wasp wipe out???

[goodbobby]

I 've recently finished moving my 2 remaining colonies about 50 feet to a new nearby apiary site ( 3 feet at a time) over a few months. The new tenants looked fine two weeks ago, good activity, looking healthy and good numbers. I have fed them autumn sugar syrup twice in the intervening fortnight but was mortified on my inspection this morning to find the hives completely empty no bees, brood or stores....feeders empty...So they hadn't swarmed (no qcs and a bit late for that anyway ) and as there were a few wasps around can only assume that they are the culprits. But, I would have thought the bees were in sufficient numbers to stick up for themselves? I did see a hornet nosing around last week but am at a loss to ascertain the cause of this Marie Celeste event.........Any ideas???

 

[Erichalfbee]

So you looked in two weeks ago and there was BIAS. So there should still be capped brood.
Are the cells ragged and torn indicating robbing? Then they could have been robbed out and absconded but I’m still puzzled by no capped brood.
Somebody has stolen them?

 

[drex]

In my early days I had a hive totally overrun by wasps. Nothing in it apart from thousands of wasps. They cleared stores, brood, the lot.

 

[Michael ECB's]

So you looked in two weeks ago and there was BIAS. So there should still be capped brood.
Are the cells ragged and torn indicating robbing? Then they could have been robbed out and absconded but I’m still puzzled by no capped brood.
Somebody has stolen them?

Had sort of something similar happen perhaps 2 weeks ago - I was gutted to discover another one of my colonies robbed out.... For me what made it worse was all the brood left behind.- Frames of it... all dead!... Below the brood box was a mess, small pieces of wax and debris from shredded frames.... For those of those who have been unfortunate enough to have experienced this,,,, you will know what i'm talking about.... I dont even know how to describe it - Tiny shredder pulled over frames?

The slap in the face was one bee left on the frames, a single individual was left behind to tell the tale....

If box still in shed will try and take a pic of bottom board to show debris....

 

[Wingy]

Had a Nuc destroyed in a week, it was weak & I was considering a unite anyway. When I opened it up there were about 100 bees clung to the side wall protecting the Q. As it happened I suffered a late swarm loss so the laying Q went in there and the 100 or so bees shook out to beg their way into other hives

 

[philipm]

I had the same problem from there being hardly any wasps they just descended on my hives and decimated them bees, brood ,stores there was nothing left just a pile of dead bees on the floor of the hives. All you can do is put it down to experience and try harder next year.

 

[goodbobby]

next

 

[goodbobby]

Thanks for your replies...The mystery is that the hives were pretty active last week but there is now minimal trace of wasps about, no debris on the OM floors, no residual brood and no evidence of robbing ragged cells or dead bees. I also don't think a single Hornet would have upset the colonies to trigger this calamity

I have been moving the hives weekly into the new apiary area and each move has always involved an inspection re brood etc. However in the last couple of weeks with the hives eventually in their final new positions, in order not to over-stress them I have not been looking in the brood boxes so despite the good activity last week they may have already become queen-less without me realising and then been subject to a major was wasp raid.

I've considered bee rustling but there is a lot of other equipment on site but nothing was touched, no frames were taken and anyway the apiary is well out of the way behind large locked gates so this is unlikely.....Looks like a winter clean-up and starting again next year....because of the apiary move I was unable to set wasp traps locally this year and it will certainly be a priority next season.....

Bob

 

[Michael ECB's]

The slap in the face was one bee left on the frames, a single individual was left behind to tell the tale....

If box still in shed will try and take a pic of bottom board to show debris....

Unfortunately the box was already "bumped out" but debris can be clearly seen.... This is what was left still clinging to the floor... Imagine the entire bottom board completely covered... Heart breaking...
Sorry, not the best of pics...

 

[Erichalfbee]

Unfortunately the box was already "bumped out" but debris can be clearly seen.... This is what was left still clinging to the floor... Imagine the entire bottom board completely covered... Heart breaking...
Sorry, not the best of pics...

 

[Michael ECB's]

It wont be the last time,,, I have quite a few "agro" colonies around...
Only the strongest survives - well in some of my sites anyway...
Boxes spread out all over the place... Food is scarce...

 

[Kaz]

Had a Nuc destroyed in a week, it was weak & I was considering a unite anyway. When I opened it up there were about 100 bees clung to the side wall protecting the Q. As it happened I suffered a late swarm loss so the laying Q went in there and the 100 or so bees shook out to beg their way into other hives

I have noticed a lot of references to shaking out bees on the forum and as arelatively new beek I am interested to know why they are shaken out rather than doing, say, a paper unite?

 

[Wingy]

I have noticed a lot of references to shaking out bees on the forum and as arelatively new beek I am interested to know why they are shaken out rather than doing, say, a paper unite?

In this case there were just not enough bees to realistically set up a combine & I stole their Q to give to a bigger colony that was Q-