My first winter loss, what happened?

[drjeseuss]

In Indiana we had a late cold snap with considerable snow and temps below freeze. Yesterday was just below 50 so I decided to pop the top and check the sugar boards. One hive ok. Great. The other hive, all dead. Not great. I knock on the wall to hear them sometimes and they were still going a week ago, though it was 10 degrees, too cold to look in for trouble then.

  The hive configuration was, screened bottom board with solid tray in place to block drafts, slat board, 3 medium supers, sugar board, inner cover, gabled outer cover. When I dug in, the cluster was at the top super with bees still huddled in cells, all empty of food in this top box. There we several bees up in the sugar board, over half full still. I found a single frame with a small amount of brood, much of it chewed open and eaten partially. I found no pollen in the hive, but did find the middle super was filled with capped and untouched honey. Why then were the bees at the top?

What happened here? I assume the lack of pollen was the issue but why would they die now? Shouldn't the honey or sugar keep them buzzing for heat? Might they have been unable to consume the sugar due to lack of humidity from the cold?  Any theories about what went wrong here?

[Switchback]

I lost two of three hives this year so far. One hive had stores and sugar. the other almost a full deep of honey. It was just too cold for them to move to the honey or sugar. I took my last hive in a empty chicken coop to get them out of the weather. I put them in front of a window to get the sun. I took the glass out so they could get out. The next day they did cleansing flights. Then I slid a lizard heater in the bottom and cleaned out the dead bees from the full deep of honey and put it on top. Hopeful of a good outcome. I think it was too cold for too long for your bees to move to the stores.

[biggraham610]

Just cleaned up one of mine, we had a short warm spell before the temps dropped to brutal levels for over a week, frame was full of eggs 1-3 days old, bees froze spread to thin covering brood. G 

[greenbtree]

It sounds like your hive got "stuck on brood".  They start to brood up, then when the cold comes back they don't want to abandon it and won't move, and end up starving and freezing.  Happens sometimes.

JC

[capt44]

Here in Arkansas this is the time of year alot of beekeepers are screaming "My hive is dead".
As was mentioned we've had some warm weather and the bees can get spread out too thin and get too cold to cluster.
They can be right next to a frame of honey and not be able to get to it.

[OldMech]

Stuck on brood is possible, but it sounded like the brood was in the top?   I have a lot of bees coming through on sugar, had a bad fall last year..  "MY" hives survived quite well and have been flying the last couple of days.
    Of 10 Packages I bought 8 of ten are dead, just like you mention. The Local Nucs I bought I have lost three of ten. Of the 20ish hives I had of local survivors.. I have lost NONE..  Every one of the original hives is still kicking and screaming.. That includes the nucs I overwintered with "MY" queens. 
   So folks can yell that Southern Packages and packages from Hawaii get shipped to Canada every year and do JUST FINE all they want, I'm not listening any more.
   Buy the packages, get your bees started and doing well, then RE QUEEN that package with a local or northern queen, and you will be surprised how well they survive, even the worst of winters.

[drjeseuss]

Yes, there was a small patch of brood in the top box. I'm thinking the recent warm spell may have got the queen laying again, briefly. As to the bees... I had two hives going into winter. The first came from a cutout about 30 miles from here. From them, I made a split, so also local stock.  I did the split in may, but they both seemed behind in fall, so I fed sugar syrup as long as they could take it. The cutout hive seemed ok, the daughter hive still seemed behind. The prepared cutout hive was the fail. The daughter hive is still doing fine as far as I can tell. I pulled about 15 lb of honey from the failed hive... They were all above it for some unknown reason, on the top incomplete box just below the sugar board.

I plan to put the cleaned up hive back out and see if I can get an early split or graft to get it back up and running. I'll give them box at a time of the built out frames as they grow.  I planned to replace the cutout queen this summer anyway, just didn't plan for a total reset. Nature 1, bees 1... me, a half... maybe.  Lol