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Ok... I need answers

15K views 54 replies 18 participants last post by  Acebird 
#1 ·
Checked my hive today to find no live bees at all, maybe 300 dead. They were last checked (very quickly) on Dec.22 (it was warm temps) with tons of bees and stores. Stores are all there, no mites on the bottom board or feces, no AFB, no shb, conducted an alcohol wash on the dead bees.... nothing.
Why would all the bees leave? It makes no sense.
 
#36 ·
The industry has never established what CCD actually is only a definition of its symptoms. Varroa related collapse as Dan describes is not only common it is difficult for someone with little experience to diagnose unless they have been vigilant in checking mite counts. Looking for signs of varroa without a great deal of hands on experience can be quite difficult at times.
Heres a true story I experienced from 2011. We had "twin" yards of 40 colonies just a mile apart. They were all first year nucs, all hives looked good and produced well throughout the summer. Yard A had its honey crop removed and a thymol treatment placed on them in early September, yard B didn't get it's treatment until a month later and in cool conditions which made the thymol fairly ineffective. By mid October yard A had 38 strong colonies with large clusters and low mite counts. Yard B had dwindled to the point that we were only able to salvage about 15 hives that were generally small clusters that appeared to lack much vitality. An inspection of the bottom boards showed dead mites in unattended corners of the bottom boards on some but not all hives. Mite counts at that point were relatively low as they had been treated twice. Some white flecks could be seen in some of the brood combs but one had to be looking closely. Even with my level of experience I couldn't absolutely prove the problem was varroa because I didn't have any mite count data. Without the companion yard to compare it with I could see where some might consider that it is surely CCD. I choose to believe that my problem was not something unexplained but rather a case of a failure to treat in a timely manner. Could anyone logically argue with that assesment? I remain among those beekeepers (a minority?) who feel there are plausible explanations for most everything and suspect number one must always be threat one.
 
#38 ·
Mr.Beeman,

Don't be too hard on yourself, this happens to a lot of us. In 2006 I had 10 hives at a yard and I checked on them in early November. They were packed full of bees and all seemed to be well. Three weeks later 8 of the 10 were almost empty with just a handful of dead bees and a queen just as you described. I was disappointed and dumbfounded to say the least. Never did really figure out exactly what caused it, these things just happen sometimes.

You said you have 1 of your 3 hives left alive. What happened in the other loss?

I'm also curious about you not seeing "any" mites at all. If there were 30,000 bees in the hive last month there should be at least some mites left on the bottom board, even in a healthy hive. Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to be critical of your abilities. Just wondering if the mites might actually be there mixed in with the bottom board debris and you missed spotting them. They are so small, it took me a while to be able to spot them. Once I figured out what I was looking for they were very easy to see. Not saying that's what happened to you, just wanted to throw that out there.
 
#40 ·
Mike I appreciate the gesture.
The other loss was roughly one month prior and the scenario was the same.
Believe me, I looked and looked and looked for mites. I even used a 5x magnifying lens and then I used my flytying magnifier.... ever use one of those?! lol

A mite would look like it could chew your arm off through one of those! lol
 
#43 · (Edited)
Looking with magnification is helpful but still won't give you an indication of mite numbers. My experience is once you can visually see them you have got serious problems. Varroa are usually wedged totally out of sight in the joint between the thorax and abdomen. If you really want to learn something with your 5x magnification get a tweezer and begin pulling out pupae (either drone or worker) at about the purple eye stage. You will most likely be amazed at what you see.
 
#42 ·
since the bees keep the center of the cluster around 95 deg.all winter you broke up the cluster by opening up the hive and letting moister into the hive.the hive didn't have enough time to bring the temp back up or getting all the moister out instant freeze.leave hives shut in winter saves alot of head aches...sorry for your loss
 
#46 ·
"Checked my hive today to find no live bees at all, maybe 300 dead. They were last checked (very quickly) on Dec.22 (it was warm temps) with tons of bees and stores. Stores are all there, no mites on the bottom board or feces, no AFB, no shb, conducted an alcohol wash on the dead bees.... nothing."

The vast majority of bees left days before the 300 froze.

Bee Insect Honeybee stable fly Megachilidae

Insect Larva Pest emperor moths Invertebrate



Seem pretty obvious to me. These pics were taken off the net since I had none to take pics of. lol
 
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