Hey Folks-
Trying to figure out a mystery. First year with my Flow but I’ve been keeping Bees for about 5 years and I live in Eastern Nebraska in the U.S.
I harvested my flow frames in our typical harvest time frame mid to late September and was very happy with my first year with Flow and pulling out about 5 gallons total. I then prepared for winter as I usually would, removing the Honey Supers and scaling back for winter. I also verified the honey stores below were adequate for winter and the colony appeared to be strong and ready for our cold season
Now here we are a month later and upon inspection, there are zero bees in the hive and very few dead bees…AND all of the frames are full of capped honey. I guess if the colony was diseased or weak I would see noticeable amounts of dead bees. Furthermore, if the colony was weak or diseased I would assume I would see signs of robbing or plenty of uncapped cells. I’m not familiar with a swarm just prior to winter, any thoughts on what may have occurred? Hard to believe they would swarm this time of year with so much honey stored??
Sounds a little like my colony last month. There were still a few workers in mine, but no queen, brood, and almost dry stores. It was also infested with wax moths. They probably came in after heavy varroa die-off (even tho I treated) OR after the queen & major population absconded (because of overwhelming circumstances in the hive).