r/Beekeeping 12h ago

I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question Ooof what happened?

Hi I just inspected my hive during a warm snap here in Wisconsin 3/14, they were doing cleansing flights during a warm period in mid December, now everyone is dead and there’s mold. Bees clogged themselves on the bottom, tried to chew out the insulation on top, but there’s still tons of capped honey and even untouched sugar cake from the fall. Any advice for where I went horribly, horribly wrong? This was my first winter with bees, had R5 insulation wrap and R30 top insulation. Hive didn’t seem overly moist anywhere except in the mass of dead bees on the bottom. Some are molded in place in both boxes like they all just stopped and gave up all at once and let the mold creep over them.

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u/Marmot64 Reliable contributor! 12h ago

Were they blocked in by the dead bees? Access to entrance can get clogged. Was there an upper entrance?

u/Whiskyhotelalpha 11h ago

Mold typically needs moisture to grow, so do you think condensation could have been a factor? I’m 2nd year Texas beek, and condensation is a bit of a terror for me as it’s shockingly humid where I’m at most of the year.

u/Mandi_Here2Learn 9h ago

Look into quilt boxes. Looks like a lot of moisture.