All dead

[Fiona]

Hi everyone, I’m new to here and wanted to ask if anyone has used the Omlet Beehaus with any success?
I’ve just found all my bees dead and I suspect that they have died of the cold overnight. They were flying about a couple of days ago, have plenty of stores, no sign of disease. Any suggestions?
We’re quite high up and they were in the orchard, but we’ve had a battering from the wind the last few days, then frost this morning.

[lindsay s]

Hi Fiona sorry to hear about your bees. I’ve no experience of the beehaus apart from what I’ve seen online but most colonies of bees will survive whatever the weather throws at them if they have been properly set up. Hopefully you’ll be able contact beekeepers in your area who might take a look, but for the rest of us I have a few questions.
1 Do you have much experience with beekeeping.
2 Was your colony kept to the one side of the beehaus with the divider fitted and no obvious areas where a draught would get in apart from the mesh floor.
3 How strong was your colony the last time you looked in the hive and when was that.
4 Was your colony queen right and have you been treating for varroa.
5 Apart from seeing no bees was there any other reason for opening up the hive.
One possibility could be that your colony has been queenless for a long time and the last of your bees have died out, another could be varroa. I hope you can prove me wrong on both counts.

[madasafish]

Bees don't just die overnight.. from cold or starvation.. takes several days - see posts from yesterday starting with Murray McGregor
‏

@calluna4u
19h19 hours ago
More
Team out feeding reported three dead colonies. Starved before we got to them. Have met this situation before and anyone meeting it should be aware.....they may LOOK dead but might not yet be so!"

https://twitter.com/calluna4u?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7 Ctwgr%5Eauthor

[Feckless Drone]

Dealing with a dead/dying colony is worst thing in beekeeping Fiona. Sorry its happened to you. Its not that common to lose a colony at this point in my experience because it has been relatively benign weather, certainly on the east coast. This suggests a problem that maybe developed several weeks ago. It would be useful if you could get an experienced beekeeper to have a look through the colony with you to see if anything is evident. If there is sealed brood then maybe chilling played a part - if no sealed brood then maybe the Q disappeared or did not mate properly. Did wasps take a toll on the bees? Questions to consider : Are there capped drone cells present? Are there cells of sealed stores present? where in relation to the bees? Are there lots of bees with heads stuck down into the cell or are they all on the floor? It is possible that the bees you saw flying recently were robbers.

If you can get a mentor to look in with you they may also be able to give you some guidance about how to clean up and sterilise and what to re-use.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Bees don't just die overnight.. from cold or starvation.. takes several days - see posts from yesterday starting with Murray McGregor ...

Thanks for interesting link, Madasafish.

Fiona, to add to what others have already said - whatever the cause of your colony's death (or not? as per Madasafish), I doubt that the Beehaus can be blamed. It is a nicely insulated hive.

Was your mesh floor open, or closed? In a windy area (and I'm on a very exposed hill), I tend to keep the Varroa inserts in over winter well into spring. A mesh floor open to icy wind is the only weather-related factor I can see that might have contributed to the colony's death - but probably not caused it.

Perhaps starvation? Were they within easy reach of food above their heads? They huddle together when it's cold, and can't really move sideways to combs of honey right next to them. They need food above their heads.

Kitta

[mbc]

Bees don't just die overnight.. from cold or starvation.. takes several days - see posts from yesterday starting with Murray McGregor
‏

@calluna4u
19h19 hours ago
More
Team out feeding reported three dead colonies. Starved before we got to them. Have met this situation before and anyone meeting it should be aware.....they may LOOK dead but might not yet be so!"

https://twitter.com/calluna4u?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7 Ctwgr%5Eauthor

In my experience those colonies brought back from the brink rarely properly recover, especially when there's little pollen to forage.