Please, please help.

[Beeksquad]

Hello, I'm in my fifth year of beekeeping and I've only lost one hive until this year, the hive I lost was my fault, the queen had died or been killed and i didnt notice, I saw queen cells and cut every one out (Rookie mistake)! This year I've lost five of my hives, no dead bees just empty hives. I live in North Carolina and the temperature had been in the 100 degree range for about two weeks straight. Out of the hives lost One was a five year old hive, two were two year old hives and two were first year hives. The most recent was a first year hive that appeared to be doing the best out of my five first year hives, Sunday I witnessed 1000's of bees outside the hive but they werent bearding they were spread out all over the front of the hive (brood chamber and the deep box) Which wasnt unlike this hive they never seemed to do the typical bearding like my other hives, Well Monday afternoon this hive was totally empty. From the checks Ive done the mites arent at an alarming level, I do have shb but never see more than one or two per inspection. I have had swarms this year and witnessed four of them in all honesty I do think my second year hives did just swarm and swarm until there wasnt any left but as for the five year old hive and the first year hives they all appeared very strong then totally empty with very few dead bees left inside. I love my bees and feel like I'm failing them. I wanted to add I run ten frame equiptment, two deeps and when the time is right two medium supers, with nine peirco plastic frames.

[Greg Lowe]

How many hives do you have left to work with?

[Beeksquad]

How many hives do you have left to work with?

I have four hives left all first year hives and also I should have mentioned two of the hives that were lost have been destroyed by wax moths.

[Greg Lowe]

It kind of sounds like the 1000's of bees you saw were robbing out a weaker hive, which may have subsequently absconded. As for the moths, when the hives are empty, not a big surprise. You may want to open up the other empties to sunlight or look at using moth crystals to keep them from wax moth infestation unless you can use them to split a stronger hive and try to build them back up.

It all depends upon your goals, feeding budget, and nectar flow.

Out of curiosity, what kind of bees are you running in your hives (particularly the ones that swarmed)? How old were your queens in the ones you lost? Did they have ample stores? Is there a good nectar flow on? Just trying to piece some things together.

[danmcm]

Sorry to hear of the your situation. Wax moths destroyed your empty hive? when was the last check on those hives, sounds like they were empty for sometime or the population was knocked back before it went empty that info might help guess at a cause. It is hot here as well and if you are as dry as we are not a great time to rebuild. Clean equipment, store, para moth, cry, take deep breath, work with what you have left and push to grow in spring. Not sure thats of much help you probably came to same conclusions. Might gather some local info besides weather, are any near by farms spraying or raising GM crops they haven't before? Do you have near by ponds that are being sprayed for mosquitos? I would try to find some possible answers to prevent this from happening again you may never know what actually caused this but you'll feel better putting together a deferential diagnosis.

Daniel
Maryville, Tn

[Beeksquad]

Thanks Greg! The swarming bees were Italians and the queens were on their second year, They had decent stores and im pretty sure the nectar flow has dried up in this area.

[Beeksquad]

Thanks Daniel! There are a lot of crops being planted around my area and in the fields across the street they planted corn for the first time in the five years ive lived here.

[beemandan]

From the checks Ive done the mites arent at an alarming level,

What checks did you do? When? And what kind of numbers did you get? And in the five years what treatments have you done?

[honeyshack]

What were your mite levels. Not alarming can mean so many things to so many people. Quantifiying is the best way so we can help you diagnose this

[Beeksquad]

For my mite check I use a sticky board and leave it there for 3 days, last check was june14th the highest number came from a 2nd year hive with 29 mites. I try not to use any chemical treatments but last fall I did use checkmite+ strips in the five hives I had last year three of them are ones that are gone this year and the other two seem to be doing fine atm.

[danmcm]

..

[danmcm]

Thanks Daniel! There are a lot of crops being planted around my area and in the fields across the street they planted corn for the first time in the five years ive lived here.

Most corn grown in the US (80%) is now transgenic BT Round Up Ready varieties... I have read alot of studies on this and the research currently showing that the larva weights, life span, and bee size are un effected by the BT RUR pollen from these crops however a few recent studies show that honey bees take longer to find forage and in a seperate study the bees took longer to identify artificial flowers of a certain type as having rewards when compared to non-BT RUR pollen feed bees. So it does have an effect on bees but the effect is currently viewed as very mild. I personally wouldn't plant the stuff it doesn't fit my paradigm and next year will have country gentleman or golden bantam heirloom varieties of corn in the garden.

New transgenic crops are hitting the market each year they usually cost more than the non-GM crops and the new ones out cost more than what was out last year which may no longer be available... check with the farmers they will usually complain about the cost of that new variety.

Neonicotinoid are being implicated in CCD if those corn fields are getting hit with a insectacide that maybe the problem. If the are being watered the may have it in the water supply which means even if they are getting the pollen they maybe getting it directly from the irrigation system.

Good luck finding some answers

Daniel
Maryville, TN

[Beeksquad]

Through these recent problems i'm having, i'm realising I don't know as much about beekeeping as I thought I did but I guess thats a good thing. I just came in from the hives and one thing I couldnt help but notice in the first year hive that just left this week there was over 30 shb on the inner cover. My still living hives looked as normal and I saw only one shb out of the three i quickly inspected due to weather, Do the shb take up resident in an empty hive? I do have some ground drench I bought and never used last year for shb maybe that will break up the cycle? I'm leaning towards this as the reason my bees are leaving, I dont know a lot about shb as I've never had a problem with them before but i wil be googling tonight! if you know anything about how much is too much shb or best ways you've treated them please let me know! Ty everyone.

[WXBEE]

Just tossing this out there... might be an opportunity to consider going to the Warre hive set up and try giving a different approach a go. Replace with Langs, but toss in a few Warre's and see how you do?... Don't know how treatment heavy you have been, or how much drawn comb you use from year to year. Might be worth thinking outside of the box, as it were, for a rebuilding effort.

There are arguments on both sides, but from a fellow Tar Heel at the other end of the state, what can it hurt? Let the bees, be the bees... Google Warre, any number of sites to inform on this approach.

Heat wave busted AMEN!

[Beeksquad]

Just tossing this out there... might be an opportunity to consider going to the Warre hive set up and try giving a different approach a go. Replace with Langs, but toss in a few Warre's and see how you do?... Don't know how treatment heavy you have been, or how much drawn comb you use from year to year. Might be worth thinking outside of the box, as it were, for a rebuilding effort.

There are arguments on both sides, but from a fellow Tar Heel at the other end of the state, what can it hurt? Let the bees, be the bees... Google Warre, any number of sites to inform on this approach.

Heat wave busted AMEN!

Yes, Amen On the busted heat wave! I will definitely check out what warre has to offer, Ty much

[Elwood]

Are you checking for foulbrood?

[Beeksquad]

I've only checked once this year on the 3rd of May, I have looked at the comb from the empty hives at dont see anything remotely like a scale at the bottom of the cells (Thankfully) Weather was bad yesterday so I couldnt really dig around in the still living hives much but I'll definitely do the toothpick test and look for chewed brood cappings today. Ty much.

[MattDavey]

Haven't heard of it there, but there is a "zombie" fly parasite that attacks bees. Have a look at:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...ing-honeybees/

Matthew Davey