Why Bees Turn Black and Stop Leaving the Hive to Gather Honey, and How to Respond

When it comes to beekeeping, we will surely encounter all kinds of problems when we first start keeping bees. For friends with experience, these can be handled easily enough, but for those without beekeeping experience, they can leave you at a complete loss. For example, a common issue in beekeeping: why do bees turn black and stop leaving the hive to gather honey? How should we respond?

1. Why do bees turn black?

1. Black bee disease

Black bee disease is a bee disease caused by viral infection. Affected bees become paralyzed, lose all their body hair, and appear dark and shiny. It generally requires standardized treatment.

On one hand, replace the old hive with a clean new one, and disinfect the hive frequently, about once every 6 days. The method is to take about 10 grams of sublimed sulfur powder and evenly sprinkle it on the frame top bars, the hive entrance and the box entrance.

On the other hand, spray the combs with medication: add 200,000 units of neomycin or anti-bee-virus agent to 1 kg of syrup, shake well and spray onto the bee combs, once every 2 days, for 2 to 3 consecutive sprays.

2. Bees chilled by cold

It is still unclear what causes this, but in a chilled bee colony you will indeed find that the bees' bodies turn black. This phenomenon does not require medication; we only need to keep the bees warm, and it will resolve itself.

3. Colony loses its queen

This one is fairly obvious, and many friends know about it. If a colony loses its queen, the pheromone by which the queen controls the development of the workers' ovaries disappears, causing the workers' ovaries to develop. Generally, if there is no queen cell available for raising a new queen after the colony loses its queen, the workers will start laying eggs about 12 days after the colony loses its queen.

Once workers start laying eggs in a colony, the actual number of bees in the colony does not increase, because worker-laid eggs take a certain amount of time to emerge. This means the whole colony is essentially just one batch of bees, and these bees are constantly dwindling: old workers die, young workers quickly become old workers, and drones are relatively black. This creates the appearance that the whole colony is black. The later the stage, the blacker it looks, because after the drones emerge there are few or no workers left in the colony, and at that point we see the entire colony looking black.

4. Too many drones

This generally happens before swarming. Because the colony needs to produce a new queen before swarming, the workers will rear a batch of drones for the new queen to mate with before the new queen emerges. This causes a sudden increase in the number of drones in the colony in a short period, making it look to us as though the bees in the colony have turned black.

For this phenomenon we should observe carefully. If the new queen in the colony has already emerged and mated, but a large number of drones still remain in the colony, we should take care to eliminate the drones, because in a normal colony, once the queen has mated, the drones are of no use and only consume honey, which is a burden both for us and for the workers.

5. The queen turning black means the queen is old

Actually, the queen can turn black too. If the queen in a colony turns black, it means the queen is old. We should take care to replace such a queen, or let the colony supersede her naturally.

2. Why do bees stop leaving the hive to gather honey? How should we respond?

1. New colony

Our country has abundant wild bee resources, so many beekeepers in rural areas of our country get their bees mainly by catching them in the mountains. But because they lack beekeeping experience, they often use hives with strange odors, fail to feed the bees, and so on, so the bees simply do not want to settle down, and thus do not gather honey. Even if our methods are correct, newly hived bees still need some time to adjust; at the very least we have to let the queen hold a little meeting with the colony, right?

So it is normal for newly hived bees not to gather honey for the first few days, but generally they will be back to normal within no more than a week, so there is no need to worry in this case. But note that this is under the condition that our methods are correct, that is, we have chosen a good environment for the bees, provided good living conditions, and given the bees plenty of supplementary feed.

2. Summering

In the hot summer, temperatures in some areas may be on the high side, and the bees cannot stand it outside either, so naturally they will not leave the hive to gather honey; instead, some bees fan their wings at the hive entrance to cool things down.

In this situation we should not be anxious either. We just need to make sure the bees have enough feed and take good measures against heat and pests, then wait for the temperature to drop and the bees will naturally resume gathering honey.

3. No nectar sources outside

Many of us only pay attention to whether the bees are gathering honey, but often overlook the nectar source situation outside. If we cannot see any nectar sources, the bees naturally will not find them either. At such times, even if the bees leave the hive they cannot gather any honey, so naturally they will not leave.

In this situation we should promptly feed the bees supplementary feed, and wait for the nectar flow to come; the bees will naturally resume gathering honey.

4. Honey in the hive used up

We all know bees eat honey, but people eat honey too. If we people eat up all the honey and there is no nectar source outside, and we do not know to feed the bees reward feed, the bees' enthusiasm for gathering honey will naturally decline, and they may very well abscond.

In this situation, when harvesting honey we should leave enough honey for the bees. Do not assume that just because it is not cold outside there must be a nectar source; many places have a nectar dearth in summer. If we really want to eat up all the honey, at least we should feed the bees some sugar water.

5. Signs before absconding

This situation also occurs easily. When a colony encounters danger, or the honey in the colony is exhausted, or the environment changes so severely that it is unsuitable for the bees to survive, the bees will abscond. Before absconding, the bees also will not gather honey, and will hold honey in their mouths; the queen stops laying eggs, and the workers will eat or carry away the larvae that have not yet emerged.

This situation is generally caused by human actions or by the colony suffering a serious threat. In this case we should inspect promptly, find the cause that triggered the bees to abscond, and solve the problem at its root.