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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Scott Sipe <cscotts AT gmail.com>
  • To: Orange County Beekeepers <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] Robbing?
  • Date: Sat, 5 Aug 2017 17:14:41 -0400

I have one hive, now in its third year, that has been going strong. I removed 2 supers full of honey about 4 weeks ago. I had not inspected since then, but things seemed good based on the number of bees hanging around the entrance and coming/going. Currently two 10-frame deeps.

I was out of town for 8 days and coming back today I noticed immediately that the volume of bees coming and going was dramatically reduced. Getting closer, the ground in front of the hive looks like total beepocalypse. Thousands of dead bees. I had mowed the grass in front of the hive exactly 8 days ago, so I know whatever happened was within the last week. The entrance reducer even looked like it had been gnawed on in some places? (See pics. I had smoked the entrance right before the entrance picture, so there's only one bee around--there were about a dozen or so hanging around before. I had the entrance reducer set so that there was the "large" entrance and also the small entrance facing up and barely open--the small entrance looks enlarged now?)

No signs of robbing today. I still see bees coming back with pollen, guard bees hanging out around the entrance, and so forth. I didn't have time to do a full inspection, but I pulled off the inner lid and it seemed like a lot of bees around the top.

Does this sound or look like the aftermath of robbing? Is there anything special I should look for when I do a full inspection? 

Pictures of the ground in front of the hive and the front of the hive are here:

http://imgur.com/a/U4b5M

Thanks,
Scott



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