This morning I went to look over the 4 hives I have and found dead bees around my most active hive. I counted about 50 dead bees and found the queen amongst them. Last evening everything looked good. Here is a little history for this hive.
I have two hives that wintered well and this spring decided to split them. I bought mated queens and installed them back in late April. This hive has exploded with bees and all seems well. One of my queens that I bought turned out to be a dud (Not the one with the dead bees this morning) so the vendor offered me a new replacement so I decided to make a split again. I took two frames from my two most active hives (including this one with the dead bees this morning) and put the frames into a nuc. (Don't know the state of this nuc yet). I filled the two hives that I pulled the frames from with new frames that I just purchased. So again this hive with a cordovan queen I installed last April was doing really well and this morning found dead bees outside the hive along with the queen. I will inspect the hive this weekend to see if I could learn what happened. Does anyone have any ideas what could have gone wrong?
I have two hives that wintered well and this spring decided to split them. I bought mated queens and installed them back in late April. This hive has exploded with bees and all seems well. One of my queens that I bought turned out to be a dud (Not the one with the dead bees this morning) so the vendor offered me a new replacement so I decided to make a split again. I took two frames from my two most active hives (including this one with the dead bees this morning) and put the frames into a nuc. (Don't know the state of this nuc yet). I filled the two hives that I pulled the frames from with new frames that I just purchased. So again this hive with a cordovan queen I installed last April was doing really well and this morning found dead bees outside the hive along with the queen. I will inspect the hive this weekend to see if I could learn what happened. Does anyone have any ideas what could have gone wrong?