Lost three hives to wax moths? Went to some out yards up north today to winterize hives and found two dead outs in one yard and one in another, the one hive i expected to lose it because it never built up enough all summer. They had a young queen and i thought she would turn on, but never did. The other two was a surprise
three weeks ago they were strong hives (two deeps and three med honey supers) i took two honey supers off each of them and left one on each of them and they had enough to go through the winter that was uncapped. I suspect they were robbed out first? and the wax moths took over and packed them full of cocoons and webs
. These hives were some that i have done nothing to for at least 15 years,except for rotating the brood boxes and requeen when it looked like the were in a swarm mode. I never used BT on these hives or changed out the dark brood comb, i wanted to see how long they could last without my help and i raised several queens from them.
I guess i thought they would last for ever. I'll go throuh them tomorrow to get a better idea what happened and see if i can salvage anything. Very sad feeling. Jack