I'm a fairly new bee keeper and have found this in one of my stronger hives. I'm needing help on deciding what I need to do to help this hive survive. I've had this hive for a couple years and last year it was a very strong hive. I opened it up this year and found that all by bees have moved into the super and have abandoned the hive body. I was not able to locate the queen, however I have found new brood. Please let me know what I should do to save this hive.
Help with hive disease?
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What you show in the two pics is not disease it is crystalized honey or sugar syrup. Normally the cluster will be in the top box in the spring and will move down as the bees bring in new stores. What we need to see is brood pictures. How strong is the population, how much brood is there, have you treated for mites, and how much stored hjoney and pollen.
Dave
Dave
I will attatch a picture of the brood tomorrow or when weather permits. The population is at best 5000 bees from what I would have considered a very strong hive last summer. I know that the hive numbers will decrease for winter but it seems very low. I could not find the queen on inspection however I have found new larvae within the cells (in the super). All activity in the lower hive body has ceased. If there is no disease then maybe I should just leave well enough alone. I spoke to a neighbor (fellow bee keeper) and he advised to place the honey super on the bottom of my hive with the hive body on top and force the queen and bees to start working back into the hive body. I'm not sure if this was the right decision, however with me being new and he has a lot more experince than I, I chose to listen. Thoughts?
It's just sugar.
That would be my course of action. They'll move right back in and clean it up for you. Nothing for you to worry about except whether they have enough food for brood rearing before the flow and making sure the larvae you saw were worker larvae.
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