VTBeeHannah · Vermont, US · Pests & Disease · Oct 12, 2026
A hive died and got robbed out before I noticed — did I just spread its mites round my own apiary?
Vermont, second year, four colonies on one stand. The smallest one has been limping since September and on Saturday I found it dead — a fist of bees on two frames, no queen found, and the boxes almost stripped of honey with wax chewed to shreds and cappings all over the floor. My other three were very busy that afternoon and I assumed it was a nice day. It was my own hive being emptied.
What's bothering me is what came along with the honey. That colony was the one with the worst mite count all season, and now every forager in the yard has been walking over its combs and carrying its bees' passengers home. I've read the phrase "mite bomb" and I think I've just experienced one from the inside.
So: what do I do this week? I've done my autumn treatment already and the trays were clean a fortnight ago. Do I recount everything now, and if the numbers have jumped, is there anything sensible to do in mid-October in Vermont, or am I stuck waiting for a broodless window in December and hoping the winter bees make it that far?
#varroa#robbing#mite-bomb#dead-out
▲ 11 votes💬 4 replies✅ Solved
4 replies
MayaBees · Oct 12, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer
Recount, yes, this week, all three. A wash per hive tells you what you're actually dealing with rather than what you hope. If a colony has jumped well above where it was, treat it — but with something appropriate for your temperatures now, and strictly to the product's label conditions, because a lot of options stop working or stop being safe in the cold. And close that dead-out up the second you find it next time; an unguarded box of honey is a free delivery service for mites.
ImkerinLena · Oct 12, 2026
This is the single most under-appreciated route of reinvasion, and it is why clean autumn counts can look terrible in November. VTBeeHannah, one more thing worth doing: walk your neighbourhood. If there are unmanaged hives or a feral colony within a couple of kilometres collapsing now, the same thing will happen again without your own hive dying.
QuebecBees · Oct 12, 2026
Quebec. Practical note — when you clear the dead-out, take the combs out of the apiary rather than stacking them by the hives, and don't leave the box open "to let the bees clean it up". People do that for convenience and it undoes the whole point.
VTBeeHannah · Oct 13, 2026
Washed all three yesterday. Two are still low, one has roughly tripled from September. Ringing the bee supply place today about what's sensible at our temperatures, and the dead-out boxes are in my garage, closed, until I sort them out.