I agree Stefan, this new photo of @MikeInVic 's definitely indicates hive beetle larvae, going by the 3 sets of legs at the front. Plus I can see those spines that I couldn’t see before. That color had me confused on account that they are usually creamy white allover. Maybe it was eating some of those black chalk brood mummies. Plus it stands to reason after all of Mike’s recent observations.
PS, after posting this, I spotted Mike’s other photos. That’s great advice on feeding & removing the honey super. The queen will probably reduce laying while food stocks are low.
it would be good to add some pest management onto the corflute.
Something like this as an oil catchment. You can put a bead of silicone on the corflute slider to create a lip, so that you can use this as a catchment when in the bottom slot, and flip it upside down so it still fits into the top slot. Best to have the pest in your base than in the hive. –Kieran
Thanks to everyone with their advice and suggestions, it’s been very helpful and a useful learning experience.
I talked to the person who sold me the bees and their attitude was, you get these diseases sometimes. OK, thanks for that.
I have put a round feeder on the top of the hive with 2:1 sugar water and I’m planning on getting a bottle of Mineral Bee and feed them that as well. I haven’t found any more SHB larvae today and I’ve had a reduction of chalkbrood mummies to about 5. I’ll continue to have oil in my slider and I’ll log the results every day. I’ve sprinkled Diatomaceous Earth around the base of the hive.
I’ve left the super on for the moment as there are bees working up there. Luckily the weather is much better and the bees are very active. I’ll feed till the next inspection in a week or so and see what progress the hive has made at that point.
The chalkbrood was probably due to the cold snaps. My small swarm had some till I put the hive back in winter mode. Changed them back to summer mode now it seems to have remembered its mid spring and there is no more chalkbrood.
Your bees would go better with 1:1 syrup this time of year. Also, shake the bees out of the super and remove it or you will end up with sugar honey.
Just wanted to thank everyone for their help and suggestions once again!
We’ve had a patch of reasonable weather and the bees have come back very strong. I fed them for a few days but they started ignoring the sugar water and were out collecting the real thing.
Hive numbers are very strong again and I haven’t see more than one or two SHB and chalkbrood in the last week.
The inspection I did yesterday had 3 ½ frames of honey and a lot of pollen with good brood numbers. They’re filling the flow super, which I put back on when I stopped feeding them.