My bees never caped the honey and now it’s all gone. And my bee population when form 100’s of thousands to now just thousands? Not sure what I did wrong? I never saw a queen cell, a side from a few hive beetles i thought my hive was very healthy.
Anyone in my area have this problem? If so what did you do about it?
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Maybe you missed a queen cell and they swarmed! That’s probably most likely. Have any pictures to share?
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Diffnently possible! I still don’t understand why they did not ever cap the honey and now it’s all gone?
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They gorge on honey (and nectar) in the hours and days prior to swarming, probably why it’s gone.
If they didn’t have enough time to dry it out, they wouldn’t have capped it.
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Never capped it since when? Honey from last Fall, or this season’s honey? Same question applies to over what time period it has gone.
How often do you inspect your hive? If you are not inspecting every 2 weeks or so during the nectar flow season, you can easily miss a swarm. I agree with @chau06, unless you inspect regularly, you can very easily miss a swarm.
To go back to the capping question, there are multiple reasons that bees may not cap the honey. Here are a few that come to mind:
- There is a strong flow on, and they can’t dry it fast enough
- The weather is very humid, which will make number 1 above more of a problem
- Winter is approaching (not true right now, of course). When winter starts to get near, bees often leave honey uncapped, even if it is ripe. This is for several reasons. First, when the weather is colder, it is much harder for them to shape the wax into caps. Second, winter is often a time of nectar dearth. There is no point in capping food that you are going to need very soon. Finally, even if the honey isn’t completely ripe, they don’t want to fan honey in a hive that they are also trying hard to keep warm.
Hope that helps a bit with the concepts. It really would help to know how often you have been inspecting though 
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Hi Alan, a few things can cause a colony to dramatically dwindle. The obvious is swarming. Disease is another cause. Another one is the hive going queenless, which happens.
It’s important to monitor the strength of the colony on a regular basic. It’s also important to do brood checks & learn how to “read the brood”, as @Dawn_SD says especially during swarm season.
It would be good if you could post some photos of the brood, because you can learn a lot about what’s going on with a colony by inspecting the brood frames.
cheers
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