Dead brood and no stores...

[Biscuit7991]

Hi all, sorry if this has been done before (I have been browsing but found nothing exactly like my situation...) So, my dilemma is this; last week (July 26th) I opened one of my hives and saw a healthy colony with lots of bees and brood. I decided to add another box (Note that I don't use foundation or queen excludes and I use the Rose Hive Method. When I added a box I pyramided three frames up to encourage the bees to move into the new space.) Today when I opened this hive I was a bit unsettled. I found that the bees had all clustered towards the entrance of the hive, leaving behind to the brood to the rear of the hive. A wasp flew out carrying a larvae and the bees had not built any new comb; it almost seemed as though the population in the hive had decreased. After examining the frames, I saw that a lot of brood had died, there was unsealed larvae and pupae (both worker and drone) and some the heads of these pupae were completely hollow. I pulled out some of the dead brood and saw no sign of varroa, however I have seen some bees with deformed wings in the past, but only one or two at a time. Some of the larvae looked as though they had black/brown tops. (Note that there was much more sealed brood than there was unsealed in the rear of the hive.) As far as the main cluster of bees is concerned, they seemed a bit groggy and slow, but over all healthy. The queen was seen and some eggs were seen (though not as much as I would have liked to have seen) and there was sealed brood. No stores were seen. Admittedly there was little to no stores last week also and I had intended on buying sugar but I completely forgot. I have purchased sugar tonight however and I will feed tomorrow. What I have done for now is remove the box I added last week and moved the frames back down into the bottom box (the hive is now only one box high). When I did this the hive seemed to be overflowing with bees again. So, any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated. I'm currently thinking that they got chilled due to there being too much space (plus the weather has been terribly wet and cold for the past week or so). What do you think?
Thanks.

 

[Cazza]

It sounds as if they are starving with no stores. Feed them asap.
Cazza

 

[Biscuit7991]

That's my thinking too, thanks for the quick reply I'm going to prepare the syrup now so I can feed them first thing.

 

[Hawklord]

Looks like starvation rather than too much space. You need to get some 1:1 syrup into them first thing in the morning. Spray them with some of the syrup if you can.

 

[Cazza]

Good idea.
When the weather is poor,as it has been and there is little forage, you need to check for stores and act sooner rather than later. I fed two colonies last weekend and was very glad I did as the weather here was dire last week.
Cazza

 

[Finman]

.
When weathers are poor, it is not good idea to split brood area, and make them draw foundations. I bet that brood has chilled.

If food is finish, bees will die too.

.

 

[Biscuit7991]

Thanks for all your replies Much appreciated. I have given them some syrup this morning and whilst I was there they were really active and seemed more alert than yesterday. I'll keep feeding them for a while to see how they do. If there is no improvement I'll contact the bee inspector. Thanks again

 

[Biscuit7991]

Hi all, just thought I'd let you know that the bees are doing really well again now since I fed them, plus the weather has picked up a bit here too Thanks for your help!

 

[dpearce4]

I would keep on feeding them now as there is no chance that you will get a crop now. You may as well start your winter preparations.