I last saw brood in #3 in mid-October when giving them pollen patties. One week ago I looked to see if the patties had been eaten and they were gone from Olea's and #2 so I did not bother to check #3. There were brood and larvae in the top box of #2.
A couple of days ago I noticed that there was little activity at the entrance of #3 and when I looked under the lid, there were no bees in the Vivaldi box or visible through the hole of the box. The next day (yesterday) I took a good look. My fears were realized. There were bees on only two or three frames in the top box and even then only covered about 1/4 of each side. No larvae or brood. The bottom box was empty drawn comb with some old bee bread. I wonder what caused the hive to go queenless.
Today I combined the top box of #3 with #2 using the newspaper method. You can see the paper sticking out in the above picture. Three frames of comb will be saved while the rest are old and black and the wax will be processed and the foundation cleaned and reused.
The bees of #3 have always been feisty, so if I have to lose a colony I would have chosen this one.
Now I have to decide what to do with the nuc, assuming in makes it through the winter. Originally I had intended it for a new #1. #2 looks strong so I could make a split in early spring and if that nuc grows strong enough make it into a new #3.
