white milky stuff...

[mattiker]

Hi,

Did an inspection yesterday - top brood box of a Snelgrove artificial swarm - which on last inspection (about 2 weeks ago) appeared to have a newly mated and laying queen and eggs, however checked again yesterday no sign of eggs or brood. It did have lots of capped honey stores and pollen (more than any other hive I have at the minute) but where the brood might have been it was a milky type liquid - with white bits in... my first thought was - has the brood succumbed to some disease and just died and then started rotting....I couldn't really make out any signs of actual larvae - just this milky stuff. I stick the end of my hive tool in it had a good poke and it was a little like honey - no obviously smell. Slightly concerned now. I did think perhaps they could have starved but they have loads of capped stores and loads of pollen...very odd.

I'd appreciate your views. Thanks.

Matt

 

[flemage]

Hi Matt.

sounds like brood food to me, its what the bees feed the lava on. Its hard to see the egg/ small lava in all that stuff some times.

 

[mattiker]

Hi Matt.

sounds like brood food to me, its what the bees feed the lava on. Its hard to see the egg/ small lava in all that stuff some times.

I may need to have another look...but I doubt this. I'd have spotted the lavae I'm sure (i think, now you make me doubt myself). The bees were quite grumpy suggesting not right- possible queenless.

 

[Cazza]

Hi Matt.

sounds like brood food to me, its what the bees feed the lava on. Its hard to see the egg/ small lava in all that stuff some times.

Flemage sounds right. Can't think what else it could be?? Any chance of a photo? Anybody else got a better idea?
Cazza

 

[enrico]

How many cells of this stuff was there.? A photo would be really, really good!
E

 

[beestie]

A photo would really help.
Look anything like susbees avatar?

 

[Sadders]

A photo would really help.
Look anything like susbees avatar?

I always think that avatar is some kind of tasty tart.

 

[mattiker]

Not sure what Susbees avatar looks like, but if it's the lava floating in royal jelly pic then I'd have to say no it looks different - the liquid milky stuff doesn't have a consistent texture.

This my third season beekeeping and I've not seen anything like it yet. Imagine if you had clear nectar and mixed in a few creamy white bits. Almost like Rape honey when it part set (I thought this could be the case), only more thoroughly mixed in certain cells to make it more a milky liquid - but they have loads capped stores in the classic arc above and below central brood laying area. This suspicious milky stuff is in the area where you would expect to see brood. Also lots of pollen, one frame was almost all pollen and would have made a great picture show casing the the various pollen colours. Weird also that the other hives I have have not been collecting nearly as much pollen or have as much stores.

My main concern was disease but I've no idea what it could be.

I will try to get a photo and show you but I'm not due to inspect till the weekend. It's possible the bees may have done a cover up job by the time I look.

Cheers.

Matt

 

[mattiker]

Update....just occurred to me that I never posted an update so here it is.

On second look about 1-2 weeks later it would seem to be crystallizing honey - and the fact that they seemed to have loads and loads of stores may have been down to the fact that some stores had already crystallized and so made a large portion of the frames available area useless. This was confirmed after doing some scrapping and digging.

The fact that queen stopped laying is odd - but then this season has been odd. I can only assume that with the rubbish weather she wasn't able to mate very well and perhaps turned out to be a bit of a dud queen. Still odd the amount of pollen...

I've now united the bees with the main brood box below the snelgrove. The top brood box I have scrapped all the comb capping off and then stuck it on top of the crown board - I was hoping the bees will go up and collect what they can and more it downstairs where it will be useful. Not sure if this was the right thing to do but didn't what to waste any honey or pollen that could be re-used. Once the bees have removed what they can the old frames will then be destroyed/recycled.

Cheers.

Matt