Half way done with this. . .

[doodlemaier]

The bees of Isis are definitely dead. I tore down their hive on Thanksgiving Day, one of the Japanese frameless that I had started to transition earlier in summer. Much like the Kenyan top bar that died ealier and only a few yards away, their combs were empty, no stores, no brood. Unlike the Ktbh here was no sign of any kind of infestation; no small hive beetle or varroa, no nasty smell of dead bees or fermenting honey. I didn't tear into the combs, only separated the supers into manageable pairs, enough that I might move around and look down inside. Only the dry, empty and perfectly straight combs with a few hundred dead bees.

The hives in Front Royal are still pulling strong, particularly Brigid which has had no interventions and is busily filling her combs with bright orange pollen even today. I wonder if the demise of both Annandale hives is a pesticide issue. I already sent in a sample from the Ktbh to the BARC and the results from the lab didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, and didn't mention anything deeper. Somehow I doubt it would do any good to send another sample with the suspicion that it might be related to pesticides, for that is a very special and guarded type of corruption.

I will leave the Front Royal bees to die, too. In the Spring we'll part ways with this house for better or worse. I haven't figured out what I'll do should I actually have living colonies in the Spring.

Comments

[doodlemaier]

I suspect that this colony absconded and didn't die at all. One thing I'd like to mention about them that I seem to have neglected to record in any of the notes about their management: When I began to transition the colony into framed hive bodies I also misted a solution of mineral oil and tea tree EO across the tops of the combs and around the perimeter of the brood nest a a treatment for mites. I wonder now if that perhaps was mixed a little strong and prompted them to start leaving their nest to rebuild and then rob out their summer stores. . . .