First year mellifera losses

[beecanbee]

My Mellifera girls have disappeared.  Since late July, the brood was dropping off, and by mid August the queens were present but not laying.  During this time the workers flew less.  Three to two weeks ago the queens and a few workers were still present, but not yesterday.  During this time I was pulling frames to crowd them a bit and to prevent wax moth problems, and was controlling for hornets. 

I started feeding in mid August, as I suspected that the problem was a lack of pollen and nectar.  My area is intensively farmed, with anything wild cut down except for trees.

My last swarm took residence with a new beek I am mentoring about a mile away, and I am seeing the same symptoms.  I saw no eggs yesterday, but there was some larva several days old and older.  This hive is small in number – maybe a couple of thousand bees, but they are working and pulling in some pollen, so with feeding, I am hopeful.

As luck would have it, a strong Cerana swarm took over one of the hives three weeks ago – so I have been transferring frames of honey/syrup to give them a better chance at wintering.  Cerana do a better job of gathering from the local trees, and will survive without grassland flowers.

As for Mellifera, I will keep my boxes cleaned and ready for Spring – but if lucky next year to pick up feral swarms, I will move them to a summer grasslands pasture – clover, alfalfa, etc.