Moldy frames have been on my mind, too. If a colony dies, it's best to get those frames out ASAP to avoid or reduce the "moldiness". I know "they" say bees will clean it up but I decided to do some research.
The first article I came to gave support to that opinion, that the bees will clean up mold. I now feel a little better about moldy frames. I trust the lady who writes this column. Check it out.
https://www.honeybeesuite.com/what-to-do-with-moldy-combs/
She did mention a caution about American foulbrood and nosema. (I'm going to start a new thread topic about nosema later today.)
But I decided to check a few more articles on moldy frames and found this:
"While the bees can clean this up you do want to be careful because a certain level of mold or moisture in a hive can lead to European foulbrood. In my opinion and the way we have treated this is on the side of caution to prevent at our yards we scrape the wax to the plastic. "
It was in a forum and the author sounded intelligent but who knows???
So I think I'll do some more research. I vaguely remember this topic came up at the Washington bee conference a few of us went to. Meghan Melbrath (researcher) said to throw out frames of moldy pollen. They will replace it with fresh spring pollen in no time.
Nonda
the bees will clean up the box as long as they have warm enough weather to get to it. They will up upcap honey and clean up the mold too. It's weather dependent however
I appreciate this thread! Being fairly new to beekeeping, I have so much to learn and I look forward to reading the different responses. With that being said, I have questions too. Last spring I started a second, little 8 frame hive, and then ended up splitting my first (very strong) hive so then had three. The new nuc (8 frame), never did take off and this winter it’s done. Last week I took it apart and started cleaning it up. I put any frames that had any kind of honey on them into a box and set it on its side in an open shed that we have a trailer backed in to. I cleaned up the rest of the parts and put them in storage and pretty much forgot about the honied box until the next day when I went out, and the bees from my other two hives were busy cleaning it out. My questions are - will the bees completely clean it up? Should I uncap any honey that’s in there or will they do that? There was mold in it, is that an issue?
I'm curious - what temp/weather conditions are you waiting for hive checks in the winter months? I popped in to my hive the other day when it was 55* out, but just to give them a sugar block and make sure there were still bees in there (there was). But those opportunities are fewer and farther between these days.
Our experience is similar with yours Claire.. Two out of our three hives have absconded. The first one had only 2-3 dead bees inside! Ten days (approximately) later the second one followed suit. Inside were only a very small handful of dead bees on the bottom screen.
Ironically, the remaining hive is the one that I started out with in my first year (2021 nuc) and it remains a strong colony. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
I’ve built a couple of swarm traps, hoping to rescue a couple swarms to repopulate our apiary in the spring. Still having fun with this, and I’m not ready to give up. I’m actually seeing the need to ramp up my efforts in beekeeping.
Very odd winter so far. On a recent walk in the hills, I noticed for the first time in 35 years: blooming Scotch Broom, blooming blackberries and blooming tansy. Skunk Cabbage which is one of the first blooms I see in the woods is starting to emerge. Attached is a picture of a patch of blackberries about 30 yards long, blooming in Dec in Tillamook Co.
What does this mean for bees? My take is that bees are more active during this warm winter, often flying during mild afternoons. To me, this means more active bees which by the fact that they may not find much to forage on, will continue to burn through their winter stores at a rapid rate. For beekeepers, this may mean that it is all the more important for beekeepers to keep monitoring stores and lifting hives. I have one deep box hive that is now being fed with fondant and now with winter syrup since their stores have been almost depleted. A sure potential starvation scenario. Stay vigilant this season for low stores, especially if we hit the typical Tillamook cool wet spring that keep the bees inside and burning through their resources.
I love hearing bee stories. Share what you can.
I went into winter with five hives: 4 apimaye and one wooden. I removed the wax off the honey super frames in October and they moved it all down to the two deeps. That's the first time I have ever done that.
Today I went in to do an oxalic acid treatment. Only one got done. That hive was strong and they didn't like the OA. They got loud. They have plenty of honey and megabee. So far so good.
Hive #2 was empty. Zero bees. Zero honey. It was a pretty strong hive a month ago. I took one super of honey and uncapped one for them to move down. So what happened to them? They weren't stuck, head-in in the comb as for starvation. They weren't two inches thick on the bottom from too much moisture. I treated several times in summer and fall with the most recent OA on 11/29.
I know two people who had strong hives and then had no bees or signs of bees. We said they absconded. I can now add my name to the list. In the hives of the two others, they left a super full of honey behind. Maybe someday I'll understand.
IMPORTANT: The frames in the hive that absconded were just beginning to show signs of becoming moldy. So I removed the frames and put the dark black wax ones in my stash of ones to clean and rewax. The good frames went into the freezer and will go into totes in a few days.
From the other colonies... The wooden hive only had five frames of bees in the top box, devouring the megabee even though the hive is heavy with honey. Carniolans overwinter with small clusters and start raising brood later. I'm hoping it's a carniolan queen. I stuffed all the pvc pipes in the vent box with socks. It's not strong enough to need that much ventilation.
Of the last two, one was medium strong and the other very, very strong. The very, very strong one was raising brood already. There were lots of the wax cappings on the bottom board. You see that when the workers eat their way out.
I have a thermometer that records the current temp, the highest temp and the lowest temp. I put one in one of the hives out of curiosity. When I find the rest of my stash of thermometers, I'll put them in the rest.
It's amazing how as the years pass I become less confident about how the ovewintering will go...
Hope your stories are hopeful!