# Colony Collaspe, I have lost 70 Percent of Hives in Last Month.



## jdmidwest (Jul 9, 2012)

4th year beekeeper here. Started with a hive in 2012, added 2 nucs in spring 2013. I have done walk away splits and bought 4 queens since to grow the apiary into its peak last fall of 19 hives. Ten hives in backyard and 9 hives at our farm 50 miles away.

Farm hives took a hit last fall and winter, down to 4 hives there. Hives in backyard at the house where I could keep an eye on made it thru the winter with only one weak one in the bunch. It failed in May leaving me nine.

I gathered honey in the middle of July from the 9 hives at the house and the 4 at the farm. All hives seemed to be doing pretty good. Then one hive at the house started getting robbed and a massacre of bees in front of it. I reduced all the rest to winter entrances to keep things calm. Next week, another one robbed out. Next week, another one robbed out. Next week, another one robbed out. This week, 2 gone. I only have 3 left in back yard.

All but the last had good stores of nectar and honey. There was a pile of bees killed in front of the hives, but no capped brood in the comb. The last hive had some spotty brood on 2 or 3 frames, but looked like normal brood, no disease. The last hive must have been empty and without stores, no torn cappings or comb.

Now for the rest of the story. I developed cancer last winter and had a pretty intensive surgery. Having been thru enough pain for the year, I really let the bees ride this spring. I did not do splits or inspections. I just added supers and let them do their thing. All queens should have been at least 2 years old or last years queens. There may have been swarming, I did not keep on top of it. I really thought if I left them alone, they may make a good crop of honey. But that was dismal.

I think most may have swarmed. I think, they may have failed to make a queen and just petered out as the bees remaining got older. We had a few cold snaps and swarming started early this year. Then we had a June dearth which was odd.

Can anyone think of any disease this time of year that may have caused this?


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## DaisyNJ (Aug 3, 2015)

First, sorry about your personal situation and hope you beat it. 

First year, but saw one Nuc go from healthy to severe DWV infection and it finally took the queen with it, population slowly dwindled for couple of months. They built comb and put nectar away more than any other Nuc the backyard. 

So, what, if anything, was done for mites/ treatments ? 

Someone here mentioned that you could send dead bees to USDA for analysis. Its free and that may tell you something.


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## whiskers (Aug 28, 2011)

I have no advice for you, but I will hope you have a good outcome with that cancer thing.
Bill


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## GZB (Jan 29, 2013)

My 2000 mile assessment is that you harvested too much honey and they starved enough to kill each other in robbing raids. Take it with a shaker of salt. It's dry as all get out here and I didn't dare harvest honey this summer, so it colors my judgement.

Hope your health is improving...that stuff is hard to beat, no matter what the media wants us to believe.


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

if you didn't treat for mites, when the first one got robbed out, the mite level in the other hives increased, and continued to increase with each robb out. good luck with your recovery


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Your colonies likely suffered the one two punch of Varroa/Virus.


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## jdmidwest (Jul 9, 2012)

The cancer was removed along with a third of my tongue. That was replaced with a graft from my arm and is doing well. I am fully recovered now and healed, cancer free. The tumor was the only location, so no chemo or radiation. I can still talk, eat, and taste at near normal level.

I did not treat for mites. The honey harvest was dismal, only 2 supers off of nine hives All hives were 2 deeps and a super. Deeps were filled out pretty well at the end of June when I harvested.

The hives were void of brood when I tore them down. Only the last one yesterday had some spotty capped brood, maybe 5 to 10 on each side of a few frames. When I take them out of the freezer, I will check the brood for mites.

Wax worms took over pretty quick. Seems like all starting crashing the day I was leaving town for the weekend on a trip. By the time I got back 3-4 days later to break the hive down, worms had taken over. A couple had large masses of black ants in the corner of the box or inner cover. There were many small hive beetles in the last one that failed, but no worms.

The 4 at the remote farm made 1 super between the 4 by the end of June and all were strong the last time I saw them a few weeks back. Bees bearded all over the front and underneath. I have not seen that at the backyard since back in early June. Only one of the remaining 3 have a beard now.

I really think swarmed and failed to make a queen or maybe the neighbors used some pesticide on the garden and they brought it back. But I never saw any sickly bees or any strange activity around any of the hives until they started getting robbed.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Do you know how to and did you check for mites?


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## jdmidwest (Jul 9, 2012)

I have done the alcohol test for mites. I did not check this season. Like I said, they have been on autopilot this season because of the cancer.

They took a very large chunk out of my arm to make my new tongue. It is just now getting back to 100 percent use.


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## pinkpantherbeekeeper (Feb 10, 2016)

Condolences on getting cancer but congrats on kicking its butt!!! :thumbsup:

My 2 cents... 

As most people suggest, I too would lean on mites. Seems to be a culprit that leads to other issues by weakening the hives. However was there any scale from dead larve in the cells? It might be hard to tell now but always good to rule out something more serious.

For now, if you can test for mites that'd be great. On the flip side, most every hive is going to have mites, so you might as well treat. OAV is relatively easy to apply and doesnt require you to open the hive. The distance to you hives at the farm might be an issue but a few trips and it can be finished and the hives good for the winter. 

Also to save the remaining hives, you might consider combining some. If several are week and low on food stores for winter, I'd do a newspaper combine. No point in letting several mediocre hives fail over winter if you can have a great strong one next spring.

Good Luck!


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## orthoman (Feb 23, 2013)

First, hope the cancer is gone forever -- your health is way more important than a few boxes of bugs. 

In regards to the bees -- Ditto the Mite diagnosis


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Probably been stated many times but I'll post it again because it's so important that people understand.
In August and September the bees are ramping down their baby bee production at the same time as the varroa mites are ramping up theirs.
This boils down to more mites per bee and that increases over time. At some point the colony collapses. Diseases are transmitted and the higher concentration of mites means every bee gets "it" whatever it is. Deformed wing virus is the one I hate to see. I see one deformed bee and it's time to treat. (for me) 
After treating I can actually see improvement in the bees health and how the colony behaves so I'm firmly in the treatment camp with both feet. Couple members here steered me right and I'd like to thank them. They know who they are.


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## jdmidwest (Jul 9, 2012)

I have finally figured it out. Small Hive Beetles.

Wet summer here. First hive had several wigglers in it that I dumped out on the ground. I assume it snowballed and keep moving along to the other hives. Last time I looked at the remaining hives there were lots of the beetles in them. One was bearding really bad, opened the hive and found the inside was unbearable for them. Another has about as many beetles coming and going as bees. I am down to one last strong hive.

I burned the last 2 hives that died out, killing most of the wigglers. Next chance I get between rains, I will put the other two out of their misery. I may be able to move the queen and some bees into a nuc and feed them enough to get them thru the winter. I am going to nuke the ground in the apiary with permethrin soak when the rain stops to stop larva cycle.

Good news, I caught a feral swarm out at the remote farm and am actually up one hive there.


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## ChuckReburn (Dec 17, 2013)

jdmidwest said:


> I have finally figured it out. Small Hive Beetles.


Guess again. They are a secondary pest. Healthy hives seldom have any issue. As some one who runs a number of treatment free yards and minimally treats, I attribute almost all loss to varroa / virus issues.


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## Bdfarmer555 (Oct 7, 2015)

Shb have been horrible here this year. 2 floods, and the most summer rain on record, I believe. 

I've had a couple hives full of brood that a week later are carrying out corpses of larvae and pupae, with beetle larvae everywhere. I'm assuming, of course, that those beetle larvae had bitten/killed the bee brood while burrowing through the comb. Thousands of shb larvae crawling through the comb and on the bottom board. 

Caught a swarm this fall, and 2 weeks later their nuc box had many adult beetles in it, with 12-15 hovering at the entrance like bees doing orientation flights. The bees hauling out the dead larvae had attracted a sizable population of frogs preying on the overloaded bees. Nature at its craziest. 

A lot of people say strong hive, no shb problems, and that seems true. But a hive at 80% strength was susceptible in certain areas this year


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## jdmidwest (Jul 9, 2012)

Our wet year has them going. My local hives have been exposed to small hive beetle. 

The remote hives at our farm in Wayne County have not had a problem. No other beekeepers or hives within 10 miles, no SHB.

I will be treating the soil this week with Permethrin to get rid of the larva at my house. Then I will restock that bee yard next spring with new stock.


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## McBain (Aug 23, 2016)

What do you grow at the farm and do you (or a neighboring farm) spray? If so what do you spray? Are there farms close to your home? 

Do you know if there is another beekeeper who has hives within a few miles of your home? 

Hope you continue to do well after your surgery.


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