Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => DISEASE & PEST CONTROL => Topic started by: kedgel on June 29, 2009, 06:15:22 pm

Title: Is it safe to put frames from a failed hive into a new hive?
Post by: kedgel on June 29, 2009, 06:15:22 pm

I think my hive failed from a combiantion of mistakes on my part and possibly mites.  Just before it collapsed entirely, I noticed several bees on the ground in front of the hive hanging on grass.  They were unable to fly with missing or disjointed wings.  I had an invasion of carpenter ants that I attributed the messed up wings to.  I don't think they had nosema, as there were no tell-tale poop smears in or around the hive.  I inspected a fresh-dead bee with a magnifying glass and didn't see any varoa mites.  I have a wild hive I recently cut out of a tree that I would like to put the frames into, but don't know if I should or how to disinfect them.  A couple of them had moth and/or SHB larvae in them so I put them in the freezer for a couple of days. 

Title: Re: Is it safe to put frames from a failed hive into a new hive?
Post by: fermentedhiker on June 29, 2009, 08:27:38 pm

It depends on a couple of things I guess.  That is how sure you are that they didn't have foulbrood(freezing won't do any good if they did).  If it was mites/moths/shb then they are "probably" ok now.  Secondly it depends on how comfortable you are with the risk.  If you are unsure of why they died out, you might try taking high resolution pics of the frames and showing them to your local inspector.

Title: Re: Is it safe to put frames from a failed hive into a new hive?
Post by: beee farmer on July 07, 2009, 04:02:58 pm

Ditto to Hiker he giving you good advice