Bee Hive Ruined

**10eckid** · 06-11-2012, 12:07 PM

I thought I was gonna have some honey this year because a hive moved into a dead tree in my backyard earlier this year. They were there about 1 1/2 to 2 months. Last week I noticed that there wasn't much activity so I got a mirror and took a peak. The bees were all gone, except for a few small ones that looked like they had just hatched. The comb left in the tree (and there was quite a bit of it left ) was all black and rotten looking. I pulled some out and there were still a lot of unborn bees in it. It also smelled kind of like Red Man chewing tobacco.
I was wondering if anyone that knew anything about bees had ever seen anything like this before. My guess is that it maybe got wet. Could that make it go bad?
Thanks for any input!!

**TheLastMountainMan** · 06-11-2012, 01:10 PM

Sounds like Nosema, some kinda bee disease.

**RICHFL** · 06-11-2012, 06:08 PM

It sound like to me that a fungus that has killed a lot of domestic and wild bees hives is in your tree. They do not know yet what causes i,t but over 22 percent of all bee hives have died in the last 5 years. Your best bet is take the tree down and burn it for fire wood.

The next time you see a bee hive remember they could be killer bees and that will be very bad news for you. So be careful when approaching such a hive wear protective clothing.