Lost all the hives in the home yard to the last winter except one. That was my number one hive. A tough hive full of former ferals from a swarm some 6 years ago.
Great producers and always strong. I have split that have at least once a year for 5 years and they always came back strong.
This last weekend I noticed that the activity level looked wrong. The wife and I are busy as bees ourselves on weekends so I looked again on Sunday evening and only saw a couple bees about the hive.
Popped the lid today, and a hive that was booming a few weeks ago when we pulled a box to harvest was empty. I mean completely empty not even a few dead bees laying about.
There was a dusting of yellow pollen on some frames and some wax chips like they had removed the stores but not the mess left by robbing.
I did find 3 empty queen cells in the brood box, but as I split them a month ago I expected that.
Looks like they absconded on me.
Too bad they were good bees.
Ouch.. You still have the split from them this year?
Man that sucks, sorry bro. G :chop:
Sorry to hear that Wayne. I feel your pain. I have lost a lot of hives this spring/summer.
Jim
That's a bummer! This is my first year at this and the more I read post like this the more nervous I get for next spring.
I think my biggest problem was not being able to graft queens and start splits with hatched queens from strong hives instead of splitting them and then they start making queens.
Jim