Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => DISEASE & PEST CONTROL => Topic started by: ericthebee on March 05, 2006, 01:37:40 am

Title: dead hive ??
Post by: ericthebee on March 05, 2006, 01:37:40 am
out of 4 hives I have just discoverd i dead smelly hive. Its was last opened xmas eve. I'ts been very hot  many many days in the 40's and high humitity here in Syd Australia. This hive smells sour like vinegar, no brood at all (to test) , a few moths a few wasps a stream of tiny ants going in there is honey in the top box, but seems to be "melting" the bottom :? although its not hot today, its just running down and out the bottom box,(they  are all dark old combs from someone else) its a rust brown colour. there appear to be 1/4 inch white maggots (2 -3 per bottom frame. )  a few hollowed out bee carcarses with bits missing.   M2 of my other hives looked like they might want to swam a few weeks ago althoughg its too late, so maybe all the bees moved out ? Hive was from a swam 2 years ago.  
anyone got any clues out there. I put it all back together cleaned up & replaced all bee water supplies around, some smelt !  & blocked up the bottom entry with newspaper while I work out what to do.
Title: dead hive ??
Post by: TwT on March 05, 2006, 01:59:08 am
Hate to hear you losed a hive, but the way you are describing it almost sound like SHB, Beetles defecate in honey and cause it to ferment, and you talking about maggots, could be SHB larva, look at these pics below and see if your looks like this.

http://home.elmore.rr.com/kingbeeapiary/feedback.htm
Title: Yes SMB
Post by: ericthebee on March 05, 2006, 02:25:08 am
Yes although I've only about 20 of these 'maggots"  all up. I can't find many beatles. I will check out how to clean it all up I guess.
Title: dead hive ??
Post by: amymcg on March 05, 2006, 08:10:58 am
Ted,

Everytime I see those pictures they give me the creeps. I'm SO glad I live in the north.

Amy
Title: dead hive ??
Post by: Jay on March 05, 2006, 10:28:40 pm
Amy,
We have SHB here in the Northeast! It's not as bad as in the South, but they're here! Keep an eye skinned! A weak hive can still suffer! :shock:
Title: dead hive ??
Post by: gsferg on March 06, 2006, 07:41:39 am
>We have SHB here in the Northeast!

Yeah we do. I got a few in some nucs that came from down south, now it appears they're able to winter over in some circumstances. If your hives are strong they'll handle them, but small/weak hives can fall prey to those little buggers and it's ugly. I agree Amy... I looked at those pictures once and that was enough...

I've found that screened bottom boards help- the bees will drive the beetles down below the screen where they're happy to hang out and they'll even raise some babies on the wax and pollen debris that falls through. Clean `em out regularly.

George-
Title: Nice pics
Post by: Understudy on March 06, 2006, 09:26:21 am
I love those pics.
Now I am hungry for Chinese with extra rice. ;)


Sincerely,
Brendhan
Title: dead hive ??
Post by: Jay on March 06, 2006, 04:53:12 pm
Don't laugh, one of the members in our bee club sells his drone brood cut-outs for IPM to a local Chinise resturant. Aparently, the larvae is a delicacy. I think he said he gets $6 per frame! :shock:
Title: dead hive ??
Post by: Robo on March 06, 2006, 05:03:37 pm
(http://eat.bees.net/bug11.jpg)

http://eat.bees.net
Title: dead hive ??
Post by: amymcg on March 06, 2006, 07:35:28 pm
. . *has decided not to eat any Chinese in Concord. . .*
Title: dead hive ??
Post by: Apis629 on March 06, 2006, 08:23:31 pm
On the topic of SHB in the south I've seen first hand what they can do.  Luckily, they've only once affected my bees in a big mannor ( the hive was weak and then turned into a giant mass of larvae, dead bees and slime...smelled like rotting oranges) Probably the worst instance I've ever seen SHB was in a hive removal from a nearby property.  The bees weren't mine given my hive had never swarmed (still have the origional queen with white dot) but I thought I'd try to help out.  I was told there were still plenty of bees but, the occupants of the hive had gon when they fell the tree, only robber bees were left.  Anyways, the combs were sanwitched between each other from the impact and had to be pealed apart.  The hive had been down for a day but the new, white combs on the outer fringes were dark with SHB adults.  Between each sheet of comb were thousands.  They were everywhere.  With SHB and varroa it's a 1, 2 punch.