Hives Died-Honey harvest ?'s

[opster246]

This was my first year for bee keeping.  Sad to say, both hives have died.  I had one hive at home, which had good stores.  I had 2 deep bodies with one medium.  The medium and top deep had decent stores of honey.  I think the bottom deep may have fallen victim to robbing in late fall.  Yellow Jackets were prevalent and coming and going.  I added an entrance reducer.  I also noticed veroa in this hive about the same time as the robbing began.  I found the cluster high in the top deep, all bees were dead.  No obvious signs of moisture issues.

The second hive did not produce as well, and seemed to be going into winter a bit light.  I did feed them syrup mid fall and added a candy board with a 3/8" entrance hole in it in late fall.  I noticed quite a bit of uncapped stores in the frames within the brood box.  The dead bees seemed a little moldy and I noticed the candy board had absorbed quite a bit of moisture (when I brought it home and propped it on its side, some water seeped out).  I'm pretty sure this hive had moisture issues due to the uncapped syrup.

I have removed the dead bees and cut out the comb from the frames where the remaining brood was.  I guess I am wondering if I should do anything else to prep for the spring?  I live in Northern Illinois.  We had record cold a few weeks ago - temps well below zero.  I am assuming the veroa and any other parasitic insects will not carry over due to the cold the hive has and will endure now that the bees are dead.

I plan to extract the honey from the mediums and any full frames from the deeps.  I plan to leave the rest in the frames for the new bees this spring.  Are there any issues with a dead hive honey harvest?  It does not appear to be crystalized yet.  I have brought the frames inside to let them warm to room temp.  I plan to bag the frames in garbage bags and return to my unheated shed until it is time to add the new bees in the spring. 

Thanks for any help or suggestions!  Happy New Year!!

[Acebird]

Two deeps and a medium would be a strong hive to overwinter if it was full of bees.  When you hear stories of robbing it is a really bad sign.  Strong hives don't get robbed.  So the fact that you witnessed robbing says to me the hive was toast at that point.  What has me guessing is why is there anything left in the hive?  After they get a mouthful they come back until it is gone and it usually doesn't take long.  I am wondering if you had a late swarm and didn't notice it.  That would have emptied out the nectar in the lower boxes saving the honey in the top for the next queen which probably didn't get mated.

[opster246]

There was capped brood in and around the cluster of bees, so I'm guessing there was not a late swarm.  The robbing was late in the year, and appeared to be mostly yellow jackets.  The yellow jackets stopped coming around after the weather cooled.  I may try a yellow jacket trap nearby next year.  Before I saw the yellow jackets coming and going, there was a bit of capped honey in the bottom deep.  As the fall progressed, that honey ended up being gone.  Once I put two and two together, I added a mouse guard/entrance reducer, but the bottom deep was cleaned out - still there was plenty of honey for the bees to survive.  I had higher hopes for these bees as they were from Wisconsin and I had hoped would be better able to handle the cold - which they probably were - just not suited to handle a new beekeeper.

[Rurification]

In Illinois, if you keep the honey in the frames in an unheated shed, it will crystallize.   Having done the same thing myself - and regretting it later - I now harvest all the honey and feed it back. 

NOTE:  I'm no expert, so you should get some more opinions...

[iddee]

Feed a frame of crystallized honey to the bees and they will liquefy it and eat it. They have been doing it for thousands of years.

[Acebird]

Feed a frame of crystallized honey to the bees and they will liquefy it and eat it. They have been doing it for thousands of years.

Way better than mountain camp because you can put it where they need it and they can get at it.

[opster246]

Well, I harvested the honey.  Didn't seem to be any issues with it - not sure how much of it will be fed back to the bees next year, we may eat it all!