The first decent day for weeks, so time for a good look through the hives and nucs. All the queens have been released by their workers and are already laying, that was the good news. I arrived at the Surfleet apiary at about mid day and although the air was full of bees I noticed one hive was not flying. On opening the hive it was obvious it had been poisoned.
I have had a hive killed off before like this and it is a dreadful sight, thousands of dead bees on the floor of the hive. But I noticed there were a few workers still alive, staggering around, and I saw the queen alive, just. So i quickly put a clean hive complete with drawn frames in place, and shook all the live bees in, sprayed them with sugar water, and placed a feed on top. Perhaps 80% of a full hive, dead, its a very upsetting experience. Not to mention having to burn a near full super of honey and frames with capped brood.
One hour later the bees were flying and bringing in pollen, life goes on.
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