Well the heading says it all, I set up a small hive, a nuc, with 4 frames of filled comb, maybe a pound of bees and a new queen about three weeks ago in a friends yard. The hive started well, was growing fast but then the Small Hive Beetles moved in. I wasn't around to keep track of what was going on and the little b@stards wiped out the hive. I just cleaned up the mess, had to toss three frames that were loaded with small hive beetle grubs, wash down the bottom board with soapy water and ended up giving the queen and maybe 300 bees(all that was left of the hive) to to my friend who was setting up two hives of his own and had lost one of his queens. What went wrong, guess I should of thrown a few Bayer strips in the hive when it was first set up to kill the beetles. Also I shouldn't of used as many full frames to start the hive cause there were not enough bees to keep the beetles under control. I'm feel a little bad about loosing the hive, first one I've lost in 3 years but the two hives my friend set up are doing well so that's good. Looks like if you let your guard down for a second something will get you. Time to open a bottle of Three Bean Vanilla/Lemon Mead and think about the loss. It's not all that bad, still have three large hives going with plenty of honey, maybe I'll be able to get a swarm to fill the bee yard out with.
