We got this nuc around May 19th and she was doing great until early July. And now, week after week, our middle hive, Abigail, seems to be losing bees and failing. One frame at a time. Two weeks ago she seemed lighter, way less bees on the frames. We didnt see a lot of eggs. The larvae didnt look shiny. Today, Five of the eight frames were basically empty. Spotty brood pattern and weird liquid - shiny and almost too thick. Then, dead drone brood .. some looked like they died as they were hatching out of their cells? Just their little heads barely poking out. Some sunken darker cells.
We didnt smell anything awful.
No real bug problem that we can see.. a few tiny ants near the syrup (we've had a lot of rain in Seattle so we've fed since we got them) but we treated for those.
And then one of the two healthy hives has one frame with about six queen cups on it. And some of them have larvae??
I just dont know what is happening here with all of this.
Anyhow, we did see mites on some of the pics we took from two weeks ago. So we decided to use the formic pro pad that lays in the box across the frames? In two weeks we take it out?
And, we took the frame from the healthy hive with the six queen cups.. and put it in the failing hive, Abigail.
I've seen so many videos where people say, "you can just swap out frames to help each hive out.." so, I hope that is ok.
But any help would be welcome..
p.s. if I knew how to post pics I would ..
We didnt smell anything awful.
No real bug problem that we can see.. a few tiny ants near the syrup (we've had a lot of rain in Seattle so we've fed since we got them) but we treated for those.
And then one of the two healthy hives has one frame with about six queen cups on it. And some of them have larvae??
I just dont know what is happening here with all of this.
Anyhow, we did see mites on some of the pics we took from two weeks ago. So we decided to use the formic pro pad that lays in the box across the frames? In two weeks we take it out?
And, we took the frame from the healthy hive with the six queen cups.. and put it in the failing hive, Abigail.
I've seen so many videos where people say, "you can just swap out frames to help each hive out.." so, I hope that is ok.
But any help would be welcome..
p.s. if I knew how to post pics I would ..