Three dead ducks, no blood, no bite marks

[desertdarlene]

Oh how sad, but now you know what happened. It's possible that your ducks wandered by the beehive and may have bumped it or began snapping at the bees or maybe there was some spilled honey around and they went after it. I would fence your ducks away from the hives. It sounds like they didn't recognize what was going on until it was too late.

 

[JHaller]

That is absolutely insane... do you have a lot of dead bees? Don't bees die when they sting?

Yes they do.... I went looking for dead bees and, sure enough, I found about 80 in the duck tub. I did not find any near the carcasses, as I expected.

I will be following this and waiting to hear. Gosh that is so sad and awful.

I was planning to set a beehive near my duck pen...not now.

Oh, please don't let me discourage you! It is wonderful to have all these critters, I'm looking for information on what a safe distance would be. I'm wondering if there is a predicable range from hive where attacks occur. You may still be able to it.

I see you live in Texas. Could have your bees become Africanized?

Absolutely a possibility, but I live in the city where Africanized bees are less of an issue. I'm conversing with other beekeepers, may have a better answer for you soon.

 

[desertdarlene]

While Africanized bees are more sensitive, they're not always as trigger-happy as some people think. People in Africa have been living and harvesting honey from African bees for centuries. They're a bit more unpredictable, though, and when they attack, they attack with a much larger force than European bees and will chase you longer distances. I've heard that most bees in the southern U.S. are Africanized, but have mellowed out when they started interbreeding with European bees.

If you find these bees are chronically angry/aggressive, then you may want to think about destroying this hive even if they're not Africanized. You probably don't want this aggressiveness to breed.

 

[Krazyquilts]

How horrible! I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[DuckPoop]

Sorry for your loss.

Are the beehives located where the ducks can get to them?

Even if no direct access, the bees can get defensive when they detect the scent of crushed bees. My best guess to what happened is that the ducks started to eat bees and the hive detected the threat and attacked. Even if one duck was the culprit in eating some bees, the others may have gone over to eat the bees attacking the first duck. Once they began eating bees, or even just got too close, the bees attacked anything in the area to defend their hive. It is also possible that a guard bee detected a threat other than the ducks, and the ducks became innocent victims.

I have a couple of bee hives and just started keeping ducks. Saw this post while searching and wanted to share my thoughts.

 

[Waddlein]

Poor ducks! That's so sad

 

[JHaller]

Any chance they got stung by the bees? Do you see any bee stings under their feathers?

It looks like feathers are an excellent defense against stings, especially with the layer of down on a duck. However, I got to wondering about stings UNDER the wings, where the ducks would have tried to hide their heads. I thawed one of the carcasses to take a look.

I found a few stingers in the under-wing down where the bees could not quite reach the skin. There were just a few more stings along the wing bones where the feathers are short and the down is shallow. I also noticed a few stingers among the feathers, falling out as I spread the wings. So, a lot of honeybees died without adding to the injuries. And, a few blows were delivered while the birds tried to protect their heads.

 

[Ashleymarie529]

It looks like feathers are an excellent defense against stings, especially with the layer of down on a duck. However, I got to wondering about stings UNDER the wings, where the ducks would have tried to hide their heads. I thawed one of the carcasses to take a look.

I found a few stingers in the under-wing down where the bees could not quite reach the skin. There were just a few more stings along the wing bones where the feathers are short and the down is shallow. I also noticed a few stingers among the feathers, falling out as I spread the wings. So, a lot of honeybees died without adding to the injuries. And, a few blows were delivered while the birds tried to protect their heads.

Poor babies...

 

[JHaller]

Sorry for your loss.

Are the beehives located where the ducks can get to them?

Even if no direct access, the bees can get defensive when they detect the scent of crushed bees. My best guess to what happened is that the ducks started to eat bees and the hive detected the threat and attacked. Even if one duck was the culprit in eating some bees, the others may have gone over to eat the bees attacking the first duck. Once they began eating bees, or even just got too close, the bees attacked anything in the area to defend their hive. It is also possible that a guard bee detected a threat other than the ducks, and the ducks became innocent victims.

I have a couple of bee hives and just started keeping ducks. Saw this post while searching and wanted to share my thoughts.

Thanks, your description is right-on for honey bees.

What is becoming clear is that we beekeepers need to be alert and take action quickly when hives get aggressive. A month ago I opened this hive and just removing the lid sent the hive into a tizzy! I have learned this week that when bees freak out over a lid opening, it's a pretty sure sign that African genetics are now very present. I closed the lid and postponed my hive inspection, but the girls were still coming after me four hours later.... attacking me in the front yard, not just the backyard near the hive....and that should have been my second clue. My best move at the time would have been to fence off the hive area until I could fully explore the situation and watch for other aggressive behaviour.

My new queen should arrive tomorrow. I will fence in a larger area around the hives and leave it in place for about 3 months while the mean bees age out and die off. I'm prepared to relocate the hive if necessary. I'm asking my neighbors to let me know if they notice bothersome bees. The bees are now being fed on a strict schedule, which I think has calmed them down a lot. And I'm visiting the beeyard as often as I can during the day. Things have been quiet for a couple days now.

 

[JHaller]

Not for the squeamish: These photos illustrate bee-stung duck carcasses. When I first discovered the massacre, I did not recognize that the bumps were bee stings. I assumed it was dirt or something left by other bugs. Bright light and a pair of tweezers helped confirm the cause of death.

In the first photo, the bumps along the drake's bill and around his eyes and nostrils are the stingers. As you can see there are more than 30 of these bumps. When tweezed out, these bumps separated into two or more stingers. I think the color is due to fluid from the sting wound, but I'm not sure about that.

The other side of his head looked about the same.



Bee stingers accumulated on a paper towel. The material in the lighted area was taken from a single WH duck.



The underside of the drake's bill is soft enough for bee to attack successfully. Over 30 stings here:



The drake's foot took at least eight stings before he hunkered down in defense:



My WH duck had some bare spots on her head from rough mating, and I made the bare spot worse by pulling feathers to look for stingers. She had over 50 stings in this area. The bees were able to get through some of the head feathers and reach the skin.



I hope these photos are informative enough to compensate for the sad/gross content.