Inspection - Fail

The rains made it impossible to get to all the hives. Only made one inspection. Did not find any wax moths, hive beetles, or ants in hive; however, did find moth larvae under screened bottom board. Lifted off the hive body, swept larvae off and killed them. Even though the rains are terrific for the gardens it does seem to incite the insects to breed rapidly. Lots of birds in the area so I hope they fill their bellies with these insects.

Inspection - Fail

Plagues of Egypt

Bees on the left are my bees and the one on the right is one of the robbing bees.

Monday, August 17th 2009

Hive #4 has had a rough time of it. Laying workers, resolved, fourth installed Queen has survived (Queen Makeda). I inspected the hive and found wax moth infestation, which seemed to have happened overnight. I noticed the hive was very active, more so than usual. I was heading to work and didn't do any investigations but I had a gut feeling that something was wrong. When I arrived home, I put on my suit and that's when I found the hive was being robbed by large bees (see photo) and four frames infested with wax moths. I removed the frames, brushed off the bottom board that was covered with moth or beatle larvae. Then I changed the entrance reducer to allow only one to two bees at a time, wetted a sheet and put it over the hive, draping the sheet to almost the ground. Damage control. I will make replacement frames and figure out what to do with the moths and beatles.

My other three hives are at my parent's place and I keep one hive, Hive #4, in my back yard.

Plagues of Egypt