I have a mystery:
Went out my driveway about 3:30 PM today and was surprised to see two hives overturned and an empty 5 frame nuc sitting with it’s top off.
I stopped and went over to them... The top boxes (out of 2 boxes for each new hive) had been turned upside down on their tops and the lower box, that had the growing nuc frames, had been emptied and thrown a ways away. Scattered around were the five frames that had surrounded the nuc’s five frames when I’d moved them into the 10 frame boxes.
No evidence of bears. The other nuc that I’d moved into two medium boxes was there as were two larger hives that might have some honey in them. The larger hive had fresh grass caught between the top 2 boxes, as if it had been cracked open. There was a small ball of bees on the upside-down box of one of the hives, and a small bunch in the grass below that hive but no other evidence of bees. The sun had had a chance to soften, but not melt the exposed comb, but there was some slight yellowing of the grass under one of the frames that had been cast aside.
When did it happen? Folks using my driveway hadn’t mentioned seeing this mess.
Why? Bees are getting hard to find! A nuc goes for $85±?
Who? Had to be someone who has boxes to put those two five frame nucs into.
Where did they take them? Obviously to a yard that they keep bees in.
What person would know that those were nucs?
If the person had put the boxes back together neatly I wouldn’t have noticed until I drove around them and checked.
It could have happened at night... That could account for the lack of bees in the air, unless it happened a couple days ago (yellowing grass).
Who would have thrown the boxes around and scattered the frames, unless they were in a hurry?
I haven’t been out the driveway since at least Sunday.
If you have some insight into this mystery, please tell me. Email is usually best!
You might check your bees, too!
