). I also realized there were no bees coming or going from the hive. So I cracked open the boxes and saw no bees! They were there yesterday. A few dead bees inside the box, but otherwise just ants. There were no dead bees around the entrance to the hive or lying around on the patio either.Carol,
You need to inspect the broodnest. Are there uncapped larvae? Are there capped pupae? Are there no worker pupae, but only scattered drone brood? Are there "emergency queen cells" -- relatively small acorn shaped queen cells protruding from the center of the brood?
My guess is you may find no larvae, but only stale capped diseased pupae with a small chew hole in the center. This occurs when the queen dies during winter following a varroa buildup. The winter bees don't build emergency queens, or those that do fail to mate (no drones to mate with her). The winter bees continue to tend the nest in a zombie manner, but the colony dies out at the onset of spring.
The second ant invasion likely occured when the population dropped so the remaining bees could not defend the honey stores or the larvae. The ants are just cleaning up an already terminal hive.
Robbing out a dead out hive is capable of generating enough flight traffic that the hive still looks occupied, long after an active breeding colony is lost.
Hive poisoning from bees collecting flower garden nectar that has been sprayed with many consumer insecticides (including so-called organic compounds -- such as pyrethreum and neem, both of which are deadly poisonous to bees) is frequent in urban settings. (Do you really want to eat that honey?) But poisoned hives generally have dozens of dead bees, trembling and stupified dropping from the entrance. Nurse bees are often relatively spared (as the foragers die before transmitting the poison). Queens due their huge metabolic demand often succumb.
You need to inspect the broodnest. Are there uncapped larvae? Are there capped pupae? Are there no worker pupae, but only scattered drone brood? Are there "emergency queen cells" -- relatively small acorn shaped queen cells protruding from the center of the brood?
My guess is you may find no larvae, but only stale capped diseased pupae with a small chew hole in the center. This occurs when the queen dies during winter following a varroa buildup. The winter bees don't build emergency queens, or those that do fail to mate (no drones to mate with her). The winter bees continue to tend the nest in a zombie manner, but the colony dies out at the onset of spring.
The second ant invasion likely occured when the population dropped so the remaining bees could not defend the honey stores or the larvae. The ants are just cleaning up an already terminal hive.
Robbing out a dead out hive is capable of generating enough flight traffic that the hive still looks occupied, long after an active breeding colony is lost.
Hive poisoning from bees collecting flower garden nectar that has been sprayed with many consumer insecticides (including so-called organic compounds -- such as pyrethreum and neem, both of which are deadly poisonous to bees) is frequent in urban settings. (Do you really want to eat that honey?) But poisoned hives generally have dozens of dead bees, trembling and stupified dropping from the entrance. Nurse bees are often relatively spared (as the foragers die before transmitting the poison). Queens due their huge metabolic demand often succumb.
