Tis weather was as hot and dry and nectar was not to be found. 'Cept lest you were a fixin' to rob it from yer neighbor.

The #3 hive at our outyard suffered a great loss this week as it failed to batten down the hatches and protect itself against theft from scurvy dogs and scallywags.

Alas the last few weeks the hive had grown smaller, and there was talk of mergin' it with another fer it's own good.

Then this week when we checked on it, her numbers were just too low and was a taken advantage of by a neighboring colony.



The rest of the bees in the hive were slaughtered and discarded, and the comb, honey and pollen were ravaged. You can see how the cells were just ripped open and the comb was destroyed.

Before the hive was plundered, we stuck in a small hive beetle trap to see how well they worked. Ye can see fer yerself below, in a week's time a couple dozen beetles met their own demise.




I do wonder how a hive knows when another is weak and how they make the collective decision to plunder and steal resources.

Although I suppose we may never know the exact decision process...Dead Men Tell No Tales.