I went over to a friend's house yesterday to find he had lost a hive recently. There were few dead bees in the hive, but here was a ton of what I think is nosema in the hive, evidenced by the amount of bee droppings in the hive. Nosema is an intestinal ailment in honeybees, it gives the bees diarrhea.
And bees normally don't poop in their hive, seeing bee poop in a hive, i think, is a sign of something wrong.
Both of our hives have signs of nosema, and I have been treating them with Fumagilin in a sugar syrup, spraying the hives once a week for 3 weeks.
You don't usually see comb spotted with bee droppings
and in the frames with honey, there was what looked like crystallized honey in some of the comb. Again, not sure what this is all about. Anyone know?
Crystals in some of the comb
Jaime
We just lost a hive and observed the same crystal like substance in the cells of our frames. Did you ever find out what that was?
Eric Gunnar Rochow
i never figured out what it was, i'm thinking it some kind of sugar though. thanks for posting the question. eric.
Alitza Blough
I lost two hives already this winter and observed the same crystals and poop in the hive... still no definitive responses to your question, huh? When did you post this and what did you do with the honey? If it helps, these two hives were from swarms I'd had early this Spring. The queens may have been weak this fall though, I'm thinking they were a bit short on brood this fall, though there seemed to be many bees in the hive. Next warm-ish day I'll open the hive again and look for brood. There were bees all over in the hives too... yes, probably a ball, at least in one hive, but many bees dead bees just "out and about" in the hive... frozen in place. It was 50 out the day I opened the hive, so any living would have been moving. These looked recently dead... for what it's worth.
Alitza Blough
No signs of nosema this Fall, btw.