Good morning! I’m struggling to control a hive beetle problem I have on one of my flow hives. I’ve got several beetle traps in the top of the brood box containing diatomaceous earth. I haven’t been taking much honey at all though for a while- could that encourage beetles by any chance? I’ve also spotted a beetle inside one of the flow frames. I’m guessing given the amount of crud in there the beetle situation is pretty bad (see photo). I’m really hoping someone will have some tips for me to help control these blasted beetles!
I don’t think that not harvesting honey would attract more beetles. They are attracted to a hive by bee activity. They want to lay eggs in sources of protein withing a hive, such as brood, dead bees & pollen.
I don’t do anything to control their numbers, however Flow provide the tray with the idea of beetle population control.
My strategy is to make sure my worker population is strong, while limiting the amount of drones* by making sure that all my brood frames consist predominantly of worker comb. I’m also making sure that there is no dead bees, brood or pollen that the worker population can’t defend, thus preventing beetles from laying eggs in them.
You should check that frame to see what’s going on above the channel. There may have been some brood or pollen in that frame the beetles got a chance to lay eggs in.
Have you had a honey dearth as to reason why you haven’t harvested much honey lately?
- drones do no work in a hive, which means they do no defending. This is why I limit the amount of drones in my hives.
1 Like
Hi JeffH,
Can I ask how do you limit drone brood? Do you cut it out? Hope it’s not a silly question? I’d like to give this a go as beetles are plentiful here at the moment with the wet summer. Anyway I can help the bees stay on top of them.
Can I also ask…I have observed with my hives, one very quiet, and one a little feisty, that the feisty hive does a much better job at keeping beetles out. Would I be right in thinking this?
Any tips greatly appreciated.
1 Like
The beetles crawl into a cell and convince a nurse bee to feed them. Capped cells are not really something the beetle likes. Once you have them all you can do is fight them and the best remedy is a healthy hive and oil in the flow 2 tray and some traps throughout the hive. Some flow seasons are more bountiful then others. Harvest any surplus honey you can. That’s my experience though I’m no expert.
2 Likes
Hi Penny, I make sure that all the brood comb is mostly worker comb. I cut any large areas of drone comb out before placing that frame above a QE to allow the worker brood to finish off up there, while replacing it with fully drawn worker comb, which I get the bees to draw in honey supers on wax foundation.
Sometimes I’ll use fully drawn stickies, alternatively I’ll select a nice fully drawn frame out of a honey super, even if it’s half full of honey, that wont matter because the bees will move it out, so that the queen can lay.
The more aggressive hive could be better defenders, however I’ve never had a colony where the workers don’t relentlessly harass beetles until they find a hiding place, before they propolize them in.
JeffH, thanks so much for the advice.
Hi & you’re welcome Penny. I did some extracting today. I put some frames aside to take photos to share. I’ll get Wilma to take them to post shortly.
This first photo is of a classic frame that I’m looking for to place in a brood box. As you can see it’s nearly a hundred % worker comb.
This next photo shows 2 frames that I wont put into a brood box. As you can see, even though I used wax foundation, the bees decided to draw a lot of drone comb. Take note of the Jellybush honey that wouldn’t spin out.
This photo is of 2 frames that I wont put back into a brood box, on account of too much drone comb.
This photo shows a perfect side, nearly a hundred % worker comb. However the bottom photo shows the other side, showing a lot of drone comb.
I intend to let bees in nuc hives clean the honey up, before I cut the comb out ready for fresh foundation. I have 8 frames out of 58 that I intend on doing this to.
1 Like
I can see exactly what to look for now. Thank you so much.
2 Likes