Bad pollen from dead colony?

quick recap for context - colony did not survive the winter, and i’m taking a year off from beekeeping because i may be moving this summer. so i started taking the brood frames home to harvest left over honey and see if i could pry out some pollen, i poked some pollen with a tooth pick and it was creamy in texture (pictured below).

is this indicative of something? is the pollen bad? should i toss the entire frame? for some reason i was expecting it to be rough and powdery.

What does it taste like?

Honestly I was too skeptical to try it. Maybe it’s thawing? Pic was taken just after coming in from freezing temps outside

Straight pollen is much drier & crumbly. I’m thinking what’s on your toothpick might be bee bread or crystallized honey. Go ahead & taste it :yum:

Hey Alexander,

Sorry to hear you lost your girls this winter. Between mites n yellow jackets I at a 50% colony loss over here in Western Washington State.

I really don’t think :thinking: your going to enjoy the mix on that tooth pick … bees like it but not really my taste or choice. Now as for tossing your valuable resourse (those full drawn out comb) don’t do it or toss them over here to me in Puget Sound region.

I’m going to post some pretty icky looking frame that are safe n reuseable. We have very damp conditions here in the greater Seattle n Cascade Mtn area n yes the pollen mixed that’s left in a die-out can look very nasty.

That stuff in your tooth pick sure doesn’t look
anything like European or American fowl brood to me (but there are smells n test for both some written in the inner searches of this Forum.

I don’t see wax moth issues either n a frame can get very nasty … and those you need to freeze for several days to kill off any live larva or eggs.

Let me add several photos for you to see n others to comment on … I love being the devils advocate n see what happens when I toss ideas n pix’s out :smiley:

[. image

It’s totally amazing how my bees can cleanup n rework comb n frames of nasty wax. My wax isn’t old enough to cut out n render to beeswax blocks yet.

Looks like wax moth “ick” to me. :blush:

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Dawn,

Can put them on ICE !

Gerald

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Maybe make some wax moth patties eh @JeffH :wink:

If you get enough of them, it’d be worth a go, I reckon. :slight_smile: Although shb larvae might be a different story, I’d feed them to the chooks.

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Have you tried SHB larvae patties?

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Woooo ! Young lady … maybe Jeff will try them but I’ll pass on those patties! Plus I’d have to import the bugs up here. So far we don’t have Hive Beetle around us. I believe it must be too cold !

Gerald

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Absolutely! And " I’d feed them to the chooks."

OR what I do is float them on the koi pond and let the fish enjoy it. They do a great job of cleaning up the mess without damaging the comb and any propolis they scavenge is super food for them.

Good luck!

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Pam,

Oh heck n bummer ! Raccoons or something went fishing :fishing_pole_and_fish: end of summer n currently my pond is full of rain water n leaves. But that “float the boat” idea sound positive.

Only reason I freeze my frames is to rid the frames of wax moth eggs n larva that often bore deep into the cracks n wood portion. Any bee/moth (dead) grubs or larva the bees toss out n my patrolling hen gobble up normally. But will keep the “floating idea” from sinking to deep into my old gray matter :brain:

Right I’m doing early season (late winter) “Mite Buster) work … Had two of my larger colonies with skyrocketing mite counts. Way up over 15+ critter drop on my SBB sliders in 24 hour period. That sucks but used oxilic vapor treatments (1/16) n counts now 5 n 10 last nites check… see what happens on tonight’s recheck … Day after the treatment the two slider counts were Birch Hive 27 n Pine Hive at 55+… but that dead mite ct is rapidly dropping in last theee day. Wish I could toss the frames in the Koi/Fish pond to rid the colony of mites :laughing:

Sorry :neutral_face: about writing :writing_hand: a book here n changing tacks/course on your note. Have a great weekend.

Note: Maple Hive (my Flow-Hive (a swarm from two years ago) has not had mite cts above “0” this winter. Over the last two seasons the counts have remained the lowest of all my colonies but still had mites high enough to treat last summer once. I’m going to try n do a split so it does swarm n maybe loss this minor low mite trait.

Happy beekeeping,
Gerald

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