Lost my last hive

[pargyle]

There's a fair bet that if you do nothing you'll end up with laying workers & ruined comb. I'd just shake them out & move on. I believe there are other hives at the apiary(?), & if not, they're in the middle if a forest aren't they?

Yes ... comes a point where it's too much effort for too little gain ... shake out and move on ... but remember to remove the existing hive AND STAND ... otherwise they will be hanging about.

 

[jeff33]

A test frame will probably do nothing other than tell you if there is a queen as your bees will be too old to raise any descent Qcs.
Sad to say but you don't have any options with overwintered bees like that, especially as you don't have any other hives to combine with. A mated queen will be wasted money.

Sorry to hear you have lost all your hives, 4/4 is a kick in the teeth and I would definitely look for lessons learnt to make sure it doesn't happen again.Size of hives going into winter (combine in the autumn to only overwinter strong hives), varroa treatment(as it has been said above treat autumn, winter, and spring), queen strength, etc.

 

[Do224]

Well I’ve compromised and shook all the bees down into an empty super where they can see out their days without bothering anyone. I’m guessing they’ll only last perhaps a week without any stores?

As an aside, I had a bit of a surprise as I started shaking bees off frames (not a nice surprise!)…