Lost hives

[Mikey N.C.]

Last weekend we had ice and a little snow, temps. in the teens for 2 days. I was out of town all week. Went to take a look at bees yesterday (54°) we have had a warm winter sofar. I knew both hives were low on bees and was holding me fingers crossed. Why they starved and froze. Box #1 , 2 ten deeps, top ten full of capped honey weight about 70 lbs. Nov. 9 inspection had 3 frames of bees in the bottom box on the west side , seen the queen and spotty brood. They never moved up to honey.





This was after i removed bees an didn't see queen.





And pollen frames.





And also found these cells (superseder cells ?)



And this is frames in top box.

[Mikey N.C.]

Q #1 why does pollen have mold.
Q #2 those small clusters will not leave capped brood and move up 2 inches to stored honey ?

[iddee]

#1. No bees to control heat and humidity.
#2. Not enough bees to produce heat. They froze, not starved.

[Perry]

Cluster was too small, not enough critical mass. Maybe it failed to re-queen itslef?
On that frame with the queen cell Mikey, there were a few capped brood cells nearby that had punctured cappings. Do a toothpick test on those to rule anything else out.

[Mikey N.C.]

I was going to do the tooth pick rope test , do i need to test all cappings ?? This box also has a smell like dirty socks then wifey says she can smell like a fruity flower smell.
I'll take some pics. of rope test

[Riverrat]

A tale tail sign of starvation in a winter dead out is bees dying head first in the cells.  The hive lost its critical mass going into winter queenless.  Shack it out freeze the frames and Saddle back up this spring

[Jen]

Awe Mikey, so sorry, truly. Did you have just the two hives?

If we can look at the pro side, many of us will be learning from this post. It's a critical time of year for all of us, there will be more of us who will find the same. I know I have one hive, and one nuc that I'm skeptical about, fewer and fewer bees are coming out into the sun.

If I lived closer to you I would bring you and wifey an apple pie 

[Perry]

As an aside, whenever I see brood cells with dead larvae/pupae, especially if they are in an area that is not surrounded by other capped brood, I always like to investigate a little further. Why were those cells alone in that area and not cleaned up? What caused their death? If I see perforated cappings on those cells I have an even bigger reason to check them out.
It sounds like simple starvation but a test costs nothing but a toothpick.
Stuff like these pics always has me looking.









Whenever something doesn't look right, check it out. A toothpick is cheap. These hives below looked absolutely healthy and yet a toothpick and a few cells made a big difference. Anything dead should be easy to check. Don't freak out, yours starved, I'm just saying check to be sure nothing else was there.

[Mikey N.C.]

Thanks everyone,  I'm still concerned about smell

[Mikey N.C.]

If i don't find anything as far. as tooth pick test, with the smell possibly being goldenrod will the honey be any good for consumption ?  Do ya'll like this type of honey.
And will it have that smell after extraction ?

[Perry]

A lot of folks like goldenrod honey. Once you uncap and harvest it, it will lose some of the strength of the smell to some degree. Enjoy it.

[neillsayers]

I like goldenrod honey in my coffee.

Dang, Mikey sorry about your loss. That's a punch in the gut.

[Mikey N.C.]

Yes Neil, I'm a 2 time loser or as Bob Seger said beautiful loser,  just going with the punches is all i can do.
Well did the tooth pick rope test Perry all small perforated holes in capps seemed to be emerging bees

No black or brown goo that a good thing.
Are these white scales just mold ?

Ended up with 16 frames of half capped honey.

Found 2 frames in each box of natural drawn comb with bottoms being drone cells.

And look at how they were removing wax.

All said an done I'll be back at it.

[Perry]

Two things Mikey:

First...is that you with facial hair? Suits ya buddy!

Second, do you have more hives or just the two? You could harvest the honey if you really wanted to, or distribute it to something that might be light, or even just save it for when you reload your hives with a package, swarm, whatever, and get them off to a great start with the stores.

[Mikey N.C.]

Yes , thinking of growing one , just don't know what type. (Beard) I was Going to save half frames for next yr. Don't have any other hives.

[Jen]

My favorite honey is Meadowfoam, I can find it on the coast on occasion. Never tasted Goldenrod honey myself.... hint

[MarkCase]

 :\'(  Lost one hive today.  Six hives were still active bringing in pollen like crazy.  One, no activity.  Took a look and lots of dead bees in the bottom, quite a few dead head first in cells and dead bees on the frame. 

[Perry]

1 out of 7 is not that bad. The one dead out, did it still have stores? 

[Jen]

That's what I'm saying Perry! Just today we hit 50 for about 1 hour. All three hives had bees come out, and not just outside the hives but out and about the neighborhood. Then three nucs had bees come out, but the poop nuc no bees came out to play. So that would also be one out of 7 down.

[MarkCase]

Yes, the hive had PLENTY of stores.  We think the cluster was just too small.  So far, we have only lost 1/7.  Hope that is all...