Bees are being destroyed

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Paulrottinghaus
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Joined: May 24th, 2017, 7:03 pm

Bees are being destroyed

Unread post by Paulrottinghaus »

Hi, I hope someone can suggest what might be going on here in Iowa on May 24, 2017. I checked my hives and the lids were covered with bee parts. Mostly abdomens. Like 2-3 dozen on the top of each hive. I have five hives. Two of which were walk away splits two weeks ago.
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Countryboy
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Joined: November 8th, 2010, 9:37 pm
Location: Central Ohio
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Re: Bees are being destroyed

Unread post by Countryboy »

If I had to guess, I would say some kind of predatory insect was killing them. Praying mantises would be my first guess. I have seen praying mantises sitting on just about every single 5 frame mating nuc (20+) in a beeyard before, with some nucs having multiple praying mantises on it.

That mating yard consistently had 90%-95% mating success.

I never paid attention to whether or not there were bee parts from the mantises eating bees.
B. Farmer Honey
Central Ohio
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