Bee Tree Vacant - Bait hive destroyed

I checked on the bee tree up the canyon the other weekend. I've had a bait hive up there for a few years now. I went to check the hive and add scent to it.

The bee tree was empty. No bees coming and going. No bees on the comb visible through the entrance. No humming from within.

I had hoped that they had absconded the tree and moved into my bait hive. Upon hiking to the bait hive though, I realized that it couldn't bee. The hive had somehow been knocked/blown out of the tree and rolled down the hill (breaking into pieces on it's way to the bottom. I found all the top bars on the way down the hill and could determine that no new comb had ever been built aside from the old come placed there as bait.

Not sure what happened to the bees in the tree. Sad day.