Luminos
Queen Bee
- Joined
- May 27, 2011
- Messages
- 3,621
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- Limousin, France
- Hive Type
- WBC
- Number of Hives
- Less than 100. Er, 6, actually...
Here are some pictures
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extract the honey
clean up the frames
melt the wax for candles
torch sterilize everything
re wax foundation the frames
buy a nuc in the spring
start over again
Apiguaaard in Autumn!
Disheartening as this is... it happens to the best of us... even fully qualified BBKA certified beekeepers I would imagine!
Good luck!
BTW have you thought about thymolated feed at the end of the year?
Yes typical varroa by the looks of it.
The stores are likely what you fed them so I wouldn't be thinking to extract as honey.
Personally I'd consider disease risk small and just use the frames again or use them for bait hives.
Well... Chinese honey ? .... I'll get me tin hat !
Cm'on people - for the sake of a few poundsworth of frames - Luminos, be sensible and waste the lot and start afresh next season (there but for the grace of god.. and all that) would anyone really wan to take the chance ?
p.s. As it seems to be nothing drastic I see no problem with just throwing the comb in the bin.
Use a blowtorch on the frames after cleaning them from the wax with a knife and you will be fine.
....make soap with it !
Waste not..... want not...........
Don't waste the drawn comb Luminos, it's all you have to show for your year and is good.
300 colonies and 12 or is that 13 now? years trumps 3 colonies and 2 (or more) years experience. Even Finman didn't advocate you bunging things in the bin or making candles from the wax. Keep it dry and covered to keep out any waxmoth, You will be grateful for it.
Happy New Year and wishing you better luck this year. Avoid the kneejerk advisers like the plague, because they will always see disease, That and eggs in a photo of a dark frame at twilight taken with a VGA camera phone with a finger print on the lens.
I'd check whether it looked like Varroa. Look for white faeces, as in the other post, and if the latest cells to be vacated were infested to a highish percentage then you can assume that was the cause. Varroa will cause high levels of some viruses but the viruses are unlikely to persist long on the comb. I'd keep the stores to feed to colonies later, and if you have good empty comb I'd be tempted to sterilise it in acetic acid fumes in a black polythene bag for a few weeks in spring, then air them. They'd be great for boxes to attract swarms in the summer, or to help building colonies through the summer.
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