My bees are doomed. I noticed some frenetic activity the last couple of days, then I finally figured out that a huge battle was going on. I wrongly concluded that workers were evicting the drones, extra mouths, as they do in the fall going into winter. I was puzzled why it was taking place so soon. The battle was horrific, though, with dozens of bees grappling with each other and falling to the ground until one usually killed the other. I wrongly concluded that all the battling was between workers and drones. All the pairs I saw were workers and drones, until yesterday, when I saw a worker carrying a struggling worker away.

I decided I should go into the hive, and when I did I was horrified at what I found. No sign of uncapped brood, not a single capped cell of honey. All the lovely brood that I'd had developing was gone; all that was evident were a smattering of capped worker cells and two swarm cells. The combs were mostly empty cells---a huge change from the day two weeks or so ago when I photographed the queen and tons of larvae.

I did notice back then, though, that I sure didn't seem to have much honey. I now realized that robbing's been going on for a while to the extent that, as of yesterday, my bees have not one drop of honey!

The only thing I can do is reduce the amount of entrances giving the guard bees less space to defend---three openings to defend made the job impossible for my bees. And I'll have to start feeding them sugar water----although it's very unlikely they'll survive the winter now. I suspect that my queen was killed in battle, explaining why I have no uncapped larvae.