Usually, that happens because there are too many or too large entrances to the hive and the bees cannot defend it. My grandfather used to make his hives with only one way to enter and that was small. He was a beekeeper and told me that the reason he did that was to protect against wasps and meal worm moths.

You are probably correct in your assumption. I think that there was too much of an opening to the hive. We will order more bees next year again. This about our fourth year of raising bees, each year we learn more about keeping them.

Have you tried catching your swarms as they leave the hive? When I had bees, I started with 2 hives and ended with 7 hives until I entered the Army and had to sell them. Each year when a new brood was hatched, the old queen would take her group of workers and find a new home, leaving the old hive to the new queen and her newly born workers. Before they departed the hive, they would hang out of the hive and then fly in mass to a nearby limb where they would land and hang out while the scouts looked for a new hive. My mother would call me to say the bees had swarmed and I would return from work and take a new hive box that I had prepared and put it under the swarm with the top off. I would then shake the limb causing the queen, surrounded by her workers, to fall into the new hive box. I put the lid on and allowed the box to stay in that location until the night when I would put cotton in the entrance and move it to its permanent location and remove the cotton. Usually the bees liked their new home and stayed there. I caught 5 hives that way.

We have not tried catching the swarms. One reason is that we have not seen them leave. It happened last year and again this year. The hives are located in a pasture quite far and out of sight from the house. It sounds as if you have quite a knack for bee keeping! I'm a little old for climbing up a tree but my daughter might be talked into it.

Yes, we do have an Extension Service through Ohio State University. My daughter and I attended classes there a few years ago. The inspector comes on our site every year to inspect the bees. At that time, they are always doing fine but we seem to loose them in the fall and winter. One year the mice got in a hive and of course, this year it was definitely yellow jackets that drove them out. Our neighbor behind us has a company out to spray their yard several times in the summer, that probably doesn't do the bees any good.

We do know of other bee keepers near us and I will suggest to my daughter to visit them and check how they are doing. Unfortunately, we get pretty busy in the summer with the gardens and animals and do not pay much attention to how the bees are doing except to go by their hives and notice that they are coming and going.

I don't keep bees nor do I know much about the basics, but I do know that a friendly one-on-one relationship with a beekeeping mentor is often critical to success. Perhaps the summertime lapse of attention allows trouble to get started. Just saying...

I have a couple of recommendations. When your neighbor sprays, plug the entrances to your hives so the bees stay home for a couple of days. Make sure you have a good water source near the hives to keep the bees on your property as much as possible; bees will have to travel less to get water and have more time to get the ingredients for honey. Since you are losing your bees in the late fall and winter, assuming you are not experiencing honey bee disappearance event, they may not be storing enough honey for the winter and the hive may be too small for defense. If you are harvesting honey from them, ensure you have a large hive box that is allowed to fill before you add the super. A large hive box allows them to have a good amount of honey for the winter and allows them to raise more workers. More workers helps hive defense and helps the speed of honey making. The super is your honey and it can be taken each year, but the hive box belongs to the bees and needs to be filled before you add the super in order to ensure they have an adequate supply for the winter. If you have a week hive, you van strengthen it by finding the new queen of the new swarm, killing her and allowing the old queen to take over the new workers. Look on line fore instruction. If you hives are exposed to the elements, the bees may believe the hive is not a good home and move elsewhere. Ensure that there is a good cover over the hive to protect it against the elements in the winter and overheating in the summer.

I am printing out your advice and giving it to my daughter. We have a pond within 50 ft. of the hives so they have plenty of water. Closing the bees in the hives is a good idea after the spraying. Thanks for your good advise.

The hives are located in a pasture quite far and out of sight from the house

Move them close enough to the house that you can check on them daily. They aren't a set and forget sort of critter, unless you want to find out too late that there were problems.

I did not think of that, that's a good idea. We will be trying again with three hives next Spring.

I know this is an old thread but even with a wide open entrance I haven't seen yellow jackets run out a healthy hive. I would think it is more likely that the hive was week or it died from some other issue and then the yellow jackets robbed it out. The only time I ever see yellow jackets getting past my guard bees is in the late fall. They seem to fly when temps are a little too cold for the honey bees to fly. But as the temps continue to drop the yellow jackets disappear also. If you have lost more then one hive in the same manner then I would look at other issues besides the yellow jackets.