Hi! I am new beekeeper, I got spring bees last year and had an amazing summer production. I winterized my hive by taking the super off and leave the comb and honey in the brood box. The bees seemed healthy.
I haven’t seen activity in several months, which felt normal because of the cold weather.
I noticed a couple weeks ago that skunks or raccoons had been scratching at the entrance to the hive.
It has been warm lows of 40’s high up to high 70’s and I still didn’t see any movement so today I opened up and I saw the cluster of bees but I tapped the hive but didn’t hear an noise, there where only 2 pees flying around. Do you think my hive has died ?
Hi, welcome to the Forum, and I’m really sorry you’re dealing with this.
Based on what you described, it does sound very likely that the colony has died.
Please send us photos of the brood frames if you can.
We would be happy to help with suggestions once we have a clearer picture of what has gone on inside the hive.
It does look like you still have a very small cluster of bees that are alive.
Can you see if they have any honey or pollen stored in the frames? Is there a Queen, or brood?
If they are alive, I would suggest feeding them.
I am very sorry, but that looks like a hive which has died and then grown mold (mildew) on the brood caps. Given the amount of brood, they probably didn’t starve. I would suspect that Varroa is the most likely cause. The mold doesn’t kill the bees, it just gets prolific when the bees are not strong enough to clean it up.
