# My bees were attacked by larger bees! (or maybe wasps)



## Beetell (Jun 12, 2012)

Sorry, pictures didn't upload for some reason.
Here is a link to my pics: http://s1050.photobucket.com/albums.../?action=view&current=Comparison.jpg&newest=1


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## Beetell (Jun 12, 2012)

http://s1050.photobucket.com/albums.../?action=view&current=Comparison.jpg&newest=1


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## Tazcan (Mar 25, 2012)

I think those are drones.


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## Tazcan (Mar 25, 2012)

I looked at your photos again and realized there were videos also.
I did not see any capped brood, just drone brood could your queen be gone or maybe she is a drone laying queen?
If so your bees may just be dieing off as there is nothing to replace them and the bees that are left are doing their best to clean up with workers they have left.
I also read that bees will die head first in a cell when they are starved.

I am a newbee but have learned alot sense i got throwed into it so i am just going by what i have learned so far or think i have learned anyhow.

The experts will chime in soon.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

It sounds like your hive either had a drone-layer queen or lost their queen and developed laying workers. Were then no longer capable of producing viable worker brood, raised nothing but the larger bees (drones), the old workers gradually died off until there weren't enough of them to defend the hive and it was robbed out.


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## dixiebooks (Jun 21, 2010)

Nearly all drones in those pics. -james


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## BEES4U (Oct 10, 2007)

Slide #11 shows a comb without honey. It does show worker bees covering a brood frame. What date was slide #11 taken?
Slide #13 shows drones about to be expelled from the hive.
Starvation is possible.


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## Beetell (Jun 12, 2012)

Thanks for all your ideas about what may have happened to the bees. The question is who ripped up all the larvae? Also, can I re-use the comb or does it carry desease?


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Every piece of beekeeping equipment carries the possibility of disease or chemical exposure. You need to decide that risk based on what you see and smell. When you get past one hive how are you going to isolate a super to a single hive. I have yet to hear of anyone with 10 or 100 hives that does not use supers from one on another. You need to learn the symptoms of AFB and keep the hive healthy for everything else. An apiary is like a day care center. Kids from neighboring hives share viruses and everything else no matter where they live so what are you really stopping. There are strays or feral bees, unmanaged that visit more than anyone.


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