Moldy hive

[LizzieBee]

I just did a hive check. The telescoping cover was moldy... and it still is because I?m not sure what to use to clean it. Any ideas that won?t harm the bees?

The lower box?s two frames on the far right were slightly moldy... I removed them and put two new frames in. What should I do with the moldy ones? There was uncovered honey which was moldy, and the upper half of the frames have capped honey. The wax covering is a tiny bit moldy.

There was lots of honey, and patches of pollen on almost all the frames. There were about four frames with brood and I saw Guinevere (the queen bee). A few bees had wrinkled wings...

Any helpful ideas are welcome!

Lizzie

[BeeMaster2]

You can clean the lid with 5% chlorine water. Not sure what part of California you are in. Are your bees in cluster or are they building up? Either way the bees can clean up the frames if it is full of bees.

Jim

[LizzieBee]

Sacramento Area. The majority of the bees were in the upper box, mostly in the middle. A few were scattered in the lower box, packing pollen in a few cells. The two moldy frames had a couple of dead bees on them. I think they?re building up the hive, they?re pretty active during the day, and I?ve seen quite a few bringing lots of pollen in.

Lizzie

[LizzieBee]

Thanks for the suggestion. I?ll do that.

[MikeCinWV]

When you say "wrinkled wings " do you mean DWV?

[LizzieBee]

Yes. Should I be concerned by it?

Lizzie

[CoolBees]

Lizzie - I also had mold in my strongest hive a few weeks ago. I live about 2 hrs from you I'm guessing. I wiped the mold off the hive parts, and removed frames that had any large amount on them. That, along with the warmer weather now, seems to have solved that problem.

I also had DWV - in small amounts. Knocking the mites back (OAV in Dec) seemed to have resolved that. Fwiw.

Alan

[MikeCinWV]

Yes I would be concerned. A few here and there isn't the end of the world but it can signal the beginning of the end.  It's a sign that the mites are gaining the upper hand against your bees.  Do you treat?  What and when was your last treatment?  Do you keep track of your mite loads with alcohol washes or sugar rolls?  If so what we're the numbers last time you checked and when was that?   I used to be treatment free but in my area the hives would crash during their 3rd winter/4th spring and really be unproductive after their 1st year.  Now I do OAV 5 treatment's 5 days apart in July after supers are pulled,  again after fall supers are pulled, a single treatment between thanksgiving the winter solstice.   Has been working really well for me.  Keep the mites controlled and the rest is easy.

[SiWolKe]

I?m tf ( treatment free) in south germany where nobody else is tf and where it?s hard to be tf. I?m tf for 4 years now.

If I had mold like lizzie tells it was a dead hive which was left for some time.

What I neglected so far is to restrict the colony to the minimum space they need going into winter. I?m working on this. Still, having too much space, if they are living there is not much mold.

Plus, mold is a sign that the hives are not ventilated very well. It depends on the location and the hive configuration how to solve that problem.

Mold is no problem to the bees, they clean the hive in spring or you can clean it but it?s a problem when you want to use the honey for yourself.

If I see mold, even if it?s only a small tinge, I decap, use the frames for feeding or melt them if they contain no stores. Molded pollen I never use.

[Live Oak]

I just did a hive check. The telescoping cover was moldy... and it still is because I?m not sure what to use to clean it. Any ideas that won?t harm the bees?

The lower box?s two frames on the far right were slightly moldy... I removed them and put two new frames in. What should I do with the moldy ones? There was uncovered honey which was moldy, and the upper half of the frames have capped honey. The wax covering is a tiny bit moldy.

There was lots of honey, and patches of pollen on almost all the frames. There were about four frames with brood and I saw Guinevere (the queen bee). A few bees had wrinkled wings...

Any helpful ideas are welcome!

Lizzie

I would clean the mold up as best you can without allowing the cluster to become chilled.  Try placing a sheet or 2 of  1" or 1.5" foam insulation board on top of the inner cover to mitigate the loss of thermal energy from the cluster.  This hopefully will keep the inner cover warm enough to prevent or minimize the condensation of water vapor on the inside of the inner cover. 

DWV is NOT a good sign and is an indicator of varroa mite infestation as has already been pointed out.  OAV is a goood quick knock down for mites however I would caution using it to any great extent in cold temperatures especially well below freezing.  A quick shot of OAV immediately followed by strips of Apivar would probably be something I would consider.  Not exactly sure what elevation you are at in California. 

My go to treatment for varroa mites is the Mighty Mite Killer if temperatures are 70 or above or if I insulate a hive enough to treat at lower temperatures.  The Mighty Mite Killer will kill the reproductive mites in the capped comb which are the mites that cause the most damage to the hive.  In any case, if you are seeing signs of DWV, treat with something effective and don't delay. 

[SiWolKe]

I just did a hive check. The telescoping cover was moldy... and it still is because I?m not sure what to use to clean it. Any ideas that won?t harm the bees?

The lower box?s two frames on the far right were slightly moldy... I removed them and put two new frames in. What should I do with the moldy ones? There was uncovered honey which was moldy, and the upper half of the frames have capped honey. The wax covering is a tiny bit moldy.

There was lots of honey, and patches of pollen on almost all the frames. There were about four frames with brood and I saw Guinevere (the queen bee). A few bees had wrinkled wings...

Any helpful ideas are welcome!

Lizzie

I would clean the mold up as best you can without allowing the cluster to become chilled.  Try placing a sheet or 2 of  1" or 1.5" foam insulation board on top of the inner cover to mitigate the loss of thermal energy from the cluster.  This hopefully will keep the inner cover warm enough to prevent or minimize the condensation of water vapor on the inside of the inner cover. 

DWV is NOT a good sign and is an indicator of varroa mite infestation as has already been pointed out.  OAV is a goood quick knock down for mites however I would caution using it to any great extent in cold temperatures especially well below freezing.  A quick shot of OAV immediately followed by strips of Apivar would probably be something I would consider.  Not exactly sure what elevation you are at in California. 

My go to treatment for varroa mites is the Mighty Mite Killer if temperatures are 70 or above or if I insulate a hive enough to treat at lower temperatures.  The Mighty Mite Killer will kill the reproductive mites in the capped comb which are the mites that cause the most damage to the hive.  In any case, if you are seeing signs of DWV, treat with something effective and don't delay.

Defect wings were observed before varroa. They then were the result of chilled brood and virus. Defect wings can be caused by formic acid too. The virus transmission got worse by the mite which sucks on the bodies of the pupa and bees and directly transmisses the virus. Freshly hatched bees not hardened could look like defect wing bees.

There is much experience and monitoring needed to evaluate this.

Only if there is a correlation between mite infestation and defect wing bees you are sure to have a mite problem. This certainty you can only have by monitoring mite numbers.

In my treated hive I had many defect wing bees because the treatments were in vain attributed to weakened bee stock, constantly treated for 30 years.

So you can have the same appearances with treated bees, but I advise treatments nevertheless because if the hive dies it?s always the treatment free management which is blamed.

I?m not sure a colony which shows defect bees this time of year can be saved, but probably it?s possible in california if season already started.
Usually treatments will save a colony if used before winter bee breeding.

[LizzieBee]

My only treatments were dusting with powder sugar. I dusted them last time and I saw very few mites on the bottom board the next day. I haven't been a beekeeper for even a full year so I have very little experience. Last winter I wouldn't have paid attention to dearths cause I didn't have the hive then. They've been bringing pollen in. So I guess I'll just keep an eye on the hive and check the bottom board. (I have a screened bottom board with the pull-out tray so it isn't too disruptive to check on that area for mites)

Thanks,
Lizzie

[SiWolKe]

My only treatments were dusting with powder sugar. I dusted them last time and I saw very few mites on the bottom board the next day. I haven't been a beekeeper for even a full year so I have very little experience. Last winter I wouldn't have paid attention to dearths cause I didn't have the hive then. They've been bringing pollen in. So I guess I'll just keep an eye on the hive and check the bottom board. (I have a screened bottom board with the pull-out tray so it isn't too disruptive to check on that area for mites)

Thanks,
Lizzie

If you check by reading the bottom board ( like I do) check for ten days in a row, so you have an overall idea. Brood hatches in that time. Clean the board every day and count again the next day.
If possible count in the mornings, because most grooming happens in the night. Take the average.
Fix a threshold ( mine is 30 mites a day, but I have tf stock, so your threshold might be lower, 5 a day perhaps) and sugar shake when more mites did drop.
After shaking, sieve the sugar to count the mites. Put the sugar and mites into a container filled with water and then sieve. The drop must be much higher than the daily drop, otherwise the shakes are in vain.
If the drop after sugar treatment is high, do it again every second day until it goes down.
One monitoring and one in summer will tell you whether the mit numbers rise. If they do, you must take action before winter bee breeding.
To be sure about the mite numbers in your hive I advise an alcohol wash. Many mites hide in the shells of the bees.