About a month and a half ago (Superbowl Sunday actually) I had 2 hives that were showing signs of activity and looking to have made it though the winter. We had some rain and colder weather for the last few weeks and when the weather changed I expected to start seeing activity in the hives. However, nothing doing I am a new beek, as these hives were new last Spring. So today it was finally above 60 so I decided to see if maybe they were just a small cluster or what was going on. Here is what I found.
1. All the bees were dead. Some covered in mold some looking like they had not died very long ago. Each hive had 3 or so small clusters like in the first image.
2. Each hive had at least 4 full frames of capped honey like the second image.
3. Not sure if these are brood cells or what but the "clump" in picture 3 was between the two hive boxes and not attached to a frame.
4. After reading and looking at images I think it's possible mites might be the problem? While hard to tell exactly as it said that it would be noticable where the last frames of brood were, I am not sure that is the case. Not to mention I did not notice any deformities of wings that is associated with mites. Image 3 is what makes me suspect mites.
The bees appear to be healthy at least to my untrained eye, if Mites were the issue would they be present on the dead bees?
I know this is a ton of questions and information, I would love to get some opinions or ideas about what to do next. How do I determine if my equipment can be cleaned and reused? Exactly how should I clean it? Or, should I just burn it and start over?
I am happy to take any other pictures anyone might want that would in turn shed some light on what happend.
I am sick to my stomach that all my girls are dead......
Any and all responses are greatly appreciated!!
Topic: What happened??? (Read 1232 times)