Dead Out!

Oh no. My first dead hive! All three were alive two weeks ago but now I'm down to two.

This was my favorite hive too. The most honey, the least defensive and the least swarmy. So depressing. I think the problem may have been related to the late supersedure last fall. Maybe they didn't have enough time to raise a good population of winter bees? It's pretty common to lose hives over the winter so I guess my luck finally ran out.

They were still in the bottom box, all off to the east side for some reason. Lots of dead bees in the bottom and in front of the hive. Some signs of dysentery on the last three frames.

The top box was still full of honey. It's looking a little moldy but I hear it's still ok to use. The bees will clean everything up when I put a new hive together.

Ick. Moldy pollen frame. Not sure they will want this one.

This is the top deep. So full of honey I could hardly carry it to the shed. I'm hoping I can re-use the frames in April by splitting up a strong hive into two. That should help with swarming too. Gotta get through the next two months first...