One of my hives died over winter and now I have a few questions that I am not able to find the answers to. This is was my first winter with bees, I started the hives last Spring. I left 2 deep hive bodies on for the winter and there are still some frames with capped and uncapped honey in them. There are also some frames with pollen in them as well. All bees were dead and there were many that were dead with their heads face first in the cells. It seems like most of the dead bees were on the outer frames, in addition to the majority on the screened bottom. There was a lot of brown streaking on the inside walls of the hive bodies and quite a bit of streaking across the frames and down the drawn comb(dysentery??). I use screened bottom boards and a notched top entrance for ventilation. Although I thought that I left them enough stores for the winter, I also poured about 6 lbs. of sugar on a sheet of newspaper on top of the upper deep frames(which they did not seem to collect and store any of it). I did a quick clean up/inspection of the hives bodies and frames yesterday to get some of the mess cleaned up. At this point......
1. Was it dysentery that killed my bees(brown streaking and heads in the cells)?
2. Can/should I reuse the hives bodies, frames and drawn comb to hive a new package in, now in Spring?
3. Do the hive bodies and frames need to be cleaned/disenfected a specific way with specific cleaning materials?
4. With capped and uncapped honey, pollen, and granulated sugar left on and in the cells of the drawn comb does it need to be removed prior to reusing the frames and bodies or will the "new" package that I will install clean and "remodel" everything to their liking?
5. Is there any concerns that I should have installing a new package into a hive that I think died from dysentery?
I apologize for so many questions. Please answer any or all that you can. juzzerbee
1. Was it dysentery that killed my bees(brown streaking and heads in the cells)?
2. Can/should I reuse the hives bodies, frames and drawn comb to hive a new package in, now in Spring?
3. Do the hive bodies and frames need to be cleaned/disenfected a specific way with specific cleaning materials?
4. With capped and uncapped honey, pollen, and granulated sugar left on and in the cells of the drawn comb does it need to be removed prior to reusing the frames and bodies or will the "new" package that I will install clean and "remodel" everything to their liking?
5. Is there any concerns that I should have installing a new package into a hive that I think died from dysentery?
I apologize for so many questions. Please answer any or all that you can. juzzerbee