Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => DISEASE & PEST CONTROL => Topic started by: evil nick on June 21, 2016, 11:50:46 am
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So I took my drone board out and froze/thawed it. I decided to pop a few cells and pull the larvae out to check for mites but found nothing. Im sure there are some in there.
Anyway at the same time I put my 3rd box on because my bees are filling so fast. I deicded I was just going to move the drone board up with the new box so I put an empty frame in its spot and set up the third box.
In the mean time I kind of forgot, got busy and we had rain so I couldnt get the board in there. I was thinking of throwing it in tonight but upon inspection is looked disgusting. Cells seemed to have opened on their own, its oozing stuff and just generally looks gross.
I know the bees are supposed to clean out the dead larvae and mush but would it make sense to scrape the board down to plastic and put it in clean or is it still safe even though it looks like a radioactive dumping site right now?
thanks
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> Im sure there are some in there.
You didn't find any, so there may not be.
You can certainly scrape it off. It makes great chicken feed.
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is it safest to scrape it? I know its easier for them to not have to rebuild it but its so gross lol. Just want to make sure nothing in there would have fouled and could get them sick.
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Easiest to wait til the drones are purple eye, they're not liquid then, you can gently decap and bang-shake them out for the dog or the pigs or the chickens. But ya risk waiting too long and letting the mites into the colony. Next easiest to decap (scraper) while frozen, drop it back in the brood nest and let the bees clean out the cells, the queen should have it laid full in a few days. It takes longer to get another round if ya scrape it down to the plastic.
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... or you can do nothing. I pull out my drone frames, capped, and before they start hatching, setting off a varroa bomb. I like spot checking for mites when the drone frame is pulled, prior to freezing. I use a dental pic to uncap and pull drones. It's easier to see the mites crawling. When they're pulled from the freezer and thawed, they go back into the hive and I let the bee's pull out the dead. Gives them something to do.