# White Spots on Bees in Weak Hive



## ilivetobealive (May 2, 2011)

I have 5 hives where 4 are kept on my city property, the other I keep on a property in the mountains over summer months.

This year, due to drought, there were nearly no wildflowers in the mountains and this hive (a new hive from a package installed in April) did not do well at all! She started off strong in the spring nectar flow but became weaker and weaker as the summer went on. About 3 or so week ago I brought her back to my property where numbers have been increasing...slowly. She went from no brood to now about half of one side of a frame, so I guess 1/4 frame. They are storing some nectar and pollen on the other side of the brood, but it's safe to say the hive is only about one frame strong 

I had a problem with robbing at first and trapped a whole lot of bees in the hive for 3 days only to open a spot enough for about two bees to fit. I'm happy to report that doing this increased the numbers to the hive and robbing is no longer a problem.

HOWEVER, I'm not sure where to go with this hive. With only a month until winter my options are:

-Kill the queen and join these bees with one of my other hives.

-Take brood from some of my healthiest hives and hope it strengthens up enough to survive the winter.

But wait, there is more. Today, during an inspection I noticed a white spot on one of my bees. Upon closer inspection nearly half the bees in this hive have some sort of white...powdery...looking stuff on them. Some have just a pinhead size spot where others have it on their wings. I also noticed a couple bees with deformed wings, not enough to cause concern, and think it may be older bees who have been defending the hive?

Are there any known diseases for bees to have white spots on them? I did a foulbrood test and everything seems fine. The hive looks healthy other than being starved all summer.

Ideas?


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## jadell (Jun 19, 2011)

I would off the queen and combine. This will bolster another hive just a bit, and give you drawn comb for next year. Do you want these genetics being passed on?


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

Would combining introduce disease (white spot) to other hive? Kinda thought chalk brood was the white spot disease but it didn't affect adults. You might check the disease forum.


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## jadell (Jun 19, 2011)

Did the brood look normal? Google chalkbrood images. If so, I don't think it's chalkbrood.


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## seyc (Jul 15, 2012)

To me, it looks like paint. We marked some queens for the Fair using white-out. They looked like that. Have you recently painted some of your hives?


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

It looks like powder sugar. Are you powder sugaring any hives? Is someone around you doing it perhaps? As a treatment for mites?


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## BeekeepingIsGood (Aug 12, 2012)

hard to tell from the photo, but looks similar to something we saw in our hives a few weeks ago. Does it appear to be mainly on the foragers? Any chance it came from plants/flowers?


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

Do you think she was bad at putting on nail polish. My daughter gets it everywhere also.


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## WWW (Feb 6, 2011)

The white spot is dried sugar syrup, I have seen this before when I spilled some syrup into one of my hives while placing a frame top feeder. The syrup dried hard on some of my bees abdomens and remained on them permanently. If you have not been feeding syrup then your bees have found someone who is.

Here is a pic of one of my bees a month after the syrup dried on her


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## Birdman (May 8, 2009)

It look like some thing on the bee. If you look close the spot it on the bee not in the bee. Looks like sugar to me.


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## tabby (Jul 11, 2012)

It could be sticky pollen like that from Rose of Sharon. Here's how bad it stuck to my poor bees:


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## ilivetobealive (May 2, 2011)

I think WWW is the winner! That makes perfect sense and I now feel silly for not thinking of this first. I would have figured the other bees would have cleaned it off of her, but I have been feeding sugar syrup to strengthen this hive, so sugar must be the culprit.

I did look up chalk brood and everything with the existing brood looks fine. I even did a foulbrood test but everything is entirely fine.

So that leaves me with the last question...how much does this hive need to survive N. Utah winters? Should I give up hope and combine the hive with another? I only use deep boxes, this would give the bees three deeps to winter, is this too many? With a month to go, and my other hives having two deep entirely full, is it possible they will fill this extra super?


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## WWW (Feb 6, 2011)

ilive, I am afraid that I agree with jadell, it would be best to newspaper combine them into one of your hives that need strengthened. You have a month before winter sets in however I would guess that at your location you only have a few more weeks to feed before first frost and the bees will not be taking very much syrup at this point, and feeding can lead to humidity problems in cooler weather. I think it would be best to combine and save the drawn comb for a new split in the spring. I wish you the best.


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## johng (Nov 24, 2009)

It looks like dried sugar water to me.


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## ilivetobealive (May 2, 2011)

I did another inspection and it looks like the queen has laid eggs in a couple more frames than I had first seen (I was more worried about the white spots) so the hive is strengthening to about 5-6 frames being used for brood/honey/bread but won't have enough time to raise brood and make enough honey for winter, so I agree on adding this deep to one of my other hives.

One question on combining the hives.

My other hives are INCREDIBLY strong and even seem crowded after removing the honey super a few weeks ago. My question would be that if I add this drawn out comb with nectar/brood/bread to one of my other hives and they start laying brood and filling it with honey, do I keep it on for the winter or do I try to condense it back to two deeps? My other hives are 100% full.


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## WWW (Feb 6, 2011)

ilive, since your other hives are doing so well perhaps it would be best to place it on one of the strongest hives and see what they do with it. Place the 5-6 frames in the middle of the box and the strong hive may cap some more honey.


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