?????????any ideas??????????

I last looked at some hives about 10 days ago, and although I didn’t inspect, pollen was flowing in, and all seemed well. Today, I found 2 hives had been attacked, one had a lot of splintered wood at the back, and a hole that bees could crawl through, but they didn’t seem too bothered and were working as usual. The other had the landing board partly splintered and a *jaws shape* chunk missing. There were also claw holes, but whatever it was hadn’t managed to enter. I opened the hive up as it seemed rather quiet, and………….NOWT.
Not a single bee, dead nor alive. No queen and I know she was well and present at the beginning of winter. All the honey was gone, but that must have been robbers, as the cells were nicely uncapped. A tiny amount of capped brood. No dead bees outside either nor any animal excrements nor stomach rejections. No signs in the hive of bee faeces resulting from panic. I’ve seen my hives after a stone marten attack, but the result was not like this. And besides, there is plenty to eat at the moment, though a marten did decapitate a few chickens last week. The total lack of bees has me completely puzzled. There is no pesticide use up here. Maybe the witch who moved in down the road?

Hi Chris

I'd vote for the witch. If you were in a few spots in the Pyrénées I might suggest a bear, or if you were in Gloucestershire (or most of the UK for that matter) I might have suggested badger. Do you have them?

Perhaps the disturbance caused the bees to abscond, as sometimes will happen.

Do you have spare electric fences?

best wishes

Gavin