Help a newbee?

[dan.paonia]

I had trouble overwintering two hives. They both seem to have difficulty with the same thing. I'm guessing it was nosema? One hive died early in the winter, lots of honey left in the hive. The other has a few bees, but no brood and very little activity outside the hive. Here is a picture.
http://paoniarealty.com/beeproblem_resize.JPG

I assume the dark spots are dysentery. The hive smells a little funny, I'm assuming again that's dysentery. The hive that died off in the winter had the many dark spots as well. Am I on track here? If it is nosema, then can I safely reuse this hive equipment? I have two bee packages coming and I'm wondering what I need to do to reuse the already drawn comb? What do I do with the honey? Can I extract it? Is the extracted honey safe for humans?

Any and all help is appreciated.

[ScadsOBees]

Hi Dan, sorry for your losses, its not any fun to deal with the mess...

I don't have a lot of experience with nosema, I've never treated for it.

I don't know if it is cause by nosema or stress(from mites, mice, etc). I've had a hive die because a mouse was interupting their cluster, and they pooped in there too, I assume from the stress, and then died. I just cleaned it up and put a split or swarm in there, and they finished the cleanup.

A freind has a very similar problem in his hives. I'm planning on scraping everything clean, picking the 10 best cleanest frames putting a split into there. Then when they are build up, add the next deep, that may have been a little messier, then they have more bees to clean with.

Often too, when they die the condensation stays around and you start getting some fermentation happening, that will add to the funny smell. You need to make sure that the comb is 1. dry and 2. protected from moths/beetles.

I'm planning on giving my freind's hives a nosema treatment in the fall. (or earlier if warranted)

I'm not sure about the safety of eating the honey. But if it has bee shoot on it anyway....

Rick