Scientific quest to refine bee breeding

Breeding bees: Scientists aim to improve Canadian honeybee http://www.digitaljournal.com/science/breeding-bees-scientists-aiming-to-improve-the-canadian-honeybee/article/448633 via @digitaljournal

Hive 1 done

Last week there was some mad bee activity in the yard, this weekend it was obvious that hive one was finished. Light, empty boxes; ground beneath covered with fine white wax bits. All of the frames had been robbed, the wax cappings chewed off and discarded to litter the hive like so much sawdust. Best case scenario is that hive 2 stole it all; their boxes are very heavy.
Empty frames of drawn comb harbored a few wax moths. We froze the good frames (16) and are melting down the old black ones (chose 8 worst frames, most 2 yr old).
This is how it plays out after the previous observation; the hive had already failed. We will bring all the hardware in for the winter. Good luck to hive 2😓

Hive loss?

We gave had something strange happen, a colony we thought was our best is now nearly empty. Only a few bees are still present, we could not find a queen. Did we fail to keep up the hive, were the ants too much to bear? Did they swarm off, how did we miss seeing it? We reduced to 2 boxes, gave a frame 1/3rd full of pollen to hive 1 swapping for a un-drawn frame. Took off top feeders, re-greased the stand legs against ants. On hive 2 we put the feeder shim on top and put in a block of fondant.  Small hive beetles were present, not very numerous.