My bees are gonners

Our hive went gangbusters last year (it’s first year), and came through winter in great shape. May rolls around and the queen isn’t laying much so we requeen. She started laying and we saw an increase in activity.
Checked the hive tonight and it had been demolished by wax moth larvae! We found the queen, cleaned up the few frames that have brood, and moved her to a clean box. Everything else is bagged up and waiting to go in the freezer to kill the pest.
There’s a tiny chance she’ll survive and keep laying. We put in syrup and there are a good number of bees still alive, but almost no brood.
I thought we had saved them with the new queen. It is so disappointing to face losing them again.

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Your new queen failed. Probably not properly mated. If you have another colony and not laying workers in the failing hive, you can join with another colony and save the workers. You need to check your bees a little more frequently.

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Nope, only the one. We checked every two to three weeks. They seemed to be rebounding with lots of brood and young bees. I guess we didn’t know what the bees were telling us. Books and internet can only carry you so far.
Now I get to choose between new trees this fall or new bees next spring.

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I once had a weak colony like that and to my surprise a large aggressive swarm moved in and took the hive from them! Best trade I ever made! More times than not robbers or wax moths or both get them. Keeping bees can be a tough business. Sorry to read of your difficulties having experienced it I know how that feels to find a hive full of webs and larvae tunneling through your costly honey comb.

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Wait…did you suggest checking the bees more often? WHAT!!! :slight_smile: hahaha You knew I’d have to give you a hard time about that after all the lectures you have given me for checking on mine too often! hahaha. Don’t worry…I know there is a happy median between me opening my hive every few days and @KYWeaver apparently not opening hers enough. But its still fun to kid you about it.

BTW, I’m sorry about your bad luck, @KYWeaver I lost one of my 2 hives last year and the other one over the winter, so I feel your pain. Fingers crossed you will be able to salvage something.

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Thanks, guys.
Looked in on them this morning and they are being robbed out. I guess it’s over. Maybe one of @clarkinks swarms will move in.
I’m sticking the damage combs in the freezer to kill the little blighters, and I will see if I can harvest the wax at least.
If we do replace them next year, we’ll have all the equipment!
My grandfather said no one should farm if they couldn’t handle failure. I guess it’s true of gardening too.
So how should I handle the empty boxes? Just leave them be?

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A big swarm of bees would be a welcome thing at this point but I don’t think it’s very likely. Sure hate to see this happen.

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There are a few things you can do to stop robbing. Check online, but as I recall:

  1. Throw a wet sheet or the like over the hive. This is something to do if there is a robbing frenzy going on. You can’t leave it on forever, but after a few hours it will cause the robbers to loose interest and go elsewhere.

  2. Make a diversion screen for the main entrance. This is 1/8" hardware cloth screening and 4 pieces of 3/8" x 3/4" wood, one on each side of the screen. Screen needs to fit across the entire front entrance of the hive, and be ~8" tall. You put the wood on so the two short wood pieces go against the hive vertically (two long woods on the other side horizontally). This creates a bee space on the front of the hive. Your hive’s bees will figure out that they need to climb up to the top to get in/out. Robber bees just go for the smell and will try to go straight in and be stopped by the screen.

I have used this successfully in the past. Made the thing myself with some scrap wood, a table saw and the hardware cloth. Small staple the screen to the wood, and glue and staples at the corners where the wood overlaps. (You should be able to find a pic online of this).

And if you haven’t done so yet, reduce the entrance and close off any upper entrances. You need to give your hive a defensible entrance.

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Had already reduced entrance. That did work well last summer when some yellow jackets were causing trouble.
There’s no activity outside the hive today. I think it’s over.

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There’s a difference between every 15 minutes and every 2-3 weeks

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If you already have moths,pick the equipment up. Freeze the comb, bees don’t care about wax moth damage, pull the cocoons out before you give them the old wax. They will propilize all the damage the moths do or rebuild the comb. I’ve placed frames on bees in a good flow with just fragments of wax hanging on cross wires and the bees draw them like it was new foundation.

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Thanks for your advice. Since we won’t be able to replace the bees until next spring, if at all, should I leave the combs bagged after freezing? What about the hive bodies? Can they just sit?

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I would want all the wooden ware in a barn or shed if possible, scrapped and new paint as needed. If possible, its always best to have two colonies for contingencies. Keep the frames frozen if you have the space or keep them bagged, tightly.

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