Hello
I posted a few questions last spring a few times about my hive and got some great advice from this group, Esp @Tim_Purdie!
I’m hoping to get some advice/thoughts on what I found this spring and where to go from here.
Opened my hive last weekend to find the queen and about 70% of the bees dead. The remaining bees seem very healthy and active. I treated for mites in the fall with Oxalic, fed syrup, and wrapped up the hive for the winter. Everything looked good.
This spring there was LOTS of Honey left, 7-8 full frames in the upper box and all the dead bees were in the lower box. I found 2 dead clusters with mouldy bees and comb at the center. Lots of dead bees that had died with their heads stuck in cells as well.
My questions are; can I reuse any of the old honey filled frames?, will the bees clean up the mould and dead bees from the old frames? should compress the hive down to 1 box for now? I’ve ordered a new queen but should I get a nuc with queen instead?
Any idea what might have happened? I thought I had done everything correctly last fall…
Thanks