My daughter tried to keep bees, but they abandoned their hives. Evidence indicates, though, that they swarmed and went elsewhere, not that they died.
LOL! Yeah. The real hard part is training them to make their deposits in those little plastic bear squeeze bottles. :>}
Pretty common, I guess. My friend down the street is a beekeeper, and keeps hives in his back yard. Fascinating.
He replaces his bees about once every three years. The hive moves on once it grows to the point where they think they are going to need more space.
He says he can pretty much call when they’ll bail now - the bee boxes he keeps reach about 60% full. Rather than buy new boxes, he watches them bail, then buys a new queen.