Tenants or Robbers?

I lost both hives over the winter, and I'm still not sure why. It's the saddest thing to do a spring check and find them all dead. Both hives had plenty of honey still in the frames, and my bees hadn't vanished, their corpses lay on the bottom board. No sign of foulbrood or chalkbrood. I didn't think the mite load was that high, but I haven't been willing to treat them for mites, hoping to keep them strictly organically.

I went up to Oakland last night after work to meet with Kevin Fabian who keeps over 300 hives. I bought two nucs from him last year, (the two I lost over winter). I needed to talk with him about it and buy a new nuc. They're Carniolans, like last year. Good for Maine climate. Kev gave me a bit of a scolding for not treating the hives, which I knew was coming, and I said, "See--that's why I almost didn't tell you. I knew I was going to get this lecture." He said, "Hey, we've domesticated them. Just like cows. You're not going to let a cow go out and fend for herself. She'd never make it." So--he says use thymol in the fall after the honey harvest and I'm thinking about it. It won't affect the honey, and if it helps the bees--well, you got to figure it's like chemotherapy. Kill some to eliminate a parasite that would kill them all.

But back to March--after I'd made the crushing discovery that both hives had died, I didn't harvest the remaining honey, but ignored it. It was depressing to deal with, and the leftover honey was poor solace for my dead bees. Eventually grass started growing tall around the hive bodies, and, so Joe could mow, I moved both sets into the open stall where we'd kept the horses. I kept busy planting the garden and thus continued to put off harvesting honey while I planted.
The ground in and around the horse stall is full of well-rotted manure which I shovel into a wheelbarrow and ferry back to the garden continually. A couple days after moving my hives into the stall, I was not surprised to notice several honeybees buzzing round, moving in and out one of the hives--the one with the larger supply of honey. I say I was not surprised, because if you have an unprotected hive with easy access, you're going to have robbing. Robber bees will go half mad for a handout like this. I was just glad they'd got there before a pernicious gang of yellow jackets decided to move in. Ah well, I thought--I'll have to share the spoils with the robber bees and take whatever they've left me once I have more of the garden in. Let them have their fun.

From then on I was more cautious as I went about digging up the old manure. Robbers are known to be quite aggressive. Funny thing is, these girls acted like they hardly knew I was there, and I could see by their demeanor they weren't in a hurry to grab and get going the way robbers usually are. They were real laid back and casual, almost like they belonged there. That's when I got the idea that maybe the robbers weren't robbers, but new tenants. Late spring is the time of year when colonies that have outgrown their hives will create a new queen, split the colony in two and send out a swarm to look for roomier living quarters. It's how colonies reproduce.

So, I'm thinking with fingers crossed, it could be that I've lucked into a new colony via swarm.