What happened to my hives?

[cturner41314]

I am a first time beekeeper. I bought 2 hives last summer and thought they were doing well. They hadn't made a tremendous amount of honey by the fall, but I figured they had enough to do well for the winter. We have had a really mild winter with temperatures mainly in the 20's at night and relatively little snow. My hives are not on the sunny side of the hill however.

I went out today to clean any dead bees out and check on how they had survived to winter and I have no bees. One hive is totally empty and the other had only a few dead bees sticking on the comb. There's some honey in the frames. There were a couple moths in the bottom of the hive where there were a few bees.  What in the world could have happened? I am really disappointed and puzzled. Would appreciate any help.

Alvin

[Jerrymac]

Can you give some history of what you did to/for the bees during the summer and fall? What treatments and what ever?

[Michael Bush]

Also, examine the bottom boards.  Are there lots of dead bees, only a few dead bees.  Are ther Varroa mites?

[cturner41314]

When I bought them, I fed them sugar water for a couple or three weeks.  That's pretty much it.  As for bees in the bottom of the hive, there were very few dead bees.  Its like they just packed up and left.

Alvin

[Apis629]

You really should watch them more than that.  Chances are that they could have absconded because of poor conditions (i.e. pests, disease, paracites), or maybe they swarmed and never "regained their foot hold".  It was an observation hive...but I've had them swarm and soon die.