BBKA Forum

Well it is that time of the year again where the weather is border line for the bees to fly..a lot get caught short on returning and end up chilled and unable to make it to the hive entrance once the sun is going down..I finished work today and looked on the nuc entrances ..I must of collected roughly 200 bees from the debris netting that i use across the front of the hive stand to stop them undershooting the landing board ..these bees from four different nucs where placed in a take away type container and warmed over a low gas ring..once they where mobile again i slid the crown board over on my weak nuc and popped them on the top bars ..the warmed up bees quickly walked down into the cluster..
Am i sad or does anyone else warm and rescue chilled bees..

Nice idea - and a novelty when your honey tastes slightly of sweet & sour sauce?!

Sauted with caraway seed in light olive oil ,served on tahini ,wholemeal toast with chopped roasted almonds.

And a nice little chianti.
fe fe fe fe fe fe

I guess you few are brutal where bees are concerned..me is not..however my freezer is always full of nice meat to eat courtesy of means..but i still have a soft spot for fallen allies..

Knowing my luck I would gather them up and they would all fly up in my kitchen, causing another rift in the domestic time-space continuum (i.e. "what have you done now? And why on earth are you doing it in here?..).

I think its a lovely thing to do however. I probably don't get to see them as much, as I don't have the landing netting. They probably land nearby and then either recover or fall into the grass. It's certainly noticeable on the (now pretty rare) occasions I get to see snow on the ground for a day or more. I have read that bumblebees have enough energy to fly for about 40 minutes until they must refuel, hence why you often see them static and lethargic on the ground, even though otherwise undamaged. I once saw an apparently undamaged huge Southern Hawker dragonfly whizz in and land. It stayed motionless for ages and eventually I tried to pick it up. It was dead as the proverbial Dodo. Weird.

As the grass dies back in winter it is always a bit sobering to also see the pile of ex-winter bees that have been cleared out by their compatriots and I have many times feared the worst, only to find the remainder are absolutely fine later on.

My apologies
I didn't have my correct glasses on for my previous reply.
That recipe was for Chilli Beans.
But I will try it with bees and report back.

Sounded delicious mind, Alfred!

I sometimes see a few cold bees on a hive. They warm up if you put them on your hand; sometimes I pop them in a hive, however if you put them by the entrance, they then seem to want to walk out - so maybe they have already decided that they are finished.

When i see them in this amount i know they are chilled and not quite ready to expire..even more so once warmed up and buzzing around inside the take away tub..when the lid is popped off some instantly take flight and quickly enter the hive where they belong..the other not so active ones on this occasion got tipped on the top bars..

Its devastating when you find hundreds if not thousands of bees with huge baskets of pollen chilled and clumped on the ground.
Its not unusual for temps to drop by as much as 10C in minutes in my area in the Spring. Last week we had 2 inches of snow, one of my apiaries less than 2 miles away was completely clear and 7C warmer.
On a morning the sun comes up and warms the air and the bees go foraging, that warm air on the land rises and drags cold air in from the sea, by 11.00am its freezing but the bees have already gone out. As they return they get chilled and end up covering trees, fence posts, the ground and hive stands in 100's in clumps trying to stay warm.
I see pics of this on the internet and beekeepers jumping to conclusions they have been poisoned when the die in masses on the floor. Its not poison, its cold. if you grab a big handful and pop them in a jar and stick them on top of your smoker they are flying in no time. God knows how many are lost in the fields further out.
The best solution I have found is to open the entrance fully wide to let them have unrestricted access so they can get in doors as soon as possible.
This picture was April 2019.