What's this? Is it EFB infection?

[edbuzz]

Hello folks. First year beekeeper here. Opened up our hives today and in one of them we saw far fewer larvae than normal and an abundance of cells that contain what looks like grey/brown mushy goop. The outer combs had some honey on them so thought they might be some sort of seasonal pollen or crystalised honey, but then as we got to the brood combs and noticed a lack of larvae, started worrying that they might be mushed EFB infected larvae. However I couldn't find any larvae that looked like it had just died and started to mush. Just the mush stuff. The capped brood looks ok.

Pointers welcome!

In this picture with capped brood the mush stuff is top left.


This is one of the outer combs and it has some capped honey at the top. Some open honey cells and then the opaque stuff that I'm hoping is crystalised honey or something non-sinister.

 

[Boston Bees]

Pollen / bee-bread.

 

[edbuzz]

Pollen / bee-bread.

Thank you

 

[drex]

Always sensible to ask for advice if unsure, however I suggest you read up a bit about disease. EFB affects uncapped brood, hence cap pings not affected. AFB affects capped brood.

 

[edbuzz]

Sure thing. I read all the disease chapters in the bee books I have. One of them talked about EFB causing larvae to turn 'molten' and this is what I was concerned about. The capped brood like I said looks fine to me. Thanks for your comment.