Would love opinions. My hopeful diagnosis is SHB combined with 100 degree temps and not enough bees to cover the brood. Hopefully NOT afb or fungal issue.
New colony in a 10 frame med with 7 partial frames of white wax. Was split on May 3, 2019, then put in an outfield to stop driftback.
So...low on brood, high on field bees, laying queen, we've been in a flow all the time. (Privet > mimosa > palmetto > popcorn). When I checked last week, I saw edge of broodnest, but it did not look dark & sick. It was looking honeybound, so I planned to harvest today and put in empty comb. (May 27, 2019). So I brought the hive back to my yard.
Now: very few bees, which is natural if the broodnest was so small and older bees died off. Tiny ants getting in. Queen is ok, I pulled and caged her. Saw an egg in this pic up close.
Brood nest has pierced cappings, moldy inside empty cells, darkened cells, but capped cells not contaning "ropy slime" when pulled with match head. There's tiny SHB larvae wiggling in the darkened cells. Only a few cappings are sunken, these contained larvae, so contents might've been eaten away. No bad smell yet, but it doesn't smell sweet and beesy either.
We had super high temps last few days. With not enough bees to fan, did this brood cook? Or do I have a serious fungal infection here and need to call the apiary inspector?
- Thanks for your input