Hive dying out

[knob21]

Second year beekeeper....One of my hives was doing well when I opened it in mid march, plenty of bees queen starting to lay small but tight brood pattern....then 2 weeks ago queen is gone, no queen cells, no brood and numbers are now down to a baseball in size...still 8-10 frames of honey in the 2 deep hive. Should I give up on this hive and combined them with another?

[asprince]

Any dead bees in the bottom of the hive? All your other hives OK?  Is there a queen? If yes, reduce the size to a single or nuc and swap places with a strong hive.

Just a start, Steve

[knob21]

There were dead I cleaned out in mid march typical winter die off ...queen had started building small tight brood area, now No queen, brood now all hatched,no queen cells....no sign of disease, other 2 hives doing well. I've been watching the hive closely for over two weeks once I noticed no eggs hoping to see them build a queen cell but nothing just slowly dwindling numbers.

[JP]

You could condense them into a nuc adding a frame or two of brood with eggs or very young larvae. They may raise a queen from this. Also give them a couple frames of honey for feed.

Realistically this colony is doomed without some intervention on your part.

If the honey in the set up is capped honey you should be able to use it for feed or harvest.


...JP