Dead Bees on Top of Screened Inner Cover

[teezbees]

I've been out of the country for a few weeks, returning yesterday. I went by this morning to take a peek at one of the bee yards just to make sure nobody had absconded. I had one small nuc that was a late season swarm. It was empty. I wasn't impressed by the queen's pattern before leaving and intended to pinch her and combine the colony with another hive when I got back; so it wasn't a big loss. There was no sign of beetle infestation (no sliming); no wax moths either. All I saw inside were a couple of beetles and some ants. There was still some capped and partially emerged brood and some capped and uncapped honey, so it doesn't appear the colony had been gone long.

The thing that's got me scratching my head is that when I lifted the cover on one of the other hives in the yard, I found at least 100 dead bees laying on top of the inner cover. I run screened inner covers, so the dead bees had to enter from around the top cover. So it doesn't seem like the bees up there were from that colony. The dead bees were still "pliable" and ants were working them, so it looks like they haven't been dead long.

Is it possible that some of the bees from the failed nuc tried to drift to this hive and ended up dying on top of the inner cover?

I plan on going back today with my gear so I can take a closer look to make sure nothing strange is going on in the colony. I'll try to post a pic later.

If anyone has any theories, please let me know.

Thanks,

Travis

[AliciaH]

Could be drift if something happened to the queen in that nuc.  I would think late season robbing, though.  If the hive you found them in was strong enough to defend the entrance, then the robbers might have been trying to get to the resources through the top.

Welcome home, by the way!