brooksbeefarm
01-23-2009, 09:36 PM
Went to check my northern hives (20) with my 83 year old buddy.It was 67 degrees thurs. we seen bees coming and going in all of them,but when we checked for stores 4 were deadouts? Like the others I posted about. Last oct. they were booming hives with good winter stores. Each hive was fed 1 gal. of fumagillin B and were powder sugar dusted once a week for 4 weeks and mouse gards installed. The deadouts still had good stores and all 4 hives had a dead cluster about the size of your hand on both sides of one frame,under the cluster were about 30 to 50 bees that didn't make it out of their cells but the caps had been removed?No more than50 to 75 dead bees on the bottom board,no sign of mite infestation and their were no bees with their heads buried in the cells.Probably no more than 500 dead bees total in either hive.What could of happened to all the thousands of bees that were there last Oct.Their were no dead bees on the ground in front of any of them either? Anyone else seeing this? Jack