# Loosing another hive. Wax moth larvae found, also one small hive beetle.



## FindlayBee (Aug 2, 2009)

I have been nursing a weak hive along basically all season. It started off as a 3lb package of bees and started off well. However, it soon swarmed, which I was able to catch. I hived the swarm which went right back into the original hive a day later. Hive swarmed again, but I was not able to catch it. Bees raised another queen, but she did not do well, and the hive struggled. I ended up buying a queen and installed her on July 9th. The bees started building up after she was added, and soon I had new brood and new bees emerging. However, the hive was still slow to build up and never got into a second box, although I added a medium when my other hive starting bringing in nectar like mad and still are.

I went out today to take off the second box, and noticed that the bee population had dwindled. I did find eggs, but less than 20. I did not see the queen today, she was a marked queen and was seen a couple times in past inspections. I did see one small hive beetle that got away from me when I bee ran after it. I also found a single wax moth larvae and killed it. On the screened bottom board I found white pupae that appeared to have been chewed on. I did find a hole in the side a some damaged cells and believe the larvae had been feeding on the pupae. I also found multiple cells that had the caps torn off and pupae just starting to show purple eyes. Around the area, there was also emerging brood that appeared to be struggling to get out of the cells.

This hive was most likely doomed from the first time it swarmed. Below are some photos.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

Is it starving? Being robbed? The pictures look like mating nuc hives I've seen (today) that were queenless and being chronically robbed.

What I do with a nuc that looks like this is to give all the good resources to other hives, and remove the setup so that the foragers have to drift, because in my area the next phase of the meltdown is hive beetle infestation - and ruined comb. And it can happen very fast.

If it is a hive I'm committed to saving and is for sure queenright I reduce the hive by taking off boxes to concentrate the population, then reduce the entrance to very small, and feed - or give it capped honey from another hive - or both.


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## Ben Franklin (May 3, 2011)

I also noticed some of the same looking capped brood, and uncapped larva that appears to be old enough to have been capped on picture 2 eighth cell from right to left third down from top. Is this normal or ?
The type of brood cells I have seen are in healthy hives, no SHB or wax worms, but I had a hive that was infected with both. It is on the rebound but also has the same uncapped older larva.


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

Waiting to see the answers to this... Good questions!


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## FindlayBee (Aug 2, 2009)

I do not believe it has been robbed. I have also been feeding it for the last 2 months, but they have done little with it as far as expanding the hive. There is a frame which has one side with 80% capped honey, and the other side that hasn't been fully drawn out with stores just starting to be added to it. There is also another frame that has honey (probably from the sugar syrup) on both sides that is not ready to be capped yet. I do not see any signs of the caps being torn off or damaged from robbing.

The hive was reduced to a single medium today. I was not able to find the marked queen, although she could be doing a good job hiding. The only evidence that she was there was about 20 eggs. Not sure why she wasn't laying anywhere else. She had been laying a good pattern in what was available for her to lay in prior to this.

The only thing I can think of as to why the caps have been removed from some of the brood is that the temperatures got down into the low 60's last night and might have chilled them.


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## frazzledfozzle (May 26, 2010)

Have you done a mite count on your hives at all? 2 causes for dead emerging bees as in your first photo that I've experienced myself are starvation and a high mite count the emerging bees are so weakened by the mites that have been feeding on them in their development they have no strength to get out of the cell also the nurse bees seem to know they are damaged because they ignore them and wont feed them. Have you pulled out any of the bees that have died while hatching and had a look at them?
A hive will swarm/abscond if it has a high mite level.


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## FindlayBee (Aug 2, 2009)

I had not done a mite count on this hive as there has been at least 4 gaps in brood rearing due to swarming and a failed queen. It did not get off to a good start at all. I did do a mite count for what was left in the hive today. The hive doesn't even have the same number of bees in it that it did yesterday. Out of about 100 bees, I found 1 mite. This was done doing a sugar shake.

I pulled some of the bees shown in the photo above (the ones that appeared to be struggling to emerge). There was signs of wax moth excrement in the bottom of the cells and in some cases in the area where the bee's abdomen should have been (bee abdomen looked like it was made of webbing and excrement). I however, did not see any further wax moth larvae or even wax moths. I did find two small hive beetles which were quickly smashed. I had only found one wax moth larvae in the hive and promptly killed it yesterday. However, it did its damage.

There may have been a heavy mite load earlier on as seen by the bee without any wings in the photo below. The bees are dead in the photo, but were alive when pulled from their cells.


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

Ever find out what happened?


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