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Thanks for all the information, I'll give it a hoover before putting it back in.

Hi there, I seem to have had light wax moth infestation on some of my stored frames. There seems to be very little damage, and I assume as these are not in use they struggled to survive. As I believe they need proteins and such provided by the absent bees. There is no sign of larva or adults...

I used a queen excluder too, it was useful!

Yeah small slits, that is what most advice o read seem to suggest, allowing smell to pass and also an edge for the bees to work on

Seemed to be just the one, I wasn't looking for them though, merely the queen, it could be that this one was the worst affected- to the point I mistook it for a queen, and others slipped under the radar

Are darker queens favourable? I mean she has bitten the dust now, and was never a viable option, but for future reference, can colour denote quality? I never had a queen emerge so dark, the previous queens I had from this colony were much lighter than this one.

Well I haven't seen any more, but I wasnt looking for them the first time, just the queen. So I will pay more attention next time I can poke my head in. Think I will treat for nosema as a precaution either way.

Sorry if you have already commented on this bee, but some members have suggested this bee may have nosema, at the very least it has some sort of ailment/parasite. I originally mistook it for a queen with its elongated abdomen and larger size than the other workers. Now looking back at it I see...

This colony had emergency queen cells after I accidentally and unknowingly killed the queen and failed to check before they hatched out. I had 5 queen cells, a few had side holes which I assume was the first queen dispatching the others. Trying to find the new queen I discovered the bee in...

I haven't really fed these bees for a while, possibly not since springtime. I didn't see any other bees with swollen abdomens, but if there is a chance it is this nosema (fungal pathogen) I will be vigilant. I was hoping I would be able to treat for varroa before winter sets in too hard, maybe I...

Not that I saw, but it is entirely possible, I was looking for a queen and this one struck me as queen like.

That sounds plausible, this hive did have an emergency queen, but she was not laying.

The ginger one appeared to have bits of white on the side either from stretching. Wonder if it has a parasite or something. A very odd worker, and it had its abdomen poking into a cell. Very strange.

Yeah the dark one is a cert, but the other one I am unsure of, it may be possible there were two virgin queens in the hive? Although unlikely?

Thanks for everyone's help, I untied before the evening as I couldn't do it then, plus I was worried about temps dropping in the evening, seems like a late stage in the year to go this sort of thing. Hopefully it will be ok.

No, is that a good tip to do? I'm guessing it calms them?

I'm so confused, I've found a second and way more convincing queen Side by side there isn't much in it, but the darker one certainly looks more queen like to me, she also was found with workers clustering around her. Both have exhibited queen like behaviour.

I just United a now queenless colony (she was only a virgin and not viable) with a queen right colony, using the newspaper method of separating the two brood boxes. I smoked them plenty too. I noticed there was some fighting at the entrance of the recipient hive, ( I assume flying bees from the...

I hope you're right, thanks for the input!