Death

[Sean Kelly]

Hey guys, thanks for all the kind comments.
I think Brian is right on with the starvation thing.  Makes total sense now.  I only found a couple frames with eggs still in them and almost no larve at all.  Still quite a bit of capped brood.  But almost every frame has dead bees with their heads stuck in cells, like they died looking for one more drop of food.  Quite sad actually.

Moving forward:

I don't have a freezer big enough to put 60 deep frames.  Should I just stack one hive body on top of the two remaining hives to let them clean it out?  I got most of the bees out of the frames but there are still a lot stuck in the cells.  Lots of capped brood still left too.  Should I just start popping all the dead out with my uncapping fork?

Dane:  Yes, I might be interested in starting over here soon.  Let me know what we can work out.

I've got those pics and video ready.  I'll submit them in my next post.

Still really bummed out,
Sean Kelly

[bassman1977]

I don't have a freezer big enough to put 60 deep frames.  Should I just stack one hive body on top of the two remaining hives to let them clean it out?

This is my problem too and yes, I just do a couple at a time.  24 hours is long enough.

[Sean Kelly]

This is my problem too and yes, I just do a couple at a time.  24 hours is long enough.

A couple frames or a couple hive bodies?

Sean Kelly

p.s. uploading video to youtube now.  I'll skip on posting pic's since the video says it all.  I'll post the link here soon...

[Sean Kelly]

Here's the video I made on YouTube of my dead bees

Sean Kelly

[asciibaron]

Sean - i watched the video and feel your pain.  i see you are a ham, my call is WM3O - if you have HF we can setup a sked.

-Steve

[Kimbrell]

Bummer!  I watched your video.  It does seem strange that two of your hives are doing well while the other three are dead as a hammer.  They obviously died quickly.  I tend to think they have been sprayed.  The two together could have been sprayed and the split could have caught some of the drift.  Are there any dead bees at all at your two remaining hives?  Also if you think the dead hives have been sprayed it would be a good idea to remove them and not let the two remaining hives rob them.

[poka-bee]

Sean I watched your video.  I almost lost mine too.  Tons & tons of dead ones.  I'm putting a top entrance in mine, for now just propping w granite chunk.  In mine, the dead piles of bees totally covered the bottom so none of the foragers could go out or in.  I think that might have happened to you too. Made the problem worse. When it was warm/dry enough to forage they were stuck eating in.   Aren't the 2 that you have left the ones that had tons of honey in the supers?  If you look at their little bodies, most have their little tongues out...I was lucky to have found it in time, 1 more day & mine would be like yours.  Could you have put the capped larva that looked healthy in the good hives to see if they would hatch? I don't know if you can do that or if they would have gotten too chilled.  Let me know if I can help. 4 MORE DAYS???!!! :-D  Jody

[Kimbrell]

Sorry, obviously I did not read the posts thoroughly enough.  It amazes me to see the different weather patterns in your area.  It's the middle of June , for heaven's sake!  I hope you get better foraging weather soon.

[Rodni73]

I am so so sorry for your loss. I watched the video... I say test your bees to make sure they were not sprayed.

So sad, keep your chin up and try again! I WOULD.

-Rodni

[Brian D. Bray]

Sean I watched your video.  I almost lost mine too.  Tons & tons of dead ones.  I'm putting a top entrance in mine, for now just propping w granite chunk.  In mine, the dead piles of bees totally covered the bottom so none of the foragers could go out or in.  I think that might have happened to you too. Made the problem worse. When it was warm/dry enough to forage they were stuck eating in.   Aren't the 2 that you have left the ones that had tons of honey in the supers?  If you look at their little bodies, most have their little tongues out...I was lucky to have found it in time, 1 more day & mine would be like yours.  Could you have put the capped larva that looked healthy in the good hives to see if they would hatch? I don't know if you can do that or if they would have gotten too chilled.  Let me know if I can help. 4 MORE DAYS???!!! :-D  Jody

Poka-bee is correct, the two hives that survived did so because they had sufficient stores, enough for winter.  One must realize that raising brood depletes honey stores very rapidly.  In my case, and Sean's case too, the fact that the bees were laying and increasing the hive population when the bad weather set in meant that the honey given to the brood was wasted as the bees would end up eating that eggs and larvae after their own stores ran short or out. 

It only takes a few days for the bees to go through all their honey when that honey is being used to feed brood and only the top portion of the brood frames and the 2 end frames have stores this time of year.  They hadn't built up enough to begin working on winter stores so what stores they had were limited.  What you saw is the same thing I had and once the bees can no longer cover the capped brood it quickly dies and begins rotting in the cells.  So either freeze the combs or cut out the brood areas.

[Sean Kelly]

Thanks again everyone.

Went out there today to do some clean up and feel even more like they died of starvation.
Jody, yes the ones that survived did have honey supers loaded from that early suprise flow.

I picked through all the frames and took out the empty ones and put them all in 2 hive bodies.  The rest of the frames were still jammed with brood and bees stuck in cells head first.  It's really sad to see them dead with their little butts sticking out, like it was their last ditch effort to get something to eat and died in the process.

I put those two hive bodies on top of my existing hives to let them do some clean-up.  The other three are pretty nasty with mold and rotten larve.  I tried to pluck the larve out with my capping scratcher, but they just turned into liquid.  Did the ropiness test again just to make sure and it looked okay.  It's pretty stinky now too and I'm really afraid of putting these frames on the good hives.  How will the bees clean out rotten liquified brood without getting sick?  I tried to cut out the areas with rotten brood and just gave up because it was just making a huge mess.  I have to have to waste all that drawn foundation, but I'm afraid I might have to just throw them out.

It's really depressing, I've really grown attached to these little bugs.  Maybe I'm loosing my marbles, but I can swear I can see each colonie's personality and they've become more than just a crop... they're my pets and part of the family!  I mean, show me a dog or cat that can make me something to eat!!!  lol

Hopefully I can get some more swarm calls soon.  Maybe I'll head down to the fire department and give them my number.

Down in the dumps,

Sean Kelly

[asciibaron]

Sean,

you said it - i too have become attached to my bees and their health is always floating around in the back of my mind.  i was out of town for 2 weekends in a row in mid May and the hive swarmed.  i tried to prevent it by adding a second deep hive body, but they could not draw out the comb fast enough - the nectar was really flowing and the queen was filling frames with brood almost as fast as they could build it.  i was very nervous while waiting to see if a new queen would emerge and then start laying eggs.  i tossed and turned a few nights over that - should i let nature do it's thing or order a replacement queen.  a new queen emerged and she is doing a great job - excellent pattern and high output.

-Steve

[Cindi]

Sean, nice video.  Keep that chin up, dude!!!  Yep, I agree, ya get pretty attached to all these girls, now don't ya, I feel the same way.  I almost lost a colony a couple of days, ago, very close, a lot of dead bees, but I super fed them and hopefully they will be just set back, all the rest seem OK, they are all well fed now.  Eeeks!!!  What a crappy summer so far coming on.  We had a few days of that sun, and now the rain was back last night, oh brother.....have that wonderful and most awesome day, keepin' on keepin' on.  Cindi