yIkes!

Just received this from Gabriela. I thought maybe someone reading this might be able to offer some advice?

We keep bees and have 2 hives at our house. We strapped these down for Hurricane Ike. As Houston took a direct hit so did the bees. Post IKE the first and older hive is being attacked by wild bees and the golden hue of the landing platform has turned black, they are severely stressed. We have cleared off the bamboo leaves off the hive tops.

2 days ago I suited up and filmed some close ups and observed that the bees are getting highly inspected inside the opening gap. It is peculiar – some bees entering are lying down subserviently like a dog, literally, the other bees touching and inspecting the dormant bee

lifting it’s legs and wings, underside. After the inspected bee it leaves slowly and does not fly off as expected.

Hive 2 (5″ apart from Hive 1 and a different breed) has remained quiet for 3 days after the storm, most bees lying very still in the corner entrance, only moving slowly as huddled. Sadly they now seem to be under attack. there is frantic activity around both hives. We had just harvested a week before the storm.

Any ideas or suggestions or members of your site that have had their bees through a hurricane? We think we may lose the hives. If wild ones take over, are they bees that can be kept and harvested?

Carlisle Vandervoort (cc’d above) is the actual beekeeper but is away for a few days.

We would appreciate your feedback.

With best regards Gabriela.

Anyone have any advice?