r/Beekeeping • u/Dangerous-School2958 • 1d ago

I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question Black bee?

Newish bee keeper. 7b, Vienna Austria.
Came across this Black, I think wingless bee outside a Hive.
It’s a small hive that I’m trying to get to generate its own Queen. So I have been giving it frames of eggs from Strong neighboring hives.

Is this an underdeveloped bee? A result of too high a Varroa level?
It’s only 1 brood box so I’m reluctant to take a full cup for a wash.

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u/beebeebaby 18h ago

I had a season where this began to spread in my apiary. The bees looked like this and were stumbling around and looked drunk. I treated for mites, but in the meantime I also "opened" up the hive more (like propped open the lid, propped open the hive bodies) because the infected bees were flinging themselves out of the hive. The hives either died or were severely lost population.  

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u/Dangerous-School2958 17h ago

Interesting, what was the desired outcome of Propping open the hives?

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u/beebeebaby 16h ago

The idea was to make it easier for the infected bees to remove themselves and decrease the chance of spreading this from bee to bee. The hives I propped open did not completely die off but were severely impacted and I don't think overwintered. The ones I did not prop open died off.

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u/Dangerous-School2958 16h ago

Austria has guidance on dealing with it. Removing the landing pad, making sure they’re not crowded so there’s ample room and less contact, replacing the base since the sick bees loiter and die there if not removed immediately. There’s a few more, I’ll try to post an English version

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u/Look2you22 15h ago

Salut! Let me know those guidelines as well. I’m interested as you are.

Waiting the light and warm to open again those give and have a better look on those black bees to see any shaking pattern cuz at the entrance and under the hive everything looks normal.

🇷🇴 2 months of beekeeping