I guess the queen must have died some time ago and they have been dwindling but I have been very busy and not paying good enough attention. I haven't looked in the brood box in several months. I can imagine someone would look in this bee-less hive and say COLONY COLLAPSE - but I know it's beekeeper neglect.
When I pulled the frame only these few bees were on it and there was one other frame with about as many. The hive was infested with wax moth junk (see below). I decided to try to rescue the few bees left when I got home tonight by combining them with another hive, but there were only a few bees left when I got home, so I did nothing.
I also opened Proteus Bee to find absolutely no bees. When I moved it last weekend, I probably was moving a hive full of robbing bees.
So now I have two hives and will be feeding them like mad between now and fall.
The only good news was that the hive had a SHB trap in it that was filled with dead SHBs.
Why didn't the bees in your empty hives attempt to make another queen? Was there any evidence of queen cells? Do you think there was a disease factor? Sorry about your hives. I enjoy your blog and have recommended it to many people
ReplyDeleteI haven't examined the frames - didn't have time today. We are in a dearth and we have a shortage of 17 inches of rainfall this summer - I expect that contributed. I did see a queen cell in this hive earlier in the summer, but I expect they tried to make a queen and failed....or she never returned from mating....or something else. I'll report when I really examine the frames. Mostly what I saw at first glance were wax moth worms and cocoons.
ReplyDeleteHello Linda - sorry to hear about your loss. I to enjoy your blog and pop in most days !
ReplyDeleteI have started posting again on my blog, my bees out and about after a fairly wet winter.