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I am in trouble, my bees have left, I had a small hive beetle problem where when I tried to use the escape board and there was slime in one of the supers. I took it off, cleaned let it, aired out but did not put in any traps. Needless to say this was all wrong.

i now have an empty hive with some drawn out comb. What do I do, wait till next year and start again or can I get a nuc and try now to restart the hive. I am so mad at myself for not asking for help sooner.
I am in Guilford Co. North High Point area.

The first thing you need to do is make sure your drawn comb is protected. I would put it in the freezer for about 3 days to kill anything that may be lurking (SHB or wax moth eggs or larvae). You can then store it in closed plastic bags with twist ties to keep these critters from doing harm until your next move.

Normally, SHB are not the cause of a hive failure, but take advantage of a problem hive. They may overwhelm a weak hive and force it to abscond, or they may appear after a hive is empty. You did not say if there was honey or nectar in your empty hive. If the bees were gone and the honey and nectar were gone, your hive may have been robbed out. I have seen the start of some serious probing and a robbing attempt on one of my hives in the last week.

You do want to try and determine what happened to your hive. As long as there is no dreadful disease like AFB and the comb is protected from destruction, you can put it back in service.

Give me a call at home this evening at 336 323-8706, and we can talk about your situation and about more bees.

Thank you, I think I have been robbed, there is not a trace of honey left. Also some signs of moth webbing. I will take put the frames in the freezer today and call you tonight. Thanks for being a helper.