The Mighty Moth

[ksarrow]

:(
Well Hello everyone, new guy with only one hive on its second year . I have learned a great deal from this site, and from the colony itself. My first summer raised a very strong hive. I spun out a few frames and left the rest in there for the winter. Spring came this year and many bees started flying. I did not pay enough attention, they swarmed, left alot of room. I now know this is not good. After the failed attempts to catch the swarm they finally left, leaving the remains in a deep brood box and two supers. I let them bee so to speak.
Then month or two later after getting very busy with work and such I made my attention back to my hive. Not much flying and alot of mess on the floor and out on the ground. I opened and found that the demon wax moth had nearly taken over.
I worked all day today feeling bad for my neglect, I removed frame by frame and cleaned as much web and every worm I could find. The emty frames and honey stores look all chewed up and alot of spaces in the comb. In the freezer with them now. I placed an order for Certan. and will clean the brood chamber then I guess. Putting back in place some the honey frames and drawn comb. I hope my girls will forgive me ....

[Brian D. Bray]

Bees don't require much attention but they do required a few minutes or so every few weeks.  A little lapse of attention an your hive can be in deep doodoo.  
Plan on spending at least 15 minutes every other week to check on your hive and its progress.  A timely super would likely have avoided the swarm.
Good luck as a beekeeper.

[ksarrow]

ok the Certan has not arrived yet, I do have the Para Moth and treating the spare frames. So I have the brood chamber slam full. I have the stores with not many empty cells. Do I load a suoer full of the stores and maybe an clean frame or too. And should I place it below the infected Brood chamber and hope the queen goes below?
I think I should clean up the brood frames and replace without treating.

Any suggestions would help

[Brian D. Bray]

What shape are the frames in?  If they're in bad shape I'd drop the new frames into the botom box so that I can move the upper out once they've drawn enough comb on the new foundation.  With moth damage it would probably be best to use the crush & strain method and then cut out and melt the wax.
If you do it right you can still end up with 2 deeps for fall.  Any frames that are still 80-90% serviceable can be left in the hive until next spring.

[ksarrow]

Thank Brian, but today I recived a frame of brood from my father. He has a few hives. As I started looking at the brrod frames I found no brood and no qeen. I did find qeen cells that were alittle old. The sun went down and I went back to look in the hive and there were only a few in the hive. I only hope that they might join thier sister that swarmed a few months ago.
I will clean it all up and start agin in the spring. I will talke better care from now on.

Thanks for the knowledge

[wbanks]

ksarrow,

If I read you right you lost your first hive to a swarm and the wax moths have taken over yes? If you no longer have any bees or brood for that matter...brfore you store your hive until nest year store the frames in a freezer for 48 hours...this will kill the wax larva and ALL the eggs.

Second year queens love to swarm...sadly it is very easy to prevent! Next time (I hope you do try to continue beekeeping) smoke your bees as normal but lift the brood box from the button and pivot it up...this will give you a perfect view of the bottom of the brood frames were swarm cells are likey to be...

Just so you don't feel bad, I lost 4 very productive hive last winter and I have  no explaination for the loss. But I am back at it with 3 new hives and a special love for these little critters!
Will