Hive autopsy

[Noronajo]

Brought my last dead out home this afternoon- that leaves a double deep hive and a single at the doomed location! I will move them in a few days. They were both active with expanding brood frames just like the dead one was when I checked all 3 before the last cold spell. The dead out was in between the other two and was a hive I purchased from an area beekeeper- the only bees I've bought since my original 2 packages in 2011. I thought an infusion of local genetics would be good to make splits from this spring. I was surprised to see only a handful of bees left when I opened it last week- where had they all gone?  As soon as I got it home I found a cluster of bees in the top box where most are this time of year covering a small patch of brood on several frames, all dead. What didn't make since was the missing bees , the bigger group were in a cluster in the bottom box. Has anyone ever seen this? I opened some of the brood- no sign of mites. Plenty of honey left nearby but separate dead clusters. Anything else I could check for?

[apisbees]

Yes I have seen this bees will not leave brood and bees also do not like to disconnect from the food neither. When did the hive die, late fall, and the bees were protecting the last of the fall brood. Or in the spring and the bees were covering first of the new brood in spring? Was there a band of honey along the top bars of the bottom super? It could be possible that you suffered 2 separate die offs. The first being the bees remaining on the small patch of late laid brood and the weather got cold enough for the bees covering the brood to contract away from their stores and starve. The 2nd when the hive didn't have enough bees left to keep the hive warm enough and then also ran out of food that was available to the cluster. Bees need empty comb to cluster in so over feeding can be detrimental to a hive. if the bees are forced to look after a small patch of brood in the top supper but the empty cells are in the lower super for the bees to form the winter cluster, you could cause the cluster to split during the first cold spell. I have probably added more questions than I answered, Sorry.

[Noronajo]

This hive was never fed in the fall- it had ample stores and when I checked it early in the spring, the bottom was empty but the outer frames on top were still full. The only brood I found when I opened it yesterday was the small cluster on 3 frames in the top surrounded by less than half of the remaining hive bees. The rest and bigger cluster were now in the bottom surrounded by empty frames. They were all together when I first opened the hive around the 18-19 th of Feb. If something disturbed them( the guy who owns this property opened one of my hives when his hive died to see if my hive next to his was okay?) would that break up the cluster? I'm fishing here, I know you can't ever tell what happened but these were smart local bees with not a sign of mites or anything.

[Perry]

My first thought before I read Apis's response was the thought that there may well have been two die offs. I think he has something there.

[apisbees]

If the hive was opened and for some reason he felt the need to pry the 2 supers apart in extremely cold weather so the cluster was split and did not reunite when put back together then may be but for just popping the top to check where the cluster is should not effect them to badly.