Another Dead Hive (Venting as much as Asking for Options): I suck as a Beekeeper

[rallyrabbit]

I started up in 2021 with a hive of Italian Bees. They did pretty well the first season, expanded well, made it through the winter and started to struggle from there. After our major cold snap in 2022 they neve seemed to recover and were pretty much a dead hive by spring of this year.

In 2022 I got a hive of Saskatraz, and these bees did great. Got mountains of honey from them this summer and then seemed strong until about a month ago. Did all the standard stuff, but, they seemed to collapse after I used Formic Pro, the queen at this point was about 1.5 years old. The brood pattern got spotty and boom. I have 1000 bees left now, no queen, and so they're done. Given the bees with their tongues out, I suspect poisoning.

This past summer I invested in 3 more NUCs. 1 collapsed after swarming. I collapsed after combining what was left with another NUC and swarmed. And the other collapsed from massive robbing.

I got into this because it was supposed to be rewarding, yield honey for my family and friends, and yet, I can't seem to have hives that seem to last.

At this point, this is a mass of money, time down the drain. I can't keep starting over here.