Hive crash.

[van from Arkansas]

This afternoon I am watching my bees as usual.  Bees are just out my back door so daily visitations are the norm.  All 17 hives behaving the same except for one.  All hives have typical activity on the entrance, except this one hive, inwhich all of the sudden this one hive has very little entrance activity.
 
Time for a quick inspection as the temp is almost 90F and getting dark soon.  So I inspect with no smoke, I remove the lid and there are very few bees compared to normal.  Barely enough bees to prevent robbing, or, to prevent beetle take over.  In the top deep I see frames of capped honey, some open frames of nectar, goldenrod by the smell, and a few, like 50 capped brood cells, no larva or eggs seen.  I did not go beyond the top deep, light is fading.  This was my second largest hive, 3 deeps and full of bees and honey just 4 weeks ago.  That is why I used the word CRASH in the subject, so fast.

 The bees are gentle but telling me they need help.  Kind of hard to explain but the bees talk to me with their actions and clearly the bees are asking for help.

The queen is 3.7 years old and my fear is; she has failed.  Tomorrow, I can make a full inspection, reduce hive space and look for eggs and/or the queen.  I would GUESS there are 5,000 bees at most in this hive. Not near enough bees.

I will fix what ever the problem is tomorrow morning and I will provide you with an update..  I have 4 spare queens for just such an emergency so no worries there.

Blessings

Van

[Nock]

Good luck. I?ll be waiting for updates. How do you keep Queens? 

[van from Arkansas]

Update, although I was quick to open, inspect, reduce entrance to 3/4 inch and close the hive, only taking 2-3 minutes, the weak hive was discovered and is now being robbed.  Now bees are all over the entrance.  Not a good way to end my day.  Already sundown so soon bees will be back to their hives.
Van

[van from Arkansas]

Good luck. I?ll be waiting for updates. How do you keep Queens?

5 frame nucs.

[incognito]

In this scenario, would you close up the entrance to prevent further robbing until you do your next inspection tomorrow?

[van from Arkansas]

Good idea, Tom, it would be easy to close the 3/4 inch entrance, just need a small rock.  So, yes, it is dark now and I will place a rock over the small opening.
Van

[FloridaGardener]

Van, Sorry to hear it.  I know that keening/crying sound you described, when bees are distressed.  I've had to fend off robbing a few times. 

You probably you know this....while you are removing frames for now, so the bees have less to patrol, you might hang up some netting around the hive, perhaps from an overhead branch, if you have one nearby.  Or PVC irrigation pipe and corner fittings can quickly frame up an-hoc tent where you can work without the robbers starting a Big Bee War.

When then lid is on again, and all that hive's bees go back in the robbing screen, a soaked sheet is really helpful to drape over the hive. 

[Ben Framed]

Mr Van, I am sorry for your loss. I know that you will be able to diagnose the problem once you have a good opportunity to do a complete and thorough inspection. One can only guess the cause at the present. Whether it be a older failing queen, mites, or something else, I am again sorry for your loss. If one of my hives go backward under any circumstance, it bothers me at this stage of my beekeeping experience and limited knowledge. I have so much to learn and experience is the very best teacher along with the good folks here giving good information, such as you in your particular situation. I am looking on with anticipation in your finding out the answer to this problem as we all learn. Thanks,
Phillip 

[van from Arkansas]

Good Morning Beeks of Beemaster.

4:00 AM: awake, having coffee, and waiting on daylight.  Did not sleep well as I was worried about this hive.

Van

[saltybluegrass]

 I?m up

[saltybluegrass]

Update, although I was quick to open, inspect, reduce entrance to 3/4 inch and close the hive, only taking 2-3 minutes, the weak hive was discovered and is now being robbed.  Now bees are all over the entrance.  Not a good way to end my day.  Already sundown so soon bees will be back to their hives.
Van

Dumb q but how do you spot robbing behavior versus orientation flight where bees are also all over the entrance?

[Acebird]

Robbing increases with intensity until the hive is gone.

[Michael Bush]

I would compress them.  Remove all the empty stuff, any slimy looking stuff, anything with any wax moth webs or larvae, then continue removing (and shaking any bees back) until the combs are pretty well covered in bees.  Anything that is empty I would leave off.  Anything else I would give to a strong hive.  Reduce the entrance with screen wire to confuse robbers, to just enough for one bee to get in and out.  See how they do.

[van from Arkansas]

Update, although I was quick to open, inspect, reduce entrance to 3/4 inch and close the hive, only taking 2-3 minutes, the weak hive was discovered and is now being robbed.  Now bees are all over the entrance.  Not a good way to end my day.  Already sundown so soon bees will be back to their hives.
Van

Dumb q but how do you spot robbing behavior versus orientation flight where bees are also all over the entrance?

Good Morning Salty.  With orientation flights the bees hoover is a circle in front of the entrance.  With robbing the robbers are at every seem, every joint, at the roof of the hive, on the sides of the hive, robbers are everywhere clinging to the outside walls trying to find a back door.  Robbing can be spotted at a distance due to bees all over the outside walls.

If the situation permits, I will take a pic, to me, a horrible pic but one to learn from.
Van

Thanks for the replies Bush, Ace, Ben, FlGardener, Nock!!!

[saltybluegrass]

Thanks van good morning to you and blessings come about to you

[van from Arkansas]

I saved some frames of honey and pollen.  The rest of the frames are being robbed out.  After robbing is over and the bees of the hive cluster, then I can relocate the bees.  Currently I cannot distinguish between robbers and the real owners of the hive.  No eggs no larva and very spotty brood as shown in the pics below.  Lots of Varroa mite sign, frass everywhere, even seeing live mites as I removed some wax of the capped cells.  This hive was treated 9/12/19 with Oxalic acid vapor, 2 grams for 3 deep hive bodies.  Kinda of lite on the amount of acid I used.  There was hundreds of dead mite drop on the bottom board a few days after treatment.  This hive was my heaviest mite infested hive judging by mite drop.  Between queen failure and mites, this hive was not savable.  The infested spotty brood frame is in the freezer.




Found the queen, healthy looking 3.7 year old, but failed past 4 weeks.  See pic below of brood, very spotty, no eggs, no larva.

[van from Arkansas]

Screened bottom board: many dead bees from fighting robbers, dead pupae from Varroa.

[van from Arkansas]

Such a spotty brood pattern is one sign of queen failure.  There were about 2 mites in half the capped cells I opened.

[van from Arkansas]

Look at the right bee and see the small hive beetle eggs.  Beetles started laying last night, about 12 eggs per capped larva.  Eggs laid through a tiny, very small hole in the cap.  One can see the white mite Frass on upper side walls.

[van from Arkansas]

Dead Varroa on the thorax.  This hive was treated 9/12/19.  I believe the mite transversed the Oxalic acid, enter a cell, cell was capped and the mite subsequently died in the cell.