Possible Moth Damage.. and or.. Disease

[Jen]

G3-  All of your comments! Yes! He's a poor keep and I'm disgusted! Thanks for you time 

[G3farms]

Iddee, I can see silk trails in pics 2, 3 and 8.

In pic 8 in the top left corner where the comb is torn out there is a cocoon just above.

In pic 9 of the bottom board there is silk trails with wax capping and feces in it where the two boards come together, and looks like a cocoon below and to the left of that, where a couple bees are standing.

That is what I see anyway.

After looking a little harder at those pics I can see where some robbing has been going on like Apis said.

[iddee]

If what you are seeing is what you think, it is not enough to even affect a hive, much less destroy it.

Also, the ??web?? in 2 and 3 are the same frame.

I see nothing on the bottom board but wax and mold.

[G3farms]

G3-  All of your comments! Yes! He's a poor keep and I'm disgusted! Thanks for you time 

Before you go saying that he is a poor keep (I never said that), maybe he is just learning and has no mentor or does not care to learn. Keeping bees has a huge learning curve, some can pick up on it quicker than others. This is nothing more than animal husbandry in an agricultural way, and no matter how hard you work at it there is always downfalls and successes. No matter what animal you chose to take on! Sounds like you have a new student who will have some drawn combs to give that swarm next spring.

[G3farms]

Never said it destroyed it.

I posted it once already   , the hive got weak and the wax moths took it from there. Pull the combs and freeze or all will be lost.

[Bamabww]

G3 and Bama, would you tell me which pic has wax moth damage?
If it were wax moths, there would be moth larva in the debris on the bottom board. I don't see a web in any of the pics.

I see the same trace in the comb that I saw in mine when wax moths took over. My pictures will show a situation many time worse than hers show but you can still see the similarities between my frames and hers. Her pictures show the beginning of wax moth destruction, mine show the end results when left unchecked.

[iddee]

Calling hers wax moth damage is like calling a briar scratch a laceration. Technically, I guess it is, but so minor I wouldn't consider it mentionable. As G3 said, a moth or two moved in after the damage was done. Yours is what I call wax moth damage.

[Jen]

G3- "Before you go saying that he is a poor keep (I never said that), maybe he is just learning and has no mentor or does not care to learn.

   I appreciate your optimism G    He said he used to be a beekeeper around 45 years ago, quote "I never did anything to help the bees out then, and I'm not going to start now." I won't add to this anymore, but it's been a long push against his restraint that killed this hive. I'm done! Let's move on!

By the way I'm doing my first cut out with a friend tomorrow! I'm excited and have camera charged

[Gypsi]

Having seen the bees, shake them out.  My guess on what took the hive down - old queen swarmed off with half the bees, new queen failed to return mated BUT there would be a queen cup as evidence.

And no, don't let them die out naturally or you lose the comb.  White as sugar I can see, wax moth damage I see - freezer will fix that, and the one old comb maybe toss it. They do not have DWV, if they had efb they have cleaned it up well, dumping them on drawn comb is good.  I do not know if I would reuse their honey/nectar, maybe rinse the comb after freezing (I have gotten EFB that way)

[G3farms]

Jen, good luck on the cut out. Just did one yesterday, about 35 foot off the ground in the eve of a house. Had been there for several years, was a nice cut out til another hive started robbing then it got ugly. Sorry no pics.

[Jen]

G- you mean they started robbing while you were working on the cut out?

[Gypsi]

35 foot up with robbing underway, I understand no photos...

[G3farms]

I was in a nice big boom lift, but yes there was another colony that found us and it was not  very fun. Had to hurry things up and cut out all of the honey combs and scrap out the cavity, cover two five gallon buckets of comb and take the water hose to the spilled honey on the roof below. I bet I used half a bale of pine straw, was afraid neighbors would call the fire department. Was in an upscale golf course subdivision.

anyway back to the original post, sorry for the hijack.

[apisbees]

This hive was a swarm from the Jens 1 hive that resulted in producing 10 swarms this spring. It could have been a virgin queen that never mated, or mated poorly and was superseded right away. Jen mentioned in another thread about him not allowing her to attend to them so I don't know If she knows for sure if the queen ever started laying again.

[Jen]

G3-"Jen, good luck on the cut out.

    Thanks G, it's going to be an interesting day. I will be in the mentor position and my friend Phil will be helping, he wants his own hive so this is on opporunity to get him a hive with a queen. Have camera packed 

[LazyBkpr]

hrm..   sorry I have been busy, but Iddee, G and others covered it pretty well..
   I agree with BOTH Iddee and G..   Wax moth is starting, but there is not enough in there to worry about at this point. Not enough wax moth to have debris starting to accumulate on the bottom board. Act soon to save what is there, let the bees find a new hive.
   In looking at the pictures, I cant tell if there are fecal deposits from mites or if some of that is crystallized syrup. Freeze the frames, kill the few WM larvae there, the bees will clean those frames up and repair them when a new hive is started on them.
   If there were more bees I would give them some more bees/brood and a queen, but as it stands, if I opened that hive in my yard my priority would shift to saving the comb.
   There is nothing wrong with "drawn" plastic..   Like any comb that is fully drawn, it is worth a small fortune to start another hive on.  (after it has been frozen) Once well started the frames can be rotated out one or two at a time.

  Once they were shaken out on the ground and the equipment taken care of.....  Then I would get the horse whip out and hand it to my wife.

[Jen]

Scott- "Then I would get the horse whip out and hand it to my wife.

     A flogging is in order, just for general purposes, I'll leave that for his wife. Then I'll indulge for the neglect of the bees. Sounds like a party