Thanks Kirsten, I looked at the link you provided and that’s what I saw when I first got my bees. For ventilation I took away one wooden block that covers the entrance. I also took it away so the bees had more room to drag out the mummies. Is this the right thing to do or should I put the wooden block back in place?
I feed them sugar syrup yesterday with a 1:1 ratio of sugar and water. I saw the worker bees tongues come out to taste the syrup. I’m located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne around Doncaster.
In regards to cleaning the hive would I need to purchase another brood box?
I would love to catch a swarm I might build a nuc box. I willl go and inspect each frame for the chalk brood. And cut off any seriously infected parts.
1 Like
I’m going to check on them tomorrow any advice?
1 Like
Sorry it’s taken me awhile to get back to you, a bit busy on the home front. Good idea to give them room to remove the mummies easiest way possible for them. If you have a bottom entrance I wouldn’t have it open across the entire face of the hive as it’s still too cold, about 5cm, is what I have open at the moment on the hives which have a bottom entrance.
Your not that far away from me, I’m in the Dandenongs, maybe a few degrees warmer where in Doncaster though. There’s plenty of forage around at the moment here, almost everything that blooms in Spring has already come out. However as with last year we have suddenly been plunged back into Winter temperature wise. I would definitely limit how frequently you are opening your hives. I haven’t had a warm enough day as yet to do any inspections other than very quick peeks into under the lid.
Before you inspect closely enough wait until temps rise above 18 degrees at least for & for some warmer night temps. Chilled brood will exacerbate the problem, & you need to shake the bees off the frames to be able to see how much comb is filled with affected larvae. Let the bees manage until then. One of my hives evicted a couple of mummies a couple of days ago, unfortunately. I suspect the shift back to colder weather has had an impact.
If you are feeding them, best to top feed as hive temps will keep it at best temps for the bees to consume it. Keep us posted. 
Ok I took off the reducer today, but I’ll put it back on for a while until it heats up. It seems like they aren’t strong enough to take the mummies out judging on how many mummies there are in there. But on the other hand it seems like the queen is laying heaps of eggs. Yeah all of the Eucalyptus trees have an abundance of nectar and pollen. Ok will do.
1 Like
Thanks everyone for your help it seems like the banana trick worked really well combined with the heat over the past week. The bees are now clearing out the chalk brood.
2 Likes
warmer temps & a couple of days of sun really help…good to hear