No bees!

[Stiffy]

I am really sorry for your loss as it is gutting to lose a colony and I hope you manage to get another soon.

This is really only a guess but I would suggest that the colony swarmed and as it was still a nuc left very few bees behind wasps then finished them off. They are persistant bxxxxrs at present

Cheers
S

 

[susbees]

We had a small nuc (three framer) with a brand new queen we were given just before going on holiday two weeks ago. Hadn't time to take the nuc to a beesitter sadly. Reduced to one beespace and clear plastic strip to try and foil robbers and stores on top (Neopoll). Opened yesterday first thing after getting home...robbing issues and numbers depleted, capped supercedure cell so moved cell to a full colony complete with its frame as colony so weak. By the time I went back about five hours later there were three bees left and the questionably viable queen gone without trace (marked).

With the current sharp dearth my money's on robbed out and cleared up. The wasps are desperate too. Sorry you're having a cr*p week...hope it looks brighter soon.

 

[tkwinston4]

We had a small nuc (three framer) with a brand new queen we were given just before going on holiday two weeks ago. Hadn't time to take the nuc to a beesitter sadly. Reduced to one beespace and clear plastic strip to try and foil robbers and stores on top (Neopoll). Opened yesterday first thing after getting home...robbing issues and numbers depleted, capped supercedure cell so moved cell to a full colony complete with its frame as colony so weak. By the time I went back about five hours later there were three bees left and the questionably viable queen gone without trace (marked).

With the current sharp dearth my money's on robbed out and cleared up. The wasps are desperate too. Sorry you're having a cr*p week...hope it looks brighter soon.

Thanks susbees and thanks everyone else for your kind words. So it looks like its the darn wasps. They are buggers and never again shall i be so naive to think that the poor bees can cope with the wasps.

So that is the bee situation cleared up, just need the chimney sorting and the car and then maybe things can get better again.

I gave up drinking two weeks ago.........god i could really do with a drink now!!!

 

[skydragon]

Then bought a new queen off beebreeder a month or so ago and moved them into a nuc

Just trying to understand the timeline a bit more, why did you move the colony into a nuc?

 

[tkwinston4]

Just trying to understand the timeline a bit more, why did you move the colony into a nuc?

Because they were down to three frames and took advice on here and from others that are more experienced - our inspector for one.

 

[Skyhook]

Just a thought- read somewhere about 'silent robbing' where colony A starts robbing colony B, and for some reason the guards don't recognise them as a threat. They basically unite themselves, and as the stores are cleared out the bees from colony B go home with the last of the robbers.

May they haven't gone, maybe they're in your WBC?

 

[skydragon]

Because they were down to three frames and took advice on here

ok, thanks for explanation.

I don't know if it's in any way the same, but I had a situation this year, where I had a nuc next to a national hive, with each containing a new swarm.

A week later when i inspected, the nuc was virtually empty (a handful of bees left) and the National hive was fuller. I beleive the bees in the Nuc had gone into the National and united.

 

[tkwinston4]

Unfortunately not skydragon. The wbc is in an out apiary.

I do have another couple of empty hives in the back garden where my nuc is and i quickly checked them this morning but unfortunately nothing.

I just hope that if they have by some miracle swarmed, they make it thru the winter in their new location.

The weather over the past few days has been horrible so if by chance they are hanging in a tree somewhere they wont be very happy!

But i suspect that its what everyone has said; the evil wasps

 

[oliver90owner]

i am so gutted and so annoyed that it must be my fault because i chose to not take a risk and inspect in crappy weather

Lets think about that one too. Would it have made any difference? I think not, so you have done what you could and they still failed. You could have done little more than unite the few bees with your other colony, had you inspected and found no brood, so no great loss there. It happens. Just that it is like drawing teeth finding enough information to piece things together.

I think a piece of paper, with the actual dates on it would reveal the true timeline and, with analysis, show how, or where, you went wrong - if you went wrong. I would think it was fairly early in the sequence, if there were, in hindsight, better alternatives that were not pursued. It is all experience. A learning curve. Bees are not really pets, so there should be no more remorse, just replace and remember the experience for the future, when another colony goes queenless.

RAB

 

[tkwinston4]

i am so gutted and so annoyed that it must be my fault because i chose to not take a risk and inspect in crappy weather

Lets think about that one too. Would it have made any difference? I think not, so you have done what you could and they still failed. You could have done little more than unite the few bees with your other colony, had you inspected and found no brood, so no great loss there. It happens. Just that it is like drawing teeth finding enough information to piece things together.

I think a piece of paper, with the actual dates on it would reveal the true timeline and, with analysis, show how, or where, you went wrong - if you went wrong. I would think it was fairly early in the sequence, if there were, in hindsight, better alternatives that were not pursued. It is all experience. A learning curve. Bees are not really pets, so there should be no more remorse, just replace and remember the experience for the future, when another colony goes queenless.

RAB

Cheers RAB xx

 

[BKF Admin]

Regards Skydragons post (Silent robbing) do the robbers tear at the combs leaving a tell tell sign if its silent ?

 

[beebreeder]

I remember our phone conversation and we both agreed it was a gamble as the colony had laying workers but they would Not have swarmed as all my queens are clipped and marked, they are also checked fopr brood pattern and temper of new queens projeny before available for sale. Gambles do not always pay off and wasps can do a lot of damage in a short time, my first season years ago I had a weeks holiday and left two strong q/right colonies and 7 days later i came home to a colony of bees and a colony of wasps,long time ago now but i dont forget what wasps can do.