West Central Indiana empty hives

[wayne]

  I was getting my swarm traps ready, and stopped by to check on the feral hives I keep a watch on. All 4 are dead.
  Went by a friend who has 6 hives from a neighboring beek on his land, and was told that  only 2 made it through our short cold spell, and both "dissapeared" in the last couple weeks.
  Still checking but 10 for 10 looks bad so far.

[ayyon2157]

       I only had one hive, and it didn't survive.  It was on small cells and received no medication.  Left was 2 plus hive bodies of honey. They seem to have died very early in the season, as very little honey was used.  A mouse had gotten in before I put the restricted entrance in, and survived nicely on dead bees and probably some honey.

     Someone has eight double hive bodies about a mile from me, and it looks like he lost at least half over winter. My hive contained dead bees, and it looks like the ones near me did also. judging from the debris from cleaning out the hives.

     I am allowing other bees to rob the honey from my hive, and some of the robber bees are dieing. I find them on the landing board, and under the top cover.  Some are very dopey and can barely crawl.

     There had been quite a lot of feral bees in this area last year, after being completely gone for a decade or more.

    I am in NE Indiana, near Ft Wayne.  We seem to have been hit hard.  We are also in big soybean and corn country.

ayyon2157