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Dead hive - any suggestions

2K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  delber 
#1 ·
This is my first year - received packages April 2012. I opened my hives today to place a candy patty on them. It's 65 out. One was raging - yay. One was mediocre. and the third one was 100% dead. I pulled a few frames. Full of dead bees and I haven't torn them apart yet, but it looked like a queen was there due to the formation of bees encircling one area. It is also full of honey. Anyhow- the two weird things were: honey was flowing out of the bottom and there are tons of white specs all over the bees and the frames and even kind of dusted on the bottom super below the area of where the bulk of the bees were in the top super.

Is it mites?! AND - can I harvest and use the honey? Probably 50 lbs or more. THANKS in advance for any input.
 
#3 ·
You could probably harvest the honey if you didn't use any hard treatments with this hive. I don't harvest honey from the two deeps that I call the bee space since I do feed sugar and have used Fumagillan for nosema. I had a dead out this year and I'm just saving the frames of honey for this spring to beef up nucs and possibly colonies. I recommend you check out Randy Oliver's site "http://scientificbeekeeping.com/" and check out his varroa info. I'd be checking my varroa levels very early this spring if I were you to help ensure the other two don't wind up like this one.
 
#4 ·
Being that the mites are dead on the bottom board you can feed the frames to your other hives. As was stated above regarding treatments, you can use the honey assuming that it is honey. If you fed sugar or something else in the fall I'd let the other hives have it, or keep it for splits next spring when your bees will need the help. The thing that concerns me is you say that there was honey flowing out. Was that because the bees had joined the frames together, or is there another reason? I have NO idea what your weather is like there, but honey flowing out of the cells is a sign of SHB. If you see larva in the frames (you can search for hive beetle larva pictures which will help) then I'd freeze them for about 2 days in a deep freezer, then you can give them to the other hives and they'll take care of the rest. If this is the case then I wouldn't eat the honey personally, but it won't hurt you if you do.
 
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