Guilfordbeekeepers.org

So yesterday I checked on the bees, found that a couple hives had brood but not much food (capped honey) in the hive. Both of these hives are strong but new splits from this year about 2 months ago. They both have great populations. I placed top feeders on these 2 hives in the bee yard, there are 5 hives in the yard, 2 of which are very strong. I suspect robbing but im not too sure. If there is robbing going on its not from my other hives. Im pretty observant, to me it looks like the hive is killing off its own residents. All of the bees outside the hive that havnt died yet from being hauled out seem to look like healthy strong bees. This is a behavior that I have not seen before but its my first year so Im a newby......please help, any suggestions are welcome. Thanks

I would not think robbing. Two months ago, when they were splits, the main flow was nearing its end. The new queens may have layed out the box thinking the flow was good, and all that was brought in, went to feed those bees and maintain the colony. Once they got the brood capped, the flow had slowed. The lack of brood now is due to the flow being basically non existant.

Some goldenrod is starting to bloom, and aster is just around te corner. If they are strong, I would not think that they had been robbed out. Just feed them and monitor what they store for winter.

As for the bees outside that are dead or being escorted out, are they workers or drones?

Welcome to the forum. Please put your location in your profile since all beekeeping is local.

There could be a number of things going on. How many dead/dying bees are you seeing in front of the hives?

If there are hundreds and hundreds, it may be a pesticide kill, or if you also see wax shards on the landing board, it could be robbing. If you are seeing 10-20 in front of the hive, it may just be that the cooler mornings (in the 60's where I am) have prevented the dying from crawling away from the hive as they tend to do or have prevented the "corpse carriers" from carrying away the dead. Bees that are no longer able to be productive for the hive will be thrown out (and may look healthy to me). There are far fewer drones around than earlier in the year, but I still see the occasional one being driven from a hive.