[ggoodman]

My uncle and I have been talking about bees for a couple years now and wanted to start a couple hives together. A friend of his got one and so I kinda lost him for a while. a week or so ago he tells me that his freinds hive is overrun with Small hive beetles, and he was setting up his fancy new cypress hive right next to it. I tried hard to get him to move it ASAP as the hives were only a foot apart and new colony does not need that.

After waiting a week he calls and says he is ready to move his hive. went over to the buddy's house at about dusk and saw not one bee go in or out. I figured it was a sign. but none the less we toweled the entrance and use a cam strap to hold the box together. get home set it up and remove the towel to see not one bee fly in or out.

I pulled the lid and there are larve everywhere on top. Two meesly bee's finally flew out but that was all i saw at this point it was dark so I put the lid on and told him to come back tomorrow morning ASAP to dig in and see if the queen was still there and what the status was I suspect it is done. the hive should have been moved when the problem with the first hive was seen. as it is now I think all i have inherited is a sticky stinky mess to clean up.


I am a little frustrated i got the call so late. and now he sees the big picture and realizes his mistake. Bummer of a first post but we will stick with it.

 

[AmericasBeekeeper]

Welcome! Sorry to hear that. Have you called your Apiary Inspector for advice, Jeff Pippin, 850-643-1955

 

[ggoodman]

nope no need at this point the hive is toast. I no bees from the box this morning so I went and popped the top and every frame has larve on it and not a bee in sight. so now the clean up starts. My uncle is dead set on freezong the frames with comb but my understanding is the beetles destroy the comb. any thoughts?

 

[Santa Caras]

yes, freeze the comb. 48 hrs will be good. It will kill any eggs and larva. Unless you have a ready hive to throw them in though you may wanna leave thaose frames frozen uintil ready to use. Wax Moths will make a home and meal out of the wax on the frames. Be sure to wrap em in a plastic liner so the lil woman in the house doesnt find larva that crawled out and into the freezer. SHB in a strong hive can be managed. in a weak hive they will slime it and all the bees will leave. My last split this happened but I caught em just before they left (Bees were up tween the inner cover and the lid and hanging out underneath the ledge of the lid) so was able to clean out the hive, gave them fresh comb from some other hives and convinced them to stay.
Sorry to hear bout your first attempt.....Good luck!

 

[ggoodman]

Will def freeze them then at the moment the hives are sitting in the sunny part of the yard open to air and my chickens are having afild day with the beatles frames are in the boxes so they can be jacked up. Now just need to find another nuke of bee's