I think another tribe tried to rob my big strong hive. Many bee bodies outside on the ground. Upon close examination, there seem to be two different looking types and sizes of bees, some with missing limbs. I am confident that my hive will ?endeavor to persevere?, they are local mutts and have done well for several years. C?est la vie!
Missing limbs probably means yellow jackets. They can decimate even a good strong hive.
Love that quote, Sondog. I use it often. Regarding your post, though, yesterday I put some frames and foundations for clean-up on top of my strongest hive which is 100 yards away from any other hives. Yellow jackets were there in 5 minutes. Squished a couple, but they kept coming. Hope I didn't make a big mistake. The home guard was doing battle with other hives' robbers, too. Saw a pair locked together fly off.
It has cooled considerably here and yellow jackets are still relentless after one hive in my yard. I closed the hive completely last night and I'm keeping it closed for a couple days to let them find somewhere else to go.
We had one night at 19 degrees and 23 degrees this morning. There was still yellow jackets around this afternoon. I have never had them after the hives like this year.
Yellow jackets are dangerous for bees. Put many traps.
Haven't seen any yellow jackets, doesn't mean they're not there.
I do know about an open air hive a couple of blocks away. A windy day knocked down a couple of big comb pieces and my son and I tried to collect then into a Nuc but after sundown all the bees went back up into the tree. My son put the Nuc in our yard the next morning before I awoke and I suspect that is what started it. I had him move it right away, but it may have been too late.
@Brolib - Jose Wales is one of my all-time favorite movies. "I reckon so!"