I am 15 days into beekeeping and see this on the bottom corflute board— most of it looks like it doesn’t matter, but in one of the pics toward the lower right there are larger things that sort of look like the size of a pencil led that are cylindrical in nature that don’t look like all the rest. Is that a pest dropping that anyone can identify or am I just being over protective?
Lasalle, Ontario Canada.
not sure about the strange cylindrical object- sounds like mouse poo… but in general what I see there is entirely normal. Looks like bits of wax, pollen and various debris. With a flow hive- after you harvest you get a lot of wax flakes and particles on the board. Same if you put in a sticky frame. Occasionally you might see wax moth larvae and webs. It’s a good idea to periodically clean the coreflute.
There is nothing there that I can see of concern. When bees move capped honey they drop of the capping and that is most of what I see(the yellow light brown flakes). I think the larger pieces are only propolis.
You should be doing hive maintenance and inspections weekly, including cleaning you corflute board. Look at your 2nd pic and the straight line of capping wax, that is under a frame where the bees have been busy moving honey.
Lots to learn and lots of people on this forum to help with advise as well as just reading other questions and their answers.
Welcome to the forum Tim
@Tim_Purdie Can you get a close up photo of the cluster at the bottom right of the top photo?
@Tim_Purdie those little black things could be wax moth poo. Have you looked inside the hive recently?
I’m a new beekeeper who is literally opening the brand new hive every other day and peeking in - there is nothing going awry on the frames (6/10) in the brood box are filled out nicely. There are no mice in the box. The super isn’t yet on, only a top feeder. I do have some large ants occasionally walking on the outside of the box but the bees fight them off if they try to enter the hive. There is no internal to the brood box evidence of anything like wax moth or larvae that isn’t looking like a bee. The 4 frame nucs that I got were treated and didn’t look like they had any mites when they arrived/haven’t seen any and I’ve been taking close up pictures of frames and looking at them on the computer so far haven’t found any. I’ll keep checking though. I do a full frame inspection every week so far so I know when to add the super anyway so maybe something new will point to what it is.
Hi Tim, just see if you can get a really close shot of some of those things Eva is talking about and post the photo here. I also believe they may be wax moth poo but need the closer image. I have found the wax moth larvae hard to find in the hive as well, even though there has been poo on the corflute.
Definitely wax moth poo. Don’t worry about it, just keep the hive strong. 
Eeeek the hive is not yet built out in all 10 brood frames but I have a top feeder on and they seem like they are doing ok. I don’t see any webbing… what else can I do to control it from getting worse?
Errrm, pray? OK, don’t know if that will work, but if you want to, it won’t hurt. 
Otherwise, don’t inspect too often. Let the bees patrol and control. 
the best thing you can do is not to worry too much. Wax moths are seemingly everywhere and opportunistic. If there is debris on the coreflute: they find it. In general they are not a problem in the hive unless there is some other weakness with the colony. If the colony is strong they keep the moths at bay. Moths are more of a problem with stored equipment- the moths will destroy frames and damage hive bodies if they can.
If it is wax moth poo then the colony will control it if it is a strong colony. But you previously spoke of large ants, could it be the abdomen of said ant?? Let the bees and mother nature do its thing and you can help the bees by not disturbing them except on weekly inspections. Each time you open the hive is a set back for the bees.
Regards
