Next time leave a hose dribbling just a little...
Beeless
Well, we arrived home from vacation at the end of July to find both of our first year hives completely empty of bees. 
According to our neighbor who was watching over our critters and gardens, the bees were there only 4 days before we got home, bearding on the outside as usual. (It's been 98-100+ for nearly two weeks.)
Since there was a drought during the week we were away, I think our water pans finally ran out and the bees absconded. Local water sources had completely dried up,so I had pans of water out near the hives. No one locally has a pool (probably for miles). Food supply must have gotten low,as I had detected robbing before we left. I'm regretting not feeding sugar syrup,but I didn't think I would need to feed this early. It's odd though-I expected the weak hive to be gone,as they were queenless with a succession cell in their hive right before we left. However the strong hive had a decent queen and brood before we left.
I opened the hives a week after we got home,to dispose of everything. Wax moths had gotten into most of the brood boxes,ruining 20-30 frames. We ended up scraping out the ruined foundation and rendering it down for what wax we could get. Lots of slumgum of course,but at least we got something.
Odd things:
- the strong hive left,too. No signs of queen cells in their brood box. They were robbing the weak hive a week or so before we left,but had settled down right before we left.
-I had a SHB in the weak hive at my last inspection,but there was no sign of them or their larvae when I dissected the empty brood boxes though-just wax moth larvae
-As mentioned in other posts, these package bees I had were the least aggressive bees that I've ever experienced. My in-laws 30 odd colonies are all pissy and angry,and produce in great quantities. These bees weren't even investigating me when I was 10' from the hive.
-every last bit of honey,pollen and brood was stripped from both hives. I suspect the bees took it,but possibly it was stripped out by invaders after they left?
Things that have me worried for the future: am I going to be feeding my bees from Early July until March or so? I expected to start feeding by late August at the earliest.
Will I have adequate water? There's few running streams around here (only some drainage "streams" and a small spring). I may end up having to supplement water considerably for future colonies.
I'm beginning to question my area's suitability for bees.
I do think that I got two very weak packages,and that I got them far too late in the season to take advantage of our peak flow,which seemed to be pretty early this year.
Other than that,I'm wishing that I had fed them after my last inspection revealed that comb building and honey stores were down (and of course the robbing was occurring). Lesson learned I suppose.
According to our neighbor who was watching over our critters and gardens, the bees were there only 4 days before we got home, bearding on the outside as usual. (It's been 98-100+ for nearly two weeks.)
Since there was a drought during the week we were away, I think our water pans finally ran out and the bees absconded. Local water sources had completely dried up,so I had pans of water out near the hives. No one locally has a pool (probably for miles). Food supply must have gotten low,as I had detected robbing before we left. I'm regretting not feeding sugar syrup,but I didn't think I would need to feed this early. It's odd though-I expected the weak hive to be gone,as they were queenless with a succession cell in their hive right before we left. However the strong hive had a decent queen and brood before we left.
I opened the hives a week after we got home,to dispose of everything. Wax moths had gotten into most of the brood boxes,ruining 20-30 frames. We ended up scraping out the ruined foundation and rendering it down for what wax we could get. Lots of slumgum of course,but at least we got something.
Odd things:
- the strong hive left,too. No signs of queen cells in their brood box. They were robbing the weak hive a week or so before we left,but had settled down right before we left.
-I had a SHB in the weak hive at my last inspection,but there was no sign of them or their larvae when I dissected the empty brood boxes though-just wax moth larvae
-As mentioned in other posts, these package bees I had were the least aggressive bees that I've ever experienced. My in-laws 30 odd colonies are all pissy and angry,and produce in great quantities. These bees weren't even investigating me when I was 10' from the hive.
-every last bit of honey,pollen and brood was stripped from both hives. I suspect the bees took it,but possibly it was stripped out by invaders after they left?
Things that have me worried for the future: am I going to be feeding my bees from Early July until March or so? I expected to start feeding by late August at the earliest.
Will I have adequate water? There's few running streams around here (only some drainage "streams" and a small spring). I may end up having to supplement water considerably for future colonies.
I'm beginning to question my area's suitability for bees.
I do think that I got two very weak packages,and that I got them far too late in the season to take advantage of our peak flow,which seemed to be pretty early this year.
Other than that,I'm wishing that I had fed them after my last inspection revealed that comb building and honey stores were down (and of course the robbing was occurring). Lesson learned I suppose.
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