Pollen outside the hive

[Alan_A]

Hi,

This afternoon I noticed a lot of pollen on the ground in front of the hive. The bees are behaving normally, the colony is healthy and quite strong and currently has 5 frames of brood with stores in 5 frames and an empty super below the brood box. I have just finished treating with Apiguard and yesterday gave a feed of 2:1 sugar syrup. I'm in my second year of beekeeping and and would like to know if anyone can give a reason for the pollen. Thanks

[Nigel Pringle]

Have you added mouse guards?

[Alan_A]

Thanks for your reply Nigel,
No, I haven't fitted mouse guards but my WBC hive has sliders at the entrance that are closed down to about two bee spaces. The pollen on the ground is just pin head size balls straight from the bee, there's no wax or other debris so I don't think its a mouse problem but I will check before I shut them up for the winter.

[Patrick]

Hi Alan

The reference to mouse guards was maybe more about the fact that some types can "brush off" pollen loads from workers as they push past the restricted entrances, rather than a suspicion of nefarious mouse activity.

I don't know about your restricted slider entrance but it may be doing the same thing - maybe the easiest way to check is having a quiet watch of the entrance around midday when they are actively flying sometime over the weekend and see if any loads are brushed off. You could use the same opportunity to look out for hawking Asian Hornets, it being AH awareness week - as well it being a very pleasant way to while away a moment.

If you have a restricted slider entrance in place to prevent wasp incursions - bravo! - I would personally see that objective as a priority, so maybe consider if there is a way to still restrict the entrance by an alternative means but retain the wasp defence aspect - maybe a simple scrap top bar of a frame cut down and shoved over 75% of the extent of the entrance would do it?

[Alan_A]

Thanks Patrick, that makes a lot of sense.

As a new beekeeper I'm trying to understand my bees behaviour and why they do what they do. It's a shame to see them losing pollen that they have worked so hard to collect and I wanted to know what was happening.

I had to close the entrance down a few weeks ago due to a bad case of robbing, it was a sustained attack that lasted for three days and they lost five full frames of stores. Fortunately they regained control and have been building up stores again and the colony is looking really good.

It's always crowded round the entrance and I'm sure you are right about the pollen being brushed off as they try to scramble through so I've decided to open up the entrance just a bit to see if that helps and I'll be keeping a close eye on them. As for hornets, I photographed one yesterday at a National Trust property but it turned out to be of the European variety but I have the Ap on my phone and I'm ready for them.

[Nigel Pringle]

I had to close the entrance down a few weeks ago due to a bad case of robbing, it was a sustained attack that lasted for three days and they lost five full frames of stores. Fortunately they regained control and have been building up stores again and the colony is looking really good.

Well done on spotting robbing and even more well done sorting it out.
As Patrick alludes, many mouse guards knock pollen off the bees as they scramble through them. I don't use them myself...am currently at 2 mouse occupations per 400 or so hive winters.
However, mice may be more problematic in different areas plus we have a cat
Always worth experimenting.

[Alan_A]

Many thanks Nigel,

The replies from you and Patrick were very helpful. There was a further pollen loss his morning but since opening up the entrance slightly it seems to have stopped so fingers crossed it looks like we're ok.

The hive that was loosing the pollen is standing on paving slabs so it was easy to spot. I wonder how many hives that are on gravel or grass are experiencing the same problem unnoticed and whether the amount of pollen lost could be detrimental to the health of the colony, probably not but something that I will be aware of from now on.

[Patrick]

Nigel gets the plaudits for spotting that one.

I use closed down entrances all year and similarly don’t suffer from mice in active hives (super stacks are a different matter).

I agree with you Alan on the potential issue on colonies, if you do use mouse guards probably best not to put on too soon or leave on later than necessary in spring as you point out.