Olea's is definitely on the way out

This is what I removed today from Olea's hive.

Over the past weeks, I have seen Olea's population gradually decrease.  After putting in the Apiguard 10 days ago, the bees moved further back onto more central combs, away from the thymol.  They were on only 2-3 combs.  I went in today to start removing bars.

I also wanted to look for the queen.  If she were still there and I found her, I intended to move her into a nuc and add some frames with honey and pollen from #1 as well as many nurse bees and maybe a frame with brood.  However, the plans were moot as I did not spot the queen.

The two back most bars had no comb.  The next 4 had honey and were cross-combed.  I removed them en bloc.  The following bars had spotty brood, dead pupae, dead emerging workers and some apparently living larvae.  As I mentioned, the queen was nowhere to be seen.  There was a small number of drones.  I thought I saw one bee with K-wing.  However, this is due to tracheal mites, not varroa.

I closed up the hive decreasing the space with a follower board.

I broke the comb with honey off the bars into a large bowl.  After Maidi sees it, we'll mash it up and strain the honey.

Meanwhile, I expect Olea's will be without bees in a couple of weeks.