Newbie We caught our first swarm for our first flow hive about a month ago. This is what the tray looks like. would appreciate any comments. Looks like honey sacs, honey and there are tiny critters in there too. what Is the white stuff? Does our tray look normal?
Norfolk Island. Wow. Pretty remote. How many people live there?
Can’t tell much from the picture without higher resolution - looks like mold and pollen and some water. Are there varroa there? Looks like maybe some of those.
Thanks, no varroa on NI - it is remote, 2000 people
Hi Bronni,
Thank you for joining in the discussion, I find the same often during a tray inspection.
The honey is a bit unusual, but as bees hatch the capping is chewed and falls into the tray, so the you can make an observation that there is a lot of brood hatching above that area. Consider also that pests when kicked out of the hive by busy bees might end up in the tray and out of desperation they might lay eggs and try to survive in this space, its a great diversion from the actual hive and some oil in the tray helps to catch and kill them.
Thanks very much Kieran. I certainly am finding the debris tray interesting! Hopefully as I gain more knowledge I will know what’s good and not so good.
It can be really interesting to see this hidden element of the hives progress. One thing to look out for is a build up of water in the tray as this could indicate some excess condensation and maybe the bees are not quite managing the temperature/humidity regulation.
Thanks very much Kieran, am loving looking at the debris, hopefully over time I will become better at recognising what is happening in the hive!
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