>>>I would appreciate some ideas about why I've lost two hives of bees . .
.  Why am I loosing bees?  Is it way too late to order bees now?

I'm no expert and we are just some small homeowners keeping bees. This I
have learned through the years.

Those who are experts can judge things in a hive much much better by just
listening to a hive, opening the cover and having a look at the top frames,
without really having to do much more. I'm not that good and I've learned
the hard way (lost hives) that if I take such a seemingly easy route, I
can't get very far. Maybe in another 30 or so years I will be more
experienced. Meanwhile we decided to keep doing this ...

When I check a hive I do it very thoroughly, very careful of course too. I
take out each frame, check it out from both sides, see what's happening,
and put it aside in an empty box. I do that from top box down to the bottom
box. Always careful and when I see the queen I catch her and put her in a
jar until I'm done, or if that is already possible put her back onto the
frames to let her disappear into her dark chambers.

But I do look at every side of every frame. I don't do that every week but
whenever I need to work with them. This way I know what's going on in that
hive, I can try to manipulate the frames a bit, I can move brood or bees
from one hive to another, or combine hives. We have had several hives at
the beginning that didn't make it and we feel that was because we weren't
checking them out in a very careful way. Since we have been doing it this
way, we have had more success in keeping the hives through the winters and
also through the summers. It's not foolproof and I have read that this type
of investigation into a hive is not recommended by knowledgeable
beekeepers, but I don't know what else to do to judge if a hive is well on
it's way or on it's way out.

Since we have been checking this thorough, since that time I have become
this family's beekeeper. Husband is too impatient and can't take the time
for that. I don't mind doing this because I want to see what's going on, I
can work slowly and carefully. It's hell on my back but I feel it's well
worth any such efforts. Of course we only have a few hives. Don't know what
one can do who is a commercial beekeeper with lots of hives. Then too,
being small, having only a few hives, if they die out there is nothing to
fall back onto. With many hives then it's maybe easier to worry about
replacements since there are still other hives.

                Ma. / Nass Valley - British Columbia CANADA