I have two nucs in my front yard. Both were doing well. I went on an ten-day vacation and returned this morning. There was so little activity that I peeked in them.
One still has a queen and perhaps two cups of bees, which are overwhelmingly drones. Very little brood, and most of that is drone. Most of the workers seem to have simply left, without the queen.
The second had a sealed queen cell and maybe a hundred bees. Lots of honey and pollen. Looks like they swarmed without leaving a survivable workforce behind.
I opened a dozen drone cells in each to look for mites, and found none.
Wow - sorry to hear that! I assume that these were new nucs this spring? How were they progressing since you got them, before you left?
Yes, they were new this spring, and doing well. I just heard from another neighbor that the folks next door sprayed their lawn with something four days ago. That may have been at least a contributing factor.
Most pesticide kills the bees will be present and accounted for. Dead but accounted for.
If the queen that was left couldnt fly, the bees might have swarmed with the first virgin to emerge.
The problem with nuc swarming is that they do typically end up really weak after.
Managing a nuc means getting into them often, and understanding that when one side of a frame is packed with capped brood... when that brood emerges there will be enough bees to cover two sides or one full frame.. so when you have three frames of brood laid out well by the queen, and it all emerges, they will swarm right shortly thereafter... Usually, about nine or ten days after all that brood emerges. Not to say there was not some other factor or reason involved.
Just a guess, for better or worse...
What Oldmech said. Sounds like a one two punch. They swarmed and then you lost a lot of what was left or they left the hive a very weak.
Jim
I would say your neighbor killed two nucs.
Just my opinion......
I'm with iddee. a friend of mine's neighbor sprayed their trees & used Chem-Lawn to treat their yard. he lost several hives right after. depending on the wind you can get a lot of drift when spraying. you may have had a neighbor with bee phobia spray the nucs. I like keeping a low profile in regards to my hives.
My neighbors spray. But its 99.9% natural. And they spray early and not on the flowers - as per my request. So just because they sprayed, does not mean they wiped everything out, unless you know EXACTLY what they sprayed.
I'm with OldMech and Jim, I lost a nuc swarm this year already and I was vigilant. They explode when they hatch and you have to be on top of them. Weather kept me out for a week and that's all it took. I monitor my nucs very often and make notes. G