# I give up



## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

Well I rarely give up without a fight but there is no way to fight this that I know of. As some of you may know I started out with 40 nucs this spring with the plan to raise nucs. I cannot get queens back in my boxes when they fly to mate. There is a predator that is making a hobby of eating my queens. Other beekeepers have said it might be dragon flies. I am near a huge bottom area so that is entirely possible. I have witnessed mocking birds jumping up and catching bees as well.

I have a couple of hives that have raised 3 batches of queen cells and they are still queenless. Not a single virgin queen has made it back to the hive. I estimate that I have lost 40 or so. I am so frustrated I just want to scream!

I'm going to sell all but 5 or 6 as that is all I care about managing for honey production.


----------



## Darren (May 10, 2002)

That's tough. Nature can be brutal. I was part of a statewide dragonfly study here that involved catching them and sending them in to a state agency to prepare an atlas. It wasn't difficult to figure out where dragonflies were and where they weren't. 

IIRC don't you have enough land to try relocating some of the hives?

Something cool: I saw my first swarm last week in a pine tree. Honey bees are rare here, so it was a thrill. Sorry to say it was a very small swarm.


----------



## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

Almost all of my acreage is bottom land.


----------



## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

I was just talking about this with a student of mine and I remembered wondering why there were no bees on my place before I brought in my hives. Early this spring there were several wild fruit trees covered in blooms, but no bees on them. None at all. I have been actively looking for bees all over my property and there simply were none before I got my nucs.

Something else I have noticed is that I am losing drones quickly. There were quite a few in the nucs I bought and I haven't been cutting out drone comb because I was raising bees with the intention of queen rearing. The number of drones in my colonies is not what it should be. I assume they are pretty easy to catch for whatever is getting my bees. Also I don't have nearly the populations in most of my hives that I should have with my queens laying heavily.


----------



## Darren (May 10, 2002)

Interesting mystery. There's a book that covers the diet of wildlife. I'm not sure if birds were covered. I know turkeys were because I was looking for data on plantings that would support them. The material relied heavily on the examination of stomach contents. Birds are also territorial. Maybe setting up bird houses to attract specific types of birds might provide competition for any birds that eat other insects along with bees.

IIRC drones hang around the hive. Could cheap bird netting be used to make it difficult for birds to access the hives?


----------



## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

Whatever it is is getting the bees when they are flying. That is when I am losing the queens....on their mating flight. Though I do have some kind of a native bumble bee looking thing that actually ran me off of an open hive when I was working them one day and darted in. Not sure what it was after. Possibly larvae.


----------



## Darren (May 10, 2002)

It makes sense that's when the queens are disappearing. Not sure that explains the drones disappearing. Now I'm curious. I've thought about bees. Never got a round tuit.


----------



## Buffy in Dallas (May 10, 2002)

Maybe you can find someone with land that will let you raise queens there. I have 14 acres up near Bonham, Tx that I wouldn't mind someone putting hives on. I'm not sure how close you are to there though.


----------



## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

Thanks for the offer. I'm near Tyler so that is a bit too far. 

I am going to be moving some of my hives to friends places but I'm not going to try to raise queens in that situation. I may do a few walk away splits from time to time. It is just such a royal pain not to have all of my hives here handy.


----------



## k9 (Feb 6, 2008)

Every other insect ya can't get rid of, but Honeybees ya can't keep around, it's a sad sign of the times.


----------



## beegrowing (Apr 1, 2014)

TxMex said:


> Well I rarely give up without a fight but there is no way to fight this that I know of. As some of you may know I started out with 40 nucs this spring with the plan to raise nucs. I cannot get queens back in my boxes when they fly to mate. There is a predator that is making a hobby of eating my queens. Other beekeepers have said it might be dragon flies. I am near a huge bottom area so that is entirely possible. I have witnessed mocking birds jumping up and catching bees as well.
> 
> I have a couple of hives that have raised 3 batches of queen cells and they are still queenless. Not a single virgin queen has made it back to the hive. I estimate that I have lost 40 or so. I am so frustrated I just want to scream!
> 
> I'm going to sell all but 5 or 6 as that is all I care about managing for honey production.


You are such a great and helpful beek here I'm sorry to read of the nucs not working this year for you.Seems like Such a good idea for selling and having upkeep $$$ for the others.

I'm glad you wrote this post because I never considered the dragonflies. We have half a dozen varieties here and they migrate in to gardens like mine(often wet) from a river a couple of miles away. I never knew they were a real threat. Queens are probably slower than the workers too being bigger and juicier,huh? Good prey....Ugh!

I'm sure you read my thread and that I got a bought queen and hived her despite good advice to put her in a separate nuc and wait another couple of weeks for the hive's possible virgin to get going. Turned out that hive I expected to handily make a queen,needed her! I'm wondering if there is shortage of what dragonflies usually eat! We never know what is happening "out there" for sure,do we? 

Last year a swarmed hive of mine had no problem raising a new queen and she was a good 'un! Now I've got a crowded hive that Isn't swarming and I don't know what's up with them either! That might be plenty turning to dearth here....but I see a blackberry flow..... Live and watch I guess.....and Hopefully Learn!


----------



## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

I may not be dead in the water yet. I'm going to move about 10 hives over to a friends place and see if I can raise queens there. I'll still do the splits here at my place. It will mean a lot more equipment but it may be doable. 

Speaking of which.....dang this is getting expensive!!!!


----------



## WildPrGardens (Mar 8, 2014)

Sorry to hear about this.

Dragon flies, Purple Martens and swallows are rough on bees as well as others.

Maybe there are no DCA's nearby and the virgins are having to fly too great of distances.

Perhaps set up drone yards in direction away from swampland.

Also make sure the nucs or hives are very distinctly marked so no possible confusion about which is home.

Goodluck


----------

