Hive Construction and Cold Weather

[hrtull]

The  weather in Ohio finally got a few warm days after a few weeks below freezing and some below zero weather.  I have a long lang made from 2x12s , I made a standard lang box and super from 1x12s. I did a successful split last April  into the standard lang. Going into Winter both hives were strong in numbers  and appeared to have good stores. I added some sugar cake, closed up some of the ventilation and added 1/2 styrofoam  around the 1x12 standard lang.   I also added styrofoam to top of long lang underneath the lid but added nothing to the 2x12 sides of this hive. The long lang  survived last Winter using this configuration .  A few days ago we had 56 degree weather. The long lang had the sky buzzing with bees. The standard had no activity other than an occasional bee coming and going. I took a quick look inside and most of the sugar was intact with only a few lonely looking bees crawling around with a fair amount of dead bees. The two hives are about 10 feet apart  in the same environmental conditions. My questions are, 1) Was  one of the hives better protected  and the other hive froze. 2) Was it starvation . 3) Is it possible that one hive joined the other hive, something Im thinking is not suppose to happen.  4) Is it possible  there are still bees existing in what appears to be a dead hive. Any thought, remarks about bees and cold weather would be appreciated, Thanks in advance, HRTULL

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Hrtull: consider

freeze out: just as it sounds, the bees froze to death due to not large enough cluster to keep them warm.

Condensation kill:  the dead bees will be moist as they died from condensation accumulated that fell on the bees.

Starve out.  Bees in the comb head first without presence of honey in immediate vicinity.

CCD: An assortment of conditions that stress bees.

Sorry for your loss.  In Arkansas we experience same weather, single digits for a week and then 2 days of 60F, now single digits again for a week,,,,,, and I also lost hives.
Blessings

[little john]

Physical reasons (hive design/construction, insulation, low temperatures, depleted food reserves) or Biological reasons (Varroa Destructor, disease, Queen failure) - or a combination of several of these - who knows ?

You may be better able to make a judgement come spring, after pulling frames in the standard Lang.  Starvation and Varroa will leave some evidence behind, but you may never get to know for sure.  Sometimes colonies have an inherent weakness, with winter being Nature's way of pruning-out the weak from the strong.  Michael Palmer (Vermont) often talks about winter "being his friend" from this point of view.

Hopefully, only a temporary setback.
LJ

[Acebird]

My attitude is:
If you think a hive is dead confirm it.  Break each box apart and just tip it back far enough to see if there is a cluster.  The reason for this is to know what resources are in the dead hive so it can supplement another hive if need be.  You could wait until spring but if there was another hive on the verge of starvation you lose your chance of saving it.

[little john]

I've just sourced the link to a talk by Marion Ellis which may (stress may) be relevant to your situation:   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4WvPNmS7uc 

From 7 min 10 secs onwards, there's a graph which shows how the rise in varroa mites corresponds to a decline in bee numbers - which mirrors the reports of many people who lose colonies from early winter onwards, despite them appearing strong and healthy during the last few inspections prior to winter.

There's also a shorter chat about how Varroa Destructor is currently considered to be the No.1  cause of colony loss, at:
http://hdvidzpro.me/file/download?id=apZWJW8H62c

Hope you find these helpful,
LJ

[minz]

Hrtull: consider

freeze out: just as it sounds, the bees froze to death due to not large enough cluster to keep them warm.

Condensation kill:  the dead bees will be moist as they died from condensation accumulated that fell on the bees.

Starve out.  Bees in the comb head first without presence of honey in immediate vicinity.

CCD: An assortment of conditions that stress bees.

Sorry for your loss.  In Arkansas we experience same weather, single digits for a week and then 2 days of 60F, now single digits again for a week,,,,,, and I also lost hives.
Blessings

Time to do some detective work. You have the evidence in front of you, If you open it up and take pictures as go we can assist better. Van has it dialed in but I would like to add the physical indicators of what you may be looking for.
Freeze out will be a small cluster with food available, bees on one or two seams, unable to move to food that is close to them.
Condensation kill, Look for ice or water on the insulation when you open up the hive. Look for lots of mold on the top of the dead cluster. The mold will grow as the water drips onto the live bees and the heat from the cluster makes it warm enough to grow. It will not be extent his time of year for your cold area.
Starve out he addressed well.
Did you do a mite count in the mid summer? Treating with OA now works but only if you can get the mite levels down enough to get them to this point. If they were infested and sick at this point they are done. You get the mites knocked down for winter for healthy bees and in winter when the mites are very vulnerable to soft treatments.
Now if it was mites and you had honey in the other hive your good hive just ran over there, grabbed all the honey and the mites and virus for your surviving hive. OA may save the existing.
You can direct where the water condenses by leaving off a little insulation or an opening to the outside. The warm air will rise with the moisture and leave or hit the cold patch of the wood and turn to water and drip at that point. Keep in mind it may freeze at that point.
Sorry for the long post.

[hrtull]

I sure appreciate everyone's comments and concerns.  As most mentioned, it could be a variety of things.  The freezing snow covered  weather is back in Ohio. The earliest I can take another look based on 10 day forecast will be at least another week.   You guys have given some great  tools to start the investigation.  I want to figure it out and try to avoid repeating this.  I will use the check list, takes some pics and let you know my findings.  I am still in amazement that bees can survive the long term cold weather in a box.  Being in  large hollowed out tree  must feel like a winter resort. Thanks, HRTULL

[hrtull]

I finally opened this hive up and inspected it.  This was a hive that never moved up into the super FYI. So the 10 brood frames were were completely built with 3 full frames of honey.  Many of the bees were dead in clusters at top area  of frames. After removing all frames the bottom was full of dead bees, most of the hive I would say.  I assumed dead bees would have been dry and crunchy but they were all soft and pliable.  One thing that seemed odd was the small size of the bees but Im thinking their deteriorating state has shrunk their size.  Other than being small I saw no signs of deformation .   I am going to harvest the 3 frames of honey.  I also gave it a closer exam with a flashlight and  certian areas of open cell had alot of white substance in them. I have attached a picture ( hopefully it will upload) . I dont know if this is dead larva or mite droppings.  When rubbing this substance between fingers it feels like a paste made of baking soda .  I was surprised  how dark this frame was.The good news is my long lang hive seems to have large numbers and doing great.  This is the beginning of my 3rd year and have managed to keep original hive going thru internet info only and mainly thru this wonderful forum.  My goals are probably a little different than most. I only want to keep about 3 or 4 hives, have a few quarts of honey a year and try to keep it as simple as possible and let the bees do as they do. Anyway thought I would share my findings and any replies regarding this picture would be appreciated.Thanks, HT

[Acebird]

It is hard for me to figure anything out in that photo.  It looks like flash photography which distorts reality.
3 or 4 hives should required you to give away or sell gallons of honey.