Brown debris on corlfute

Is this the capped brood on the corflute? Should I be concerned or does this mean bees have just hatched?

Looks like mostly chewed cappings, but it is so thick, it is hard to tell.

I am guessing it is more than a month since you last pulled the slider, and that it is in the lower slot. The main issue with leaving it that long is that you now have a lovely breeding ground for wax moths etc on the slider, because the bees can’t clean it off. Once a week would be better, or put it in the upper slot if you can’t clean it off regularly. :blush:

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It’s actually been only a week.

Wow, busy bees then. :smile: Do you have a preference for it being in the lower slot for some reason? If not, it will stay a lot cleaner in the upper slot.

Have you just harvested in the traditional way and/or added any additional used frames in the last week? Can you look closely at the debris for wax moth poo and chalkbrood mummies? I am a bit suspicious of some of the things there. If you search on this forum (using magnifying glass symbol) you will see images and descriptions of those things. A close up photo of a small section of the debris will help others here identify what is in that debris if you need.

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If that’s a week you need to go into the hive and make sure they are ok. That looks like a massive robbing frenzy took place and all of the honey in the hive was forcibly taken by robber bees.
If you still see bees coming and going they could just be scouts and robbers or some unfortunate foragers who don’t realize there’s nothing there to come home to.

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There are some wax moths and cocoons in the hive. I tried to kill them all. There are also some hive beetles. I placed swifter sheets on the tops of the frames and caught about a dozen. Last month, I treated with oxalic acid. Should I do that again? Does it help kill the moths and hive beetles or only varroa mites? BTW, I did see the queen, and there are some larvae but the bees are mostly in the top box now. They seemed stronger a few months ago. Am going to begin feeding.

Up until about a month ago, there were lots of babies being hatched around
3 - 4 in the afternoon, not so much anymore. I opened the hive yesterday
and saw the queen and some larvae. Doesn’t seem like there is lots of
honey. Darn wax moths keep getting in there and hive beetles. I tried to
kill the moths, and I use swifter sheets to trap the hive beetles. Does
oxalic acid work on them or is that only for varroa mites?

How did you treat? Vapor? One vaporization or several?

Oxalic acid is only used to kill varroa mites. It probably kills tracheal mites too. However, it does not affect SHB and wax moths.

Is she marked? I am just wondering as your hive seems weaker than it was, could they have swarmed?

If you have SHB and moths, that is a sign of a weaker hive. The best thing you could do to help the bees fight off these pests would be to condense the hive down into one box, if you think they will fit. Once they have less space to defend, the bees will be much better at fighting off the wax moths and SHB.

Good luck, and I hope that helps.

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Chrystal, yes, reduce the number of boxes as Dawn says - as much as possible. Also I have read and experienced that feeding sugar syrup helps them fight chalkbrood and I suspect wax moth too so you are on the right track there I think. I’m not sure if you get chalkbrood where you are but too much room is a problem with that as well. I don’t get SHB or varroa mite so better not comment about that. You might find that your nectar has dried right up now and I think that causes issues too.
I’d suggest going to Michael Bush, “Bush Bees” website and look under “Space Management”. Really good stuff there as far as I am concerned and some of the concepts there I found really helpful. Rather than trying to kill the adult moths yourself, the condensed hive should deal with them.

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