Greetings All,
I guess this is my entry into blogosphere! I was able to come home for an hour today and opened up my three hives. Two did not make it and one did. If I had pre planned I would have invited anyone to come by to join. Sometimes it seems I forget everything from season to season! So the middle hive which was struggling with laying workers and did not make a queen in spite of Denny's efforts to introduce other brood with the hope of them raising a queen was dead. It was rather messy with some odd patterns of dead bees and black rings of dead ones. I took some pictures and will try to attach them. Some of the honey was loose and drippy and over all it was a mess. My question is should I scrap all the yucky foundation off and put them in once cleaned or just remove the dead bees and the parts that are moldy? Also some of the foundation is glistening with either water or perhaps honey. Again, remove it all or let the new batch take care of it. On the bottom board were several 1/2 inch white worms or larva. Yuck. I scraped them out and left the bottom board to get some sun to kill what ever might be there.
The other hive was dead but none of the odd stuff found in the middle hive. The one hive that made it had robbed the honey but I figured that was OK. This hive will not need much cleaning before I put a package in.
The hive that made it look OK with decent activity. I did not see any brood except for a couple of larvae in between the two supers and a few drone cells. I did see one queen cell but did not have time to look for her. I hope she is there! I do hope this one begins to take off. I removed the one honey super that I left on and some of the bees were either making it or storing what they had robbed, The comb looked new.
The delivery of my two packages from Better Bee has been delayed again with the delivery for next Friday. I got a note card indicating such as well as a phone message. It was said that the weather is poor and very windy for shaking.
So I will try to post the pictures and let me know what you think. If anyone is interested in coming by when I open them again let me know and I will post when I will do this. I am hoping to take off the first full week in May to get my garden in order.
Many thanks in advance for reading and your feed back. Again, I would be most pleased to host a bee gathering at my place any time.
Best,
Christopher
P.S. I can't figure out how to get to the pictures I took today. I need remedial help!
I guess this is my entry into blogosphere! I was able to come home for an hour today and opened up my three hives. Two did not make it and one did. If I had pre planned I would have invited anyone to come by to join. Sometimes it seems I forget everything from season to season! So the middle hive which was struggling with laying workers and did not make a queen in spite of Denny's efforts to introduce other brood with the hope of them raising a queen was dead. It was rather messy with some odd patterns of dead bees and black rings of dead ones. I took some pictures and will try to attach them. Some of the honey was loose and drippy and over all it was a mess. My question is should I scrap all the yucky foundation off and put them in once cleaned or just remove the dead bees and the parts that are moldy? Also some of the foundation is glistening with either water or perhaps honey. Again, remove it all or let the new batch take care of it. On the bottom board were several 1/2 inch white worms or larva. Yuck. I scraped them out and left the bottom board to get some sun to kill what ever might be there.
The other hive was dead but none of the odd stuff found in the middle hive. The one hive that made it had robbed the honey but I figured that was OK. This hive will not need much cleaning before I put a package in.
The hive that made it look OK with decent activity. I did not see any brood except for a couple of larvae in between the two supers and a few drone cells. I did see one queen cell but did not have time to look for her. I hope she is there! I do hope this one begins to take off. I removed the one honey super that I left on and some of the bees were either making it or storing what they had robbed, The comb looked new.
The delivery of my two packages from Better Bee has been delayed again with the delivery for next Friday. I got a note card indicating such as well as a phone message. It was said that the weather is poor and very windy for shaking.
So I will try to post the pictures and let me know what you think. If anyone is interested in coming by when I open them again let me know and I will post when I will do this. I am hoping to take off the first full week in May to get my garden in order.
Many thanks in advance for reading and your feed back. Again, I would be most pleased to host a bee gathering at my place any time.
Best,
Christopher
P.S. I can't figure out how to get to the pictures I took today. I need remedial help!
1 comment:
Chris,
The larvae on the bottom board might be wax moth larvae. I had some trouble with them once. The larvae eat the wax and even bore into the wood of the frames. Now I keep any dry comb that isn't in use closed up with moth balls. An old refrigerator works great.
Bud
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