Black debris on floor

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Nancyann

New Bee
Joined
Sep 2, 2012
Messages
2
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0
Location
North Nibley
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
1
Hi all
I have just returend to bee keeping after a break of a couple of years. Have a lovely new queen, laying well.

I treated them with apiguard yeaterday,and put the hive floor back in under the mesh floor, to monitor mite drop.
When I check today, I noticed quite a lot of small black debris on the floor, that I have never seen before.
Any ideas what this could be?
I am worried that it is a disease.
I have been feeding them sugar syrup.

I also noticed some small off white discs on the mesh floor a couple of weeks ago, that I hadn't seen before

Thanks all
N
 
Black pollen? (poppies)

White disks? Chalkbrood?
 
Hi all
I have just returend to bee keeping after a break of a couple of years. Have a lovely new queen, laying well.

I treated them with apiguard yeaterday,and put the hive floor back in under the mesh floor, to monitor mite drop.
When I check today, I noticed quite a lot of small black debris on the floor, that I have never seen before.
Any ideas what this could be?
I am worried that it is a disease.
I have been feeding them sugar syrup.

I also noticed some small off white discs on the mesh floor a couple of weeks ago, that I hadn't seen before

Thanks all
N
The length of time matters when quoting x number of years ago . If prior to the advent of the open mesh floor, then the bees having access would have removed the type of debris you have witnessed :)
VM
 
Thanks, that's helpful.
I am attaching ( I hope) a picture, you can see the orange pollen for comparison.I'm not so sure it's pollen, but maybe poppy pollen is different.
I hought it was some sort of abnormal waste that may indicate nosema, but I having read up on this, i don't think it's that either.

I have always had mesh floors - even when istarted some 8 years ago, and had about a 3 year break

I suspected chalk brood, so it's good to have this confirmed.
N
 
Black debris : I agree it is most likely earwig faeces but could also be Wax moth faeces . I also get mice visiting the Varroa insert under the meshfloors for a meal and they leave black droppings but they are larger than these. The white discs are probably discarded wax plates.
 
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