My bees are dying :(

[mirandaleecon]

I have lost about 25 hives in the last month and I cannot figure out what is going on.
Some background; I had two hives for a while, a bear took one out and decided I wanted to get some more. I came across a good deal but I had to buy about 70 hives. I had always wanted to make this a business so I figured what the hell. I realize now I may have gotten a bit over my head and that these hives were so cheap because they were not the healthiest. Too late to change what I've done so I've got to do the best I can with what's left...

Anyway, back to the bees dying or more so disappearing. I have found several hives that have been taken over by hive moths, so no way to figure out what happened to them. A handful of hives had a few dead bees, but not many.
Most of the deadouts I have found are just empty. No brood. No bees. No honey. No pollen. No queen cells. Nothing.
What would cause this? Would 25 hives abscond in that short of a time period? Even if they abscond, wouldn't there be some brood left?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

It sounds like they are absconding. The reasons for this are frequent disturbances, parasites, extreme heat or lack of food.

How established were the hives when you purchased them? It could be the stronger hives are raiding the week ones. This would account for no stores and the bees absconding. Constant disturbance and lack of food.

The steps I'd take first is to put entrance reducers on all hives (all but the strongest at least). Inspect all hives but do it later in the day so not to work up the raiders into a frenzy to where they'll rob another just inspected hive. Once the weak hives are found move them to a different location. You may want to combine weak hives too. One way and not kill one of the queens is to use a queen restrictor between two hives. This will give strength to the stack to prevent robbing as the two colonies will work together and the queens can't kill each other.

Any colonies with little stores you'll want to provide syrup until they build up stores.

If those weak hives still don't gain strength fast then it's likely they need requeening. Old queens preforming poorly and time for new. Best time to do that is spring when the colony is at it's smallest and you can find the old queen easier.

Check the bottom boards for mites too. There is an easy treatment using powdered sugar so they preen each other but honestly I'd do as little as possible to the hives right now if they are absconding already. When you do the inspection be as quick and unobtrusive as possible. Little to no smoke and just check a frame or two to get idea of strength of hive and brood pattern.

One of the main disturbance problems is beekeepers themselves so it's always a balancing act with new and or weak hives as to aiding and still keeping them in place.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

A great source and Q&A site is HoneyBeeSuite dot com.

 

[Attila the Hen]

I don't have bees and never have but I have been following the problem on the news. Put bee colony collapse in your search engine and you will see this is a serious problem. Most recently I heard they believe it is the use of an insecticide but I don't recall which one it is.

The consequences of the problem is that if all bees die plants will not be pollenated and we humans will have a food shortage. So it's an issue of concern for everyone not just those who have hives.

Good luck.

 

[mirandaleecon]

It sounds like they are absconding. The reasons for this are frequent disturbances, parasites, extreme heat or lack of food.

How established were the hives when you purchased them? It could be the stronger hives are raiding the week ones. This would account for no stores and the bees absconding. Constant disturbance and lack of food.

The steps I'd take first is to put entrance reducers on all hives (all but the strongest at least). Inspect all hives but do it later in the day so not to work up the raiders into a frenzy to where they'll rob another just inspected hive. Once the weak hives are found move them to a different location. You may want to combine weak hives too. One way and not kill one of the queens is to use a queen restrictor between two hives. This will give strength to the stack to prevent robbing as the two colonies will work together and the queens can't kill each other.

Any colonies with little stores you'll want to provide syrup until they build up stores.

If those weak hives still don't gain strength fast then it's likely they need requeening. Old queens preforming poorly and time for new. Best time to do that is spring when the colony is at it's smallest and you can find the old queen easier.

Check the bottom boards for mites too. There is an easy treatment using powdered sugar so they preen each other but honestly I'd do as little as possible to the hives right now if they are absconding already. When you do the inspection be as quick and unobtrusive as possible. Little to no smoke and just check a frame or two to get idea of strength of hive and brood pattern.

One of the main disturbance problems is beekeepers themselves so it's always a balancing act with new and or weak hives as to aiding and still keeping them in place.

Thank you for your response! These hives were used in a commercial business and I believe I got them right after they harvested the honey from them. So they were well established at the time. When they delivered them, they didn't close them up and transported them on a flatbed, which was about a two hour drive. I think this may have weakened some of them.
I think one of the issues is small hive beetles but that doesn't seem consistent with the dead hives as some of the traps will have lots of beetles but some don't have a single one. We have many weak hives and I have been combining the ones I know don't have a queen but I think I will start combining more with the queen excluders so I don't have to mess with them so much. I hadn't thought of that before, so thank you!
I know some of the hives have mites but when I have checked, none of them seem overloaded. Maybe 3 mites at most in an alcohol wash but usually 1 or two. We did do sugar dusting when we first got them but that was months ago. Waiting for the weather to cool down and I'm going to treat with oxalic acid.
We've been trying to provide sugar syrup but haven't come up with an efficient method yet. Mason jars on the hive last about a day (and seem to provoke robbing) and a five gallon bucket community feeder lasts about a day. I hadn't planned on feeding to be honest, I always intended to just leave their own stores but they definitely need it now. Next year I will just leave them plenty...

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Yeah, bees from fruit tree pollinating jobs will be weak. It is the insecticides. The largest bee keeper in Vermont stopped pollinating orchards about a decade ago. He couldn't see the point in losing a third of his colonies anymore. Geared over to raising queens and providing wintered nucleus hives instead. Makes more money that way and always has nucleus hives to boost weak production hives and can requeen his own hives with a bee that is hygenic and good in this climate.

The thing is if a hive is strong it can take care of hive beetles, mites, etc. Once weak they can be overwhelmed.

 

[Mutt Farm]

Yeah, bees from fruit tree pollinating jobs will be weak. It is the insecticides. The largest bee keeper in Vermont stopped pollinating orchards about a decade ago. He couldn't see the point in losing a third of his colonies anymore. Geared over to raising queens and providing wintered nucleus hives instead. Makes more money that way and always has nucleus hives to boost weak production hives and can requeen his own hives with a bee that is hygenic and good in this climate.

The thing is if a hive is strong it can take care of hive beetles, mites, etc. Once weak they can be overwhelmed.

I'm posting to follow. I'm not a "bee keeper", but my Dad was. We have always had swarms and plenty of honeybees here and a natural hive in an old whiskey barrel. They are gone, so few now. I'm in So Cal and our bees have all but disappeared along with the Monarch butterfly. I hope our state recovers, they just this week passed a law that folks can keep hives within city limits.

@Egghead_Jr what insectacides?