Hi, I’m a beginner and doing my best. Have been to as many workshops as I can, but still a beginner so please be patient with me.
I’ve so far had a straight forward run of inspecting my hive, harvesting honey etc. I’ve never seen many hive beetles at all! Only the odd one or two, but I also have a beetle trap in there. Maybe i need more beetle traps?
Can anyone please help me out with what’s happening with this honey? It does not look good at all! What do you think it could be and any suggestions on how I can remedy it? Thank you! I also want to point out than in the photo the blobs look but in real life they almost look like white/brown flakes.
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Hi Rosie, it looks like hive beetle larvae. I think I can make out the 3 sets of legs at the front on one of them. Have you inspected that frame as well as the frames adjacent to it, to see if anything is going on in them.
My suggestion is to always inspect Flow frames before harvest just to make sure that everything is fine with them. There could be brood in the frames, that got slimed during your previous harvest, or some bees could have gotten trapped before slimed. There are a few possibilities, so that’s why I make that suggestion. You’re the second person in S.E. Qld.with a similar outcome within the past week.
cheers
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I agree with @JeffH and suggest that you strain them out with a kitchen sieve (chux is fine, but you will lose more honey), but also be aware that the honey may ferment. SHB carry microbes that set honey fermenting much faster than it would do otherwise - a real pain in the behind! If the honey doesn’t smell fresh, it won’t taste good either 
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Hi Dawn, just from my observations, it appeared that the beetles dipped themselves in honey & walked it everywhere at the same time as the eggs were laid. The eggs for those beetle larvae (assuming they are beetle larvae) were probably laid a few days ago, giving the adjacent honey time to ferment. Like you say “if it doesn’t smell fresh, it wont taste good either…”. I wouldn’t eat it regardless
PS This photo shows new eggs with accompanying wet appearance.
This photo was taken 5 days later.
As well as this one.
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