black beetles

[juanito]

greetings from sunny spain,
I managed to inspect the heaviest of our two hives this afternoon, without squishing any bees,
I even got a look at the queen, everything else seems to be going by the book with the exception of two big black beetles near the top of the frames, they looked similar to chafer beetles, the bees were taking no notice of them so I removed them from the hive, anybody else seen the likes of before ?
filled the smoker with almond shells this time, normally I use woodchip from our tree care work,
adios for now.

 

[itma]

I have no idea what beetles might be common in Spain, but you should be aware of, and on the lookout for, a nasty little thing called -
Small Hive Beetle
(Google that for info) which is spreading around the world but not supposed to be in Europe. Yet.

 

[juanito]

big black beetles,

thanks for the info Itma, I have googled the small hive beetle with some trepidation I might add,
But these bad boys were the size of a one euro coin, unfortunately I was so focused on not squishing the bees I just threw the beetles on the ground, and by the time I had done the inspection the ants must have made off with them,
By the way we are lucky enough to have our hives were we can see them from our back door, about fifty yards away on a little outcrop of rock, it makes me smile to watch the young bees on training flights, thanks again for the info,

 

[BeeJayBee]

two big black beetles near the top of the frames

Insects get into hives and then try to hide, they aren't always successful.

Small hive beetles are small - about 5-7mm long. More details on Beebase, along with downloadable pdf booklet. https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/index.cfm?pageid=125

pdf here https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/downloadDocument.cfm?id=17

 

[johnnie1uk]

greetings from sunny spain,
I managed to inspect the heaviest of our two hives this afternoon, without squishing any bees,
I even got a look at the queen, everything else seems to be going by the book with the exception of two big black beetles near the top of the frames, they looked similar to chafer beetles, the bees were taking no notice of them so I removed them from the hive, anybody else seen the likes of before ?
filled the smoker with almond shells this time, normally I use woodchip from our tree care work,
adios for now.

Just done my first inspection and found a couple of small beetles scurrying around, killed em but there may have been more, these looked like mini roaches.