You've possibly read on another thread I asked about combining on a horizontal Langstroth hive. Picked both swarm traps up Thursday evening and finally was able to do it this afternoon. Well...almost.
First hive I went to move in a had already peeked into Thursday morning before picking them up, they looked healthy and a reasonably strong hive for a colony that's been in its swarm trap longer than ideal, a little funny comb but nothing extreme. The other colony my friend had closed up the night before at dark and kept it closed Friday in the shade so I could pick it up early evening Friday. Started by moving them into the end of the hive with the entrance, set up my paper and frames, and placed my cover boards.
Step one finished I smoke swarm trap 2 and open it. This one had taken a tumble whenbits tree was knocked down last weekend in a storm, I expected to find a mess. Just not this mess. First off frames had been poorly spaced in the box so the comb was wonky to begin with. But there were piles of the stuff in the bottom. And a sickly sweet smell present. Nasty looking comb, brown and crumbly. Pulling frames I found pretty much nothing but nast comb, bees, beetles, and larvae. Scads of larvae. I must have crushed 75 or more larvae and probably 20-30 beetles. Still lots more hidden I'm sure.
No eggs, no brood, nearly no pollen or nectar. I think they likely absconded a few weeks ago and the bees that were in their were hatched out brood that were left behind. I scraped the frames clean (I'll give em back to my friend if he wants em), literally shoveled crumbly comb, larvae, and bees into the trash can before leaving the trap on top of the trash can in the sun. I'll get back to it in a couple hours when the frenzy dies down they're robbing whatever nectar they can find.
In the meantime here's a few of the pictures from the event.
Topic: Swarm in trap decimated by SHB (Read 1330 times)