# hive has a smell sort of like vinegar



## djstory (Jan 27, 2005)

I forgot to not in my previous post that this hive was a package on new equipment. I used foundationless frames, so they pulled all their own comb from scratch.


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## MIKI (Aug 15, 2003)

Check with a local beekeeper and he will probably tell you you have golden rod in your area. However you need to confirm it is not AFB ASAP.


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## Aspera (Aug 1, 2005)

Golden rod smells musky, earthy, even horsey, but never sour. Make read up on foulbrood tests and do one or contact an extention agent ASAP. Best of luck!


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I would take a closer look if it smells like vinegar. Make sure it's not SHB or Foulbrood or some other cause.

Goldenrod smells like old sweat socks.


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## FordGuy (Jul 10, 2005)

See, I don't get this - when I smell goldenrod I get a whole bunch o fsmells, mostly good - why do you folks think it smells bad?


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## Joel (Mar 3, 2005)

I'm with you Ford Guy. M.Bush must have some good smellin sweat socks,(not that I'm offering to check!) To me it is one of those odors that links that memory chain in the mind to the end of every great beekeeping season.


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## power napper (Apr 2, 2005)

Last fall the odor of my hives was so strong that i feared "disease". Disassembled all the hives and was relieved that the odor was from the bees working golden rod nectar into honey. Could not believe how strong the odor was.


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## honeyman46408 (Feb 14, 2003)

"Goldenrod smells like old sweat socks"

That is the smell I get too and I thought it was just the neighborhood.


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## ScadsOBees (Oct 2, 2003)

Sweat socks is the description that I use when I want to be nice.

Depending on what time it is, my goldenrod smells sour to me. 

If I were you, do as the others suggested and just double check the hive. Once you know its goldenrod then you don't have to worry about it anymore.

I'm pretty sure that AFB wouldn't make the whole yard smell bad, and just in the fall....


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

And if it's just goldenrod, you'll know what it smells like next time.









I LIKE goldenrod honey, but I can't say I like the smell of it as it cures.


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## Michigan Hobby (Feb 24, 2005)

I remember the first year I had bees. I thought all my hives must have come down with a deadly disease. The smell in my yard was terrible. Then I found out it was goldenrod honey. To this day I love goldernrod as a great winter store, but I still hate the smell it makes. I'm glad for it though.


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## uncletom (Apr 4, 2003)

Michael, Michael, Michael....

I expected better from you.....


tom


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Some have suggested that the smell we all think is Goldenrod is really Asters. It could be. They both bloom the same time every year, so I can't tell. Maybe what I think of as Goldenrod is really a mixture of both.


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## Hillside (Jul 12, 2004)

In my area there is a ton of goldenrod blooming, but there are very few asters. My hives have the goldenrod smell, so maybe it's more the goldenrod than asters. 

I don't hate the smell, but it's not as nice as the mid-summer aroma that comes off the hives at night. The goldenrod reminds me of the summer clover smell with the added hint of feta cheese.


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## MRJPRICH (Jul 23, 2003)

I've only smelled the 'sour vinegar' smell a couple of times on my hives. I have a couple of back-up hives that I've stored supers of honey on, in case I needed them, to add during the winter, and in the spring some of them, when it started to warm up, got a little moldy and had a strong sour or vinegar smell... the bees don't seem to mind it as much as I do.


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## uncletom (Apr 4, 2003)

Mike,

Hope you knew that was meant with humor. I forgot to put the little smiley thing a ma bobs in there!









I'm sure its the 'rod that has that marvelous aroma.

Asters have just been coming on with any significance, around here, in the last few years. 

The goldenrod smell has been around every year as long as Ive had bees.

tom


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## djstory (Jan 27, 2005)

I don't understand this at all, but I went back to the same hive the next day and it didn't smell at all. Actually it smelled like the normal honey smell, but no sour smell at all. The night that it smelled, I was in the hive just after sunset and the bees were really fussed up. I ended up getting hammered and left. The next day I was in the hives before sunset and they were nice and gentle. Do they ever give off a scent themselves? My guess would be no, but I seriously had a very different smell from one day to the next. I suppose that it could have been a scent blown by the wind exactly as I opened the hive, but I doubt it.

Maybe my nose was affected by the stings I received on the face and I just imagined the whole thing?

thanks for the feedback.

don


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Do they ever give off a scent themselves?

Absolutely. They give off Nasonov which smells like lemon pledge and some other thing mixed in. When they are alarmed they give off a smell like artificial banana flavoring smells.


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