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I talked to another guy that had lost several hives this year already.
We were discussing the way I found the bees, and they are in a dead ball on top of the hive under the inner cover with a few on top of that. I'm going to pull the frames sometime soon and clean the dead bees out and take a look. One theory is that if they're in a ball on top, the cluster just ate it's way up to the top and due to the cold didn't move around much and starved. I was wondering if it were mites if they'd die off a few at a time and either be wedged into the comb or drop to the bottom?
I don't know. What I do know is that I'll go on a rampage finding swarms and maybe do some cutouts. I've found a handful of trees of bees if I get too ambitious. I also think we will build some nuke boxes/swarm traps. I've got 2-3 locations we've gotten swarms more than once(houses) and thought about putting a box there.
This year, I'll probably consider a little more treatment, maybe feed them more in the fall, candy board in the winter and more wraps/protection for winter.
Live and learn.
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