Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[mikecoen]

wasps have killed my one or two hives each fall for 4 years. This year I saw them, closed the hole on my top bar hive and checked in two weeks to see if the bees might win this time. Instead, I opened the top and found no honey, no bees! Past years I saw that I lost the hive but still had a lot of honey. What do you think happened that the combs were emptied.

[Barbara]

Hi and welcome

Sorry to hear that you have lost so many colonies to wasps. Usually it is weak colonies which succumb to wasps and or/other bees robbing them. I get the impression your hives are not located at your home address. Having them where you can observe them on a daily basis will give you much more chance of helping them if/when there is a problem. Once wasps start getting into the hive, reducing the entrance is generally not enough to stop the rot as the colony have usually already been overrun and have given up trying to protect their stores.
You also often find that there is a small hole somewhere else other than the entrance where the wasps are getting in so that even if you completely block the entrance they can still rob it out. Observing the whole hive closely, you will see where wasps are coming and going. Usually it is due to panels warping or shrinking and a slight gap opening up. Obviously, blocking the entrance completely is detrimental to the bees, so should only be done for a couple of days and syrup provided during that time. It is not clear from your post whether you just reduced the entrance or completely closed it.

If you only visit your bees once a week or once a fortnight, the wasps can have overrun them by the time you become aware of the problem. If you keep them at home and watch them every day, you will usually see the wasps loitering around the entrance looking to get in and bees tussling with them and you have more chance of taking action before it is too late. Similarly, come swarming season, you will have more chance of knowing what is going on if you can observe them every day. You also learn a lot just from watching the entrance for 10 to 15mins each day.
The stores will all be gone because they have been robbed out. It would be more surprising if there were stores left once you have seen wasps getting into the hive because that will usually continue until there is nothing left.

If wasps are a regular problem then fitting a periscope entrance may help the bees to defend their hive better.
I hope that gives you some food for thought moving forward.

Best wishes

Barbara

[mikecoen]

Thanks for more knowledge on this. I will be able to do some things better. Last year I got 3 gallons of honey from two hives but the bees were gone. Those two hives were half a box of workers each and each with a queen. Both were near my gardens. I just caught it earlier. Must have another entrance as you suggested. I thought both hives were vigorous at mid summer. My gardens got pollinated well so this wasn't total failure. Thanks again!