Hi all,

I saw a peculiar thing at my hives last week. I have two hives that have
experienced their ups and downs, but are doing okay (not great) at the
moment. I approached the hive and noticed that there were a good number
(40-50) of dead and dying drones out front. Most of them had their
proboscises sticking out. There are plenty of stores, it is May in SE
Georgia, and there were no mites on the dead bees. This seems to be an odd
time for the boys to be getting kicked out, unless they are sick..

Other pertinent background info:
-I harvested 3 supers, leaving one that was 60% full, a week prior.
-I lost the queen a week before the harvest and she was not replaced by the
hive (I now have a new queen).
-I had not applied any treatments since Api Life Var in early March.
-There is an abundant bloom right now of a variety of sources.
-There were only dead drones, not workers.
-I have been fighting an ongoing battle against ants getting into the top
of this hive and killing bees.

Any thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated! I am only in my
sophomore year of beekeeping :)

Bee well,

Gabe

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