Holistic Approach to Colony Colapse Disorder

6/1/16-Internship: Today Dr. Parrott, Dr. Skyrm and I went through the apiary. We checked three hives to see whether a queen was present. We found out that hive number 2, 3 and10 were queen less. They had many queen cells that the worker bees had made. It was interesting to see the development of the hive when no queen was present. The bees seemed to be more restless and moved more than if a queen was present. The hives that were queen less were weaker than a hive with a queen. The sound the bees made was a more anxious buzzing. Dr. Skyrm went through one of the UMass hives and while going through it she stressed the importance of keeping a hive clean. This is to make sure that no pathogens enter the hive as well as reduces the stress of the other bees. Looking at the frames one of the best looking ones had capped honey, nectar, larva and white beeswax. it was such a beautiful sight to see all these substances the bees created in such an orderly way. While taking care of hive number 10, hive 11 started swarming. At first bees started to come out of the hive slowly and then they flooded out flying in a circular pattern overhead. It looked like a tornado was passing through the agriculture learning center not only were the bees spinning, they were zigzagging across the field to their location. We went after the swarm to see where it would land and if we could capture it. We found the swarm high in a tree approximately 50 feet up. Later I tried to climb the tree but only made it about 30 feet up before realizing I could not reach the swarm.