The Honey Factory

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I have lost my hive - again!
It all looked so promising: After harvesting the last honey in September, i left the bees with the last nectar run from the autumn olives, fed them with syrup and hauled the heavy hive into my open garage-shack where they happily hummed and flew outside whenever the weather was warmer. I don't remember when i checked on them for the last time, but yesterday i found the whole hive has died. Today i dismantled the whole thing and found mold of all colours inside:

It looks like a knot in the wood of the bottom hive box fell out, letting cold air and horizontal rain into the hive. They still had plenty of pollen and honey, but they all died. There was no brood in any of the cells present, so i assume the queen died in December.

Is there any way to salvage the woodware and the foundation or should everything be used as a bonfire? I was thinking about sanding down the wood and soaking it in diluted bleach. Then after drying it, the frame-parts will be tipped in wax and the boxes will be lightly torched with a gas burner.

 

[Sally PB]

@WannaBeHillBilly, I'm sorry you lost yours.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

That works fine if you are warm enough for the bees to leave the cluster and use that type of feeder.

I tried it here and my bees did not use that type of feeder here during February and march when they really needed the syrup.

My bees will use the entrance feeders on sunny days any time of the year. I have no problem replacing the empty syrup jars. Never suit up to do it and never had any of the bees come after me.

If your method works for you, keep with it. My bees would starve to death at this time of the year with the super type feeder.

This is only done in the spring when I want to give them a boost with pollen patties to start the brooding. Extreme cold they get a full 16x19 block. The ol' different methods in different parts of the country.

I have lost my hive - again!
It all looked so promising: After harvesting the last honey in September, i left the bees with the last nectar run from the autumn olives, fed them with syrup and hauled the heavy hive into my open garage-shack where they happily hummed and flew outside whenever the weather was warmer. I don't remember when i checked on them for the last time, but yesterday i found the whole hive has died. Today i dismantled the whole thing and found mold of all colours inside:

It looks like a knot in the wood of the bottom hive box fell out, letting cold air and horizontal rain into the hive. They still had plenty of pollen and honey, but they all died. There was no brood in any of the cells present, so i assume the queen died in December.

Is there any way to salvage the woodware and the foundation or should everything be used as a bonfire? I was thinking about sanding down the wood and soaking it in diluted bleach. Then after drying it, the frame-parts will be tipped in wax and the boxes will be lightly torched with a gas burner.

The only time to burn equipment IMO is when there has been foul brood. Go with you diluted bleach and follow up with white vinegar. There is time for it to air out before a wax dip which is great for a natural sealant.. Does sound like moisture may have been the culprit if you still have food reserves. I don't know if you treat for Varroa, they can reek havoc in a winter hive. If the foundation hasn't been infested with Wax Moth silk there is no reason to discard. If you can Freeze your frames, I know it kills Moths and their eggs, I can't recall if it kills Varroa. Our hives went into winter with 90 lbs + and here in February I just put 10lb sugar bricks (yesterday) on them. Inside is bone dry as the bees have been carrying water back to the hive to break down the bricks. As you know the price of equipment and bees is up there. If you have the tools build your own equipment. The only thing we purchase is frame and foundation. SallyPB's suggestion of hive wrap is also good. If you trap swarms I would immediately treat for Varroa. I hope I have given you a little help.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

You do not need to deep clean dead out hives. Little mold and what not is all cleaned up by the bees. I cringe when people tell me they scrap clean all the drawn wax because of a mold. It's a shame. People also will take hours or days cleaning up a dead out and I scratch my head about that. I will dismantle a dead out, using hive tool scrape the bottom boards, pull frames with dead bees and scrape most of them off, if heavy mold scrape the top layer and hold back really bad frames to have bees clean up when adding a second box. Once the population is larger they will clean up those frames quick. It's a twenty minute job including installing the new bees. If you are in the North the freezing temps kill greater wax moth eggs. Lesser wax moths are hardier. Scrape the webbing off and let the bees clean up the rest. Bees are amazing anti microbial cleaning machines if you don't overwhelm them with the chore as a small population.

 

[Apis mellifera]

I have lost my hive - again!

What was your mite count at the end of July?

The temperature went up to 54F today so I popped open a few hives and things are looking good. Swarm prevention may come early this year. Bees still have a lot of stores left so I'll probably have to extract some frames to make room for brood. If you look at the upper left hand corner I put the year on each frame. I try and cull frames that are 5 years or older in the spring.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

What was your mite count at the end of July?

The temperature went up to 54F today so I popped open a few hives and things are looking good. Swarm prevention may come early this year. Bees still have a lot of stores left so I'll probably have to extract some frames to make room for brood. If you look at the upper left hand corner I put the year on each frame. I try and cull frames that are 5 years or older in the spring.

View attachment 3744471

Very nice. This is what we like to see this time of year. Ours are similar maybe a little lighter than yours but if they maintain their current condition looking at 3-4 splits this coming spring. Alot can go South in the next 8-9 weeks.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Ours are similar maybe a little lighter than yours but if they maintain their current condition looking at 3-4 splits this coming spring.

For splits I use overwintered nucs. You can do a lot with overwintered 5 over 5s. The colony in photo will become a 2 queen colony and really bring home the nectar.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

For splits I use overwintered nucs. You can do a lot with overwintered 5 over 5s. The colony in photo will become a 2 queen colony and really bring home the nectar.

I used to do NUCs. Still have some NUC boxes in the shed. Now that I'm getting up there in age I just do "walk away" splits I want to play with them, not work for them.

 

[Apis mellifera]

I used to do NUCs. Still have some NUC boxes in the shed. Now that I'm getting up there in age I just do "walk away" splits I want to play with them, not work for them.

If I get to the point that I cant lift 8 frame equipment I will go all 5 over 5 nucs. They're fun to work, easy to manage/split, overwinter great, and make nice comb honey. I build the lower body an inch deeper so that I can put in swarm cells.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

[…]
The only time to burn equipment IMO is when there has been foul brood. Go with you diluted bleach and follow up with white vinegar. There is time for it to air out before a wax dip which is great for a natural sealant.. Does sound like moisture may have been the culprit if you still have food reserves. I don't know if you treat for Varroa, they can reek havoc in a winter hive. If the foundation hasn't been infested with Wax Moth silk there is no reason to discard. If you can Freeze your frames, I know it kills Moths and their eggs, I can't recall if it kills Varroa. Our hives went into winter with 90 lbs + and here in February I just put 10lb sugar bricks (yesterday) on them. Inside is bone dry as the bees have been carrying water back to the hive to break down the bricks. As you know the price of equipment and bees is up there. If you have the tools build your own equipment. The only thing we purchase is frame and foundation. SallyPB's suggestion of hive wrap is also good. If you trap swarms I would immediately treat for Varroa. I hope I have given you a little help.

Love your answer! - So there was no sign of wax-moths, hive beetles or varroa in that hive. I examined used a magnifying glass and found no dead mites at all, not on the bees, neither on the base board. I had treated the hive with powdered sugar last fall - which at first they hated! But they loved the syrup that i cooked from all that sugar to kill the mites.
I was able to salvage three mold free frames with honey and pollen which i will keep in a box, filled with carbon-dioxide in a cold place (my root-cellar) to sterilize everything. Fortunately i had already ordered a pound of bees with a queen in December to expand my honey production, so those bees will benefit from these frames now. Trying to secure another starter hive, but it might be too late…
As for building my own equipment, already had discussions with @R2elk about this. I am waiting for one of those 25% off coupons from Harbor-Freight which i will use to buy their best table-saw. My Garage workshop is almost ready and i will start to build my own boxes. I don't like the woodware you can buy in stores. These "hives" are not made for bees, they're made for commercial bee-keepers who need to be able to stack dozens of those on pallets and load them onto trucks with fork-lifts… (Sorry, ranting again...)
How do you make those sugar-bricks? - Feeding Syrup is such a messy procedure...