My Beehive Has Failed - Failed Beehive Split - How To Rescue a Starving Colony - Bees are Robbing!

[@honeyhousehold9480]

Whoa! Who’d a thought it?!😱 SO hope this wee bunch survive - AND go on to thrive! Thanks for your honesty & showing us what’s been occurring.. Really hope they have t strength to get through this…

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Thanks HH. We learn more from what goes wrong that what goes right hey! The switch has just flicked over to robbing in this apiary. Going to remove honey tomorrow morning and check up on this colony and move it if needs be

[@benwong4918]

Fab video! Really enjoyed this one. Did you go in on the 29th? Desperate to find out what happens......

[@Chungsta]

Come on Laurence….! Work your magic 👍

[@citrumpet1]

Lol. Good idea to move that colony since any foragers would be in a bad state anyways. Seems the surprises never end when keeping bees :) Still its very strange they didn't eat the fondant given their condition. Thanks for sharing with your humble approach and honesty. We all have issues eventually but some are too proud to admit it.

[@russellsamson1828]

Best of luck. Hope this works!!!

[@benjamindejonge3624]

Interesting story

[@bluelab5019]

This is probably one of my favourite videos. Will.be so interested to see what happens next

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Thanks BlueLab

[@veragiles981]

Thanks so much for showing this! I really appreciate all the explanations and info you give us. This is my 5th year keeping bees, but as I only usually start each year with 2 hives it gives me a tiny amount of experience compared to a professional beek like yourself. Nice to know that things don't always go according to plan!

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Thanks Vera 😀

[@markmurphy8303]

Hi Lawrence, well that was not on the cards like yourself I’m really surprised that queen is still alive, I’ve had a similar situation with one of my nucs but mine was superseded and totally robbed out luckily I’ve managed to get them thriving by moving them into my garden apiary and I’ve got to say they have made themselves a lovely big dark queen so really late in the season she is laying up the frames like a champ. Let’s hope you can get your queen and colony thriving for the coming winter all the best Lawrence mate will be waiting with baited breath for the next instalment of your cracking series.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Cheers Mark! Glad to hear you managed to save your one!

[@won2winit]

Showing the errors gives newbee's a better understanding that even beeks with more experience can suffer issues as every nuc /hive are individual entites and don't read the same books, watch the same videos or attend the same training we do. My first two years with caught swarms both failed in winter and this could be the year I call myself a beekeeper.....a bought nuc expanded to a full hive plus two splits in nucs gives me more chances as well as learning from all available resources

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yep. We are all on a learning curve until we either give up or think we know it all!

[@louiseibbotson588]

🤞they manage to survive.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Fingers crossed!

[@eastsussexbeesandwildlife5801]

Very interesting, thanks, look forward to the update. Is it a difficult year for nucs?, my two seemed week and just not thriving so have amalgamated them back with original (stronger) colonies. All seem good now, but certainly getting through stores, just had a box of bako delivered, so will put this on. Hope the queen survives, she deserves a second chance. Thanks again. Peter

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Cheers Peter. Went to check today and they have stripped them back again and the queen was dead. Gutted! :(

[@eastsussexbeesandwildlife5801]

​@@BlackMountainHoney You do more than most for promoting bees, but sadly the occasional down cant be avoided, thanks for sharing.

[@mudassirgire1479]

Grate video! Real life scenario. If you shared the bees in another colony, would they not fight? I've always come across the newspaper method for uniting.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yes. Newspaper method is great for combines. I should have definitely moved them out of the apiary once robbing was apparent though!

[@bhill7358]

I bet they make a come back now.

[@hootervillehoneybees8664]

You ever make video using those lyson mating hives ?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Nope..I sold them as I just didn't have the time to put them to good use! 😪 😔

[@adambray1305]

awesome

[@chrisallen4952]

Hi why did you not move it to another apiary as you seem to have a few sites to choose from?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

In hindsight, I should have moved them. Would have given them half a chance. I underestimated how bad the robbing situation was.

[@AdsDem0n]

The cost of failure is learning as they say!

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Very true! Small price to pay! 😀

[@won2winit]

But there's always round 2 in this case.......stay tuned

[@brianmorgan8950]

What about spraying the bees with sugar syrup? Would that give them a boost?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

The problem is that the robbing bees are just in so quick to take whatever they can, the bees can't form a cohesive unit to ward them off. Should have bit the bullet and moved them to another apiary. Only real way to suppress it

[@brianmorgan8950]

@@BlackMountainHoney We all can learn from mistakes. I have done a split and kept in the same apiary (as I only have one) without robbing. It must have been the time of the year with the end of the nectar flow which encouraged the robbing. Something which I will now be weary of. Sorry to read that the colony didn't make it.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

@@brianmorgan8950 oh yes. Definitely. We make lots of splits in the same apiary but this was a combination of weaker hive, robbing bees and injured queen that all led to a bad situation. Moving the colony would have given them half a chance especially at that time of year.

[@Chungsta]

I didn’t think about the bees being split etc maybe i wasn’t paying enough attention’ I was just focusing on the queen…! I was surprised that you left the bees in the 14 by 12, I was expecting you to transfer them all into a nuc dew to there size… but I guess looking at everything around you’ it was the most convenient way forward…! I was mega surprised to see the queen was still alive… I can’t believe the bees hadn’t eaten the fondant…. You would of thought that with nothing in the hive to eat’ that the bees would of been on that food.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yep. It's very strange the fondant remained. I thought even the robbing bees would have made good use of it. Bees do odd things though hey?!

[@corncap6150]

Hello do you have any updates on this?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Unfortunately, they were robbed out within the next 48 hours. Should have over them away 😞

[@corncap6150]

I am currently experiencing this problem🥺. I dont know what to do. I did a split 2 days ago and saw them being robbed today. I closed the entrance and planning to leave it closed for 48 hours. Do you have any advice for me?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

@@corncap6150 Yes. Move them to over 3 miles away. Reduce the entrance to a single bee space. Add a frame of capped stores. Remove the feeders.

[@corncap6150]

Unfortunately i dont have anywhere to place it other than my apiary. I already reduced the entrance. I think i should wait till the capped brood hatched so that their numbers grow

[@BlackMountainHoney]

@@corncap6150 Yes. If you can't move them to another apiary - place the closed up hive in the shade and leave closed for 24-48 hrs and then reopen in a new location. Chances are the robbers will return but its the best you can do.

[@beebeer]

Did you say she had a broken leg? 😂😂😂