I’m in my first weeks of beekeeping. I received my NUC on the 7th May- since then we have had an awful lot of rain- I’m based in the south of Germany. I have been doing my weekly inspections - my first week there was a lot of mould. I did make the mistake (I think) of putting the NUC into the 10 frame brood box - they barely covered 3 of the 5 frames they came in. A couple of good weather weeks past - and they’ve managed to build up 5 frames and started building comb on the outer two frames. I made a wooden frame to hopefully make the box seem smaller so they have a smaller space to heat up. Unfortunately we have now had another week of very heavy rain - I checked the roof and it’s extremely damp on the inside - not sure if it’s leaking and the tray was full of mould - see pic and now I have seen a lot of poo and dead black bees. Is this all normal and part of the course? I thought perhaps my bees have a virus ? Any help would be much appreciated
Hi & welcome. What I would do is make sure the roof isn’t leaking, block the hole in the crown board, block off any added ventilation & reduce the entrance to just 7 or 8 sq.cm. for the time being. The entrance can be opened to no more than 15 sq.cm. once the colony is much stronger.
Maybe if you can’t keep the water out of the roof area, you can cover the whole crown board with a sheet of plastic, until the weather clears up.
Is that rain good news for the whole of Germany? Because a while back I saw on English version of DW tv that Germany was in drought.
Hi Jeff, thank you for your quick reply. I have put an umbrella up as an interim solution! I hope that will be ok the entrance is currently reduced using the reducer that was in the box, I think the opening is around 3 cm. Is the poo and the dying black bees a normal thing that just happens? I can’t see if the pictures and video I uploaded ended up posting on my original post.
No, especially not inside the hive. Without pictures tho I don’t know whose poo (mice? wax moths?) you’re seeing. Dying black bees sounds like they could be waterlogged. The umbrella is helpful, but please make sure to follow Jeff’s instructions most importantly - what he is advising will help the bees maintain proper temps and humidity. If there’s been a serious leak inside you need to check in and potentially fix it also. The level of moisture inside the hive will not dissipate on its own, especially if the weather continues.
I’m sorry I didn’t talk about the poo. The poo that can be concerning is dysentery from bees. It will be in the form of streaks on the walls of the hive. If so, that could be associated with the excess moisture in the hive. I tend to agree with @Eva in relation to the black dying bees. Just do the best you can to eliminate any water inside the hive. Even the rear vent, make sure it’s in the closed position. Keep the tray dry.
Hi Eva, thanks for your message. Here is the image of the poo in front of the hive I will look into it today and see if I can make something for the crown board- I lost the cap for it in my first week.
May I reply? I’m not as good looking as Eva. That tray is VERY wet. You could be looking at wax moth poo. They feast on the hive fallout, which is mostly brood cappings that fall down as bees are emerging, plus pollen & the odd wax flake that drops down.
Definitely clean & dry the tray… Even that moisture adds to the humidity in the hive.
Hi Jeff, so I did my inspection in the hive and luckily there’s no mouldy brood which I was worried about or poo inside. I have cleaned the tray and placed it back inside. I read online about adding a moisture cushion on top so I made one with wood chips for inside the roof. I’m hoping that sucks up the moisture a bit too. We had about 50 L per square meter of rain and it’s extremely humid at the moment. Thanks to you and Eva for your tips and quick replies. Hope you both have a great start to the week.
You’re welcome! I see now what you’re talking about re the poo - I don’t think it’s a disease issue per se, because with such bad weather the bees have had to hold it until the rain let up and they could relieve themselves. That’s why it is right outside the hive and is a larger splotch than usual. So it will most likely clear up.
About your crown board, you can just put a tile or piece of wood to lay over it, it doesn’t have to be fitted inside the hole. Another consideration is what @JeffH uses instead of this board, a hive mat - I’ll let him explain it to you, he’ll do a better job
Hi Eva, I have attached some pics of what I did this morning. I stuck on the mesh and then added a bag full of wood chips on top.
I’m hoping that will help.
Hi Mui, you’re most welcome. I’m not fond of the idea of the wood chips to soak up the moisture, on account that the moisture will still be within the hive, even though it’s above the crown board. The moisture can still permeate through the mesh, and generally through the wood, maintaining the high humidity in the hive.
If the umbrella keep water off the roof, that would be a good thing, on account that I think your main problem is the leaky roof. My mentor just made a good suggestion. “tell him to put a tarp over the hive”.
The hive mat would help, only if you use it in conjunction with a waterproof roof. A hive mat takes the place of a crown board. It’s a piece of vinyl, or plastic that sits over the frames, with a bee space all around it. I use them with waterproof flat migratory roofs.
I think the wood chips are more to soak up condensation created by the bees, & not to soak up water from leaky roofs.
I live in an incredibly wet area and had exactly the same issues as you. I built a wooden frame around which I folded a bin-liner. It is such a tight fit and I have never lost the liner in the wind or rain - it is extremely light weight and fits over the top of the flow roof. Moreover, I store stuff between the flow roof and the home made roof. My bees also suffered from significant condensation, so I built a moisture quilt out of wood (about 4 inches deeo). a cotton base stapled all around, filled with chip board flakes, and a piece of hardboard screwed onto the top. . This replaces the top cover, which I removedI have never had a condensation or water leak issue since. I promise you that the roof took no more than 45 minutes to make and I haven’t needed to change the plastic top once in 2 years (we have wind and a hell of a lot of rain). The one final thing I have done is to put insulation around the hive, mostly because I wanted the bees to have a warmer environment in the relatively mild winters we have in Portugal. Hence, I have left the super on for a winter and intend to continue doing so from this point onwards (no propolys or freezing queen/ crystali
Hi Jeff, thank u for replying again! So we had a couple of days of warmer weather. I dried out the roof and the coreflute. I do believe my umbrella is holding up in terms of waterproofing the hive from the top however, after two days I checked the coreflute and it was wet again. I did research the idea maybe I have a ‘wet’ hive so I will try and build what john has recommended and hope that works. I think the area I live in is also very humid - it’s apparently considered the Mediterranean of Germany
Hi John, many thanks for replying to my post. I started reading about the moisture quilt and after reading your post, I think I will make it! Did you use any cotton? I have a lot of cotton reusable bags- I’m thinking of cutting those up? Also for your roof, did you staple the bag on the inside of the construction and will you take it off during summer? I think that looks a lot better than my umbrella - which is currently blocking them a bit in terms of flight path
I used a cotton table cloth, yes. No, I didn’t staple the bag. Those angled pieces of ‘gutter’ on the side have a very small gap running down the length so the plastic folds over and tucks inside that gap. It has never blown off and rarely needs adjusting. Occasionally a branch falls off the tree above and makes a hole in the roof, so that is when I would replace the plastic. I would varnish the wooden frame because water can collect in the plastic fold and soak the wood, which can gradually get soft after a long time
Hi John, thank you for sharing all the info and apologies for not getting back to you sooner. After you told me I managed to put it all together with old pallets and a pond liner. I recently met up with a local beekeeper and he said everything was progressing nicely with my bees and that the bottom tray can mould after about three days because we live in such a humid / wet climate which was good to know and he confirmed that the mould on the comb was in fact pollen . Thank you all so much for your help and suggestions. The beehive is nice and dry inside from the top, I just think with the heavy rain it just collects in the tray. On my last check I also got to watch a baby bee coming out of its comb which was wonderful to see.
? Any help would be much appreciated 
the entrance is currently reduced using the reducer that was in the box, I think the opening is around 3 cm. Is the poo and the dying black bees a normal thing that just happens? I can’t see if the pictures and video I uploaded ended up posting on my original post.
