SHB's and wax moths!!!!!!!

[joker1656]

Well, I have not been on for awhile.  I also have not been out to check on the bees for a long time.... a few months, probably.  I wont go into it here, but I have had a pretty hectic and unforgiving summer.  Unfortunately, the bees suffered because of it.  

Two of my hives were destroyed by wax moths.... I mean DESTROYED. Should I burn the woodenware?  There are cocoons everywhere.  Very Very sad... I am ashamed, but I truly have not had the opportunity to get out there.  Still ashamed.  I did try to get rid of them, by selling since I knew I was going to have trouble with time.

Secondly, all of the remaining hives (3) have SHB's.  I had supers on and I think too much room.  The hives seemed fairly normal, strength-wise.  I reduced them down, so I hope they can take care of it.  Can a strong hive dominate ?  I guess I could treat, but if there is another way that would work I would do that.  So much for no SHB in Indiana.  All of my hives were from swarms or cutouts.  

Lastly, I pulled roughly 15 deep frames of honey.  Since I had SHB, can I just harvest that honey, or do I need to freeze it first?[/font]  I just crush and strain it, but am wondering about eggs or whatever.  Any thoughts?

Thanks for any opinions.  Sorry to be gone and spring back in with 20 questions.   :roll:  

[Kathyp]

can't answer your SHB question.  the wax moth stuff can be frozen to kill what's on there.  as badly as they can damage things, the bees can repair it next year if you kill the wax moth off.

glad you are back.  sorry about your hives, but sounds like the other 3 got though ok.

[hardwood]

No need to ditch the wooden ware, just clean them up and reuse. Wax moths and hive beetles aren't really "contagious" so to speak.
Reducing the area that the bees need to defend is the best option for both of these pests.

It sounds to me that the bees must have swarmed during your summer flow. The new queen(s), now with a much reduced population needed 16 days from egg to adult, maybe a week or so to mate and then another 21 days from egg until the first workers emerge, meanwhile the now worn out work force is dying off in droves....perfect opportunity for invasion.

Scott

[AllenF]

I still have frames in use that look like swiss cheese from the moths.  Clean them and reuse.   On your frames you can harvest.   Yes freeze them.   It will kill out all the bugs now.   Just make sure that the SHB has not slimed them yet.  But freezing will kill out the eggs left behind.

[joker1656]

Thanks to you all for your input.  In regards to the harvestable (word? lol) frames, is the sliming pretty obvious?  I am going to freeze them, but wanted to make sure that no slime was present.  None obvious, at least to me. 

[AllenF]

You can see where the worms ate the way through the honey, slime trails.   Yuck.  And when they are totally ate up, there ain't no question.   Look at them good when they come out of the freezer, but you may be alright.

[Culley]

In my struggle with the beetles this year I found one frame with tiny dark stains in about three uncapped honey cells. Pulled the whole frame and froze. There are a lot of tiny larvae turning up in the traps but on inspections I have occasionally found larvae on bottom boards, never any on any of the combs.

Regarding reducing the size of the hive area the bees have to defend;
If a beekeeper is using all deeps, the difference between 1 and 2 or even 2 and 3 is pretty big. How would you go about increasing the colony size while dealing with infestation? Will restricting the area limit the population of the bees adversely?

[hardwood]

Don't add hive bodies or supers until the box below has at least 7 frames full of bees.

On weaker colonies (swarms and cut outs...cut outs especially) I like to start them with one frame of foundation or drawn comb and the rest all foundationless frames. Empty frames don't need defending and by the time they draw them out they have the population to cover them.

Of course the cut outs will have their own brood comb that is very susceptible to SHB so I reduce the risk by not transferring any honey/pollen comb during the cut out and feeding syrup through a jar feeder with only one hole in the lid. They can't take the syrup fast enough to store it but can feed on it.

I have lost 5-6 colonies to SHB this year but they were all cut outs/trap outs.

Scott

[Joelel]

We freeze and cut out the bad parts,then spray with water hose. They rebuild it. If it's bad we cut all out. Cut the bad part out before you crush it.