# One Colony Gone



## foxtrapper (Dec 23, 2003)

Well crud, went and took a quick look in the hives today since it was warm. One of them is gone. They were fine just a month ago, going strong. Full of bees and stores.

Now it's empty, with just a softball sized cluster of dead bees loosely gathered at the front top of the box. Probably 200 bees at the most. Sigh. 

Guess I'll give the state inspector a call, as he's wanted reports of things like this.


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## Use Less (Nov 8, 2007)

Sounds like CCD, that has/should have everyone worried. No bees, way less food. Sue


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## damoc (Jul 14, 2007)

sounds like mites did you treat with anything?


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## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

Sounds like mites to me also. I've lost one colony so far- Late season combine and must have lost/killed the queen and the colony just dwindled away.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Top front of the box? Sounds like starvation to me and maybe a bit of mite problem too. probably why a small cluster.

 Al


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## foxtrapper (Dec 23, 2003)

No, not starvation. No one was head down in the cells, just loosely balled up in the area, sitting on plenty of capped honey. 

Not sure why some of you are saying it sounds like mites to you. Why say you that? 

I didn't medicate them this year for tracheal or varoa mites. I use a continuous grease patty method, as well open bottoms. My counts were low on varoa on all hives, no indication of tracheal mites.

Like I said, this hive was going strong just last month. Boiling with bees, loaded with stores for winter. Poof, gone.


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## damoc (Jul 14, 2007)

the biggest strongest hives are the ones often hit hardest and fastest by varroa probably because of the large amounts of brood ie plenty of places for the varroa to reproduce.and it can happen fast and seemingly without reason
once the varroa reach critical mass within weeks it used to be a rule of thumb
that once you started noticing deformed wings the colony was doomed even if it was very strong and full of stores.

I am going to have trouble describing this but here goes

does the colony have areas which were large areas of brood say 70% of the
frame which are now empty with only a few dead bees in the cells this is an indication of a hive which colapsed quickly and did not have the young worker
force to clean and care for the hive as it rapidly dwindled (probably because of DWV killing of the young bees)


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## sparky5982 (Nov 25, 2007)

Colony collapse disorder has a few very specific symptoms. If you're missing any of these, it's not CCD:

a. Complete absence of adult bees. You have too many dead bees in the hive for CCD.
b. Capped Brood Present: Do you have capped brood? It would be dead now of course, but look.
c. Ample stores that is not robbed/set upon by moths, etc. immediately. Since it is winter, the cold keeps away other bees/moths/beetles, so you can't tell on this one.

Also, carefully go through the ball of dead bees and see if you can find a queen. CCD cases always have a queen present.

If you think you have a case of CCD, call your local apiary inspector. They'll have a lot more info for you and they want to hear about stuff like this.

I agree with most of the posters above. It's probably varroa. Or nosema or DWV, exacerbated by varroa. You said you didn't need to treat your hives this past year. How were you sampling for mites?

Sorry for your loss. I have a charity case that won't make it, in all likelihood.


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