I went out to check my 3 hives today. Two large colonies and a nuc.
To my dismay one of the large colonies had the bottom entrance clogged with dead bees.
I thought maybe at first they had been drowned by the sudden storms we had last night.
But when I took off the top cover there were more dead bees. As I worked my way down frame
by frame (hive is 5 mediums) each frame was empty. No bees except for a straggler here and there.
There was still capped brood. I could see what appeared to be dead bees half emerged.
On the bottom board the dead bees were two inches thick. A few seemed to be barely alive.
On one frame in the bottom box I found a fist sized clump of bees and the queen. Still alive.
I did the only thing that occurred to me using what I had with me at the time. (remote site)
I took the single frame with live bees and queen and put it into a new medium box I had
in my vehicle. It was supposed to be for my nuc. I put in clean frames that had been extracted
just 2 weeks ago. I took a frame of honey and a frame of brood and nurse bees from my other
large colony (which is fine) and made up a 5 frame nuc using a follower board to close it down.
So I had one frame with a fist size clump of bees and queen...one frame of honey...and one frame
of brood plus nurse bees from the other colony. And two frames of drawn out comb.
I know this very small nuc has almost zero chance of surviving. Just not enough bees and they may
be dying as well. But I had a live queen and thought I should do something.
The dead hive had been robbed out. Probably shortly after they collapsed. There wasnt a speck of
honey left in it.
I just hope whatever killed this one doesnt spread to the other two hives.
Im thinking it had to be a pesticide kill. This hive was booming and full of bees just 8 days ago.
Unfortunately no pictures. Didnt take the camera. This was supposed to be just a quick check.
It was quite a shock to see so many dead bees.
To my dismay one of the large colonies had the bottom entrance clogged with dead bees.
I thought maybe at first they had been drowned by the sudden storms we had last night.
But when I took off the top cover there were more dead bees. As I worked my way down frame
by frame (hive is 5 mediums) each frame was empty. No bees except for a straggler here and there.
There was still capped brood. I could see what appeared to be dead bees half emerged.
On the bottom board the dead bees were two inches thick. A few seemed to be barely alive.
On one frame in the bottom box I found a fist sized clump of bees and the queen. Still alive.
I did the only thing that occurred to me using what I had with me at the time. (remote site)
I took the single frame with live bees and queen and put it into a new medium box I had
in my vehicle. It was supposed to be for my nuc. I put in clean frames that had been extracted
just 2 weeks ago. I took a frame of honey and a frame of brood and nurse bees from my other
large colony (which is fine) and made up a 5 frame nuc using a follower board to close it down.
So I had one frame with a fist size clump of bees and queen...one frame of honey...and one frame
of brood plus nurse bees from the other colony. And two frames of drawn out comb.
I know this very small nuc has almost zero chance of surviving. Just not enough bees and they may
be dying as well. But I had a live queen and thought I should do something.
The dead hive had been robbed out. Probably shortly after they collapsed. There wasnt a speck of
honey left in it.
I just hope whatever killed this one doesnt spread to the other two hives.
Im thinking it had to be a pesticide kill. This hive was booming and full of bees just 8 days ago.
Unfortunately no pictures. Didnt take the camera. This was supposed to be just a quick check.
It was quite a shock to see so many dead bees.