Hive collapse? (June 20,2022)

We discovered dead bees in the bottom of their hive on June 20, 2022.  Yet the bees in our other hive are thriving. We have no idea what happened to this hive. Varroa mites? Colonies are collapsing worldwide for no discernible reason. Pesticides? Climate change? We'll replace the hive and add several more next April.

The honey stores were empty. Robber bees? Sometimes a stronger hive will attack a weaker one, robbing the weaker hive's honey. How does that work? Little drops of honey on bee legs like when bees take pollen back to a hive? Stop by and devour the honey, using the weaker hive as a feeding station?  We still have so much to learn!

We left the frames from the dead hive exposed so our thriving hive could scavenge the honeycomb wax. We most recently checked on the thriving hive around July 20: still going strong! It's too hot to install new hives now, with Austin having experienced the hottest July on record. The mean temperature of 90.6 (using daytime highs and nighttime lows) is 4.8 degrees above average. Going back 125 years, the top six hottest Julys on record in Austin have all occurred since 2009.