild their numbers, however, and then a few weeks ago I noticed that wax moths had invaded. At the first sight of wax moths you need to take the hive box apart and put it in a freezer to kill the larvae, otherwise they’ll destroy the hive structure. But once I had the exhibit opened up I found that the cells inside were overflowing with honey, which would not be the case if the hive had been dying. Only healthy hives put up lots of honey. So I realized this probably means the swarm in May was not the hive dividing – it was the entire hive leaving because the cells in the observation box were totally filled honey and there was no room to add brood cell for new bees. I am really glad to know that even though we lost our hive it was not because it died – it was because the hive did so well it just ran out of space. With fall coming soon it is not a good time to try and establish a new hive, so our observation beehive box will be empty for a while. But we are happy to report that the Cashie Beekeepers -- who meet here at the River Center each month -- are going to help us get another hive going next spring.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 20:40:02 +0000
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