Empty Hive

Started by bens, July 13, 2010, 12:48:41 AM

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bens

July 13, 2010, 12:48:41 AM
I have 3 hives just inside a dense wooded area next to a field of alfalfa.  It was such a wet June that I didn't get out to inspect them until last week.  Last I saw them, 1st week of June, all three were doing good for new packages that were installed in early april.  All three had drawn out a single deep brood box all except maybe one side of a frame.  At that time I added a second deep to each hive. 

Last week I get out there to check, one hive has completely filled both deeps and I added a shallow supper and replace a couple of frames in the deep with drawn frames to give them a little more room.  No sign of hive beetle this year.  The second hive still had 2 1/2 frames not drawn out in the 2nd deep.  I just rearranged the undrawn frames to the middle.

The 3rd hive was completely empty.  No bees, no brood, no honey, no dead bees, no pollen,  just empty drawn out frames.  I found a few wax moth larvae and a lot of ants mostly on the inner cover.  The strongest hive also had alot of ants on top the inner cover also.

Could the ants have devoured the pollen, brood, dead bees, etc...??

D Coates

#1
July 13, 2010, 04:50:49 PM
I'd bet the two other hives robbed out the other hive when it crashed.  What caused the crash is unknown to this point.  The ants are there collecting the few scraps the bees left behind.
Ninja, is not in the dictionary.  Well played Ninja's, well played...

Jim134

#2
July 13, 2010, 10:42:55 PM

Quote from: D Coates on July 13, 2010, 04:50:49 PM
I'd bet the two other hives robbed out the other hive when it crashed.  What caused the crash is unknown to this point.  The ants are there collecting the few scraps the bees left behind.


  ditto


   BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may  remember,involve me and I'll understand"
        Chinese Proverb

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways."
John F. Kennedy
Franklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/

AllenF

#3
July 13, 2010, 10:49:35 PM
The other 2 hives became stronger and when the food was getting hard to find, they went and stole it.  Was the dead hive in the middle of the other 2?

bens

#4
July 13, 2010, 11:21:38 PM
No the empty hive was the one on the end the furthest in the woods.
the strongest hive was the closest to the field.  It was just the opposite last year.  I lost all three hives over the winter.  The empty hive, had been the location of my strongest hive the last couple of years.

I guess what surprised me the most was the lack of any dead bees, it makes sense that the other hives robbed the pollen and honey.
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