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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Catherine Adamson <cadamson AT alumni.unc.edu>
  • To: "birdcr AT concentric.net" <birdcr AT concentric.net>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] hive ready for winter?
  • Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 08:11:19 -0400

This time of year, the most common rank smell from a hive is goldenrod nectar curing.  It can range from mildly sour to a horrid locker room tang.  Last year I got a lot of goldenrod and while I was happy for the flow, I couldn't stand downwind of my hives for almost two weeks.

If you are worried about beetles, or if you smell something not just stinky but actually rotten, you can do a quick inspection to make that the frames are not slimed or affected by foulbrood.  If you can smell a disease from outside the hive, you would definitely see signs within.  If all looks well, rest easy.

As for winter prep, don't worry too much about the position of the boxes, but do think about how much stores you have.  You said you have a lot of brood - do you have almost a full frame of honey for each frame full of brood?  If not, and there is empty drawn comb, you may want to think about feeding.

On Oct 11, 2011 7:40 AM, "birdcr AT concentric.net" <birdcr AT concentric.net> wrote:
Alicia,

My hive smells slightly bad too, been battling beetles. I'd think
you want to leave the boxes as they are as the bees know what to
do for winter better than we do.

I'm due and inspection myself, once we get better weather. Hoping
to slightly bad small is not beetle larva, anyone what to explain
the smell of a beetle slimmed hive? My hive is still full of
bees.

Cheers,
Randy Emmitt
www.rlephoto.blogspot.com



On Tue Oct 11 05:19:54 CDT 2011, Alicia Reenders
<a.reenders AT gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello bee friends!
>
> I have a few questions about my last hive inspection. They look
> great, lots
> of bees and lots of brood and eggs! The neightbor has a field of
> buckwheat
> that just finished flowering, and will flower for the second time
> in a few
> weeks I think. So there's quite a bit of honey and nectar. But
> there is kind
> of a "sour honey" smell in the hives. Not anything really bad
> smelling, but
> kind of like extra strong honey/wax/bee smell with a slight
> sourness to it.
> I feel like I might remember that buckwheat honey can smell
> strong, or do I
> have something else going on? Everything looked really good...
>
> Also, one hive has 2 deep boxes, and the top one is very full of
> brood/honey. I can hardly lift it! The bottom still looks ok,
> with some
> brood and honey, but not as much, and maybe 3 empty frames. I
> have lots of
> baby bees so I wonder if they just emerged. But is this a good
> set-up for
> winter? Should I reverse the boxes for any reason, or is it ok to
> have most
> everything in the top box? Should I feed to completely fill that
> bottom box?
> I haven't fed in a while since there's so much brood and also
> quite a bit of
> honey and pollen.
>
> Thanks for your comments!
>
> -Alicia
>
>  _______________________________________________
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> North Carolina Beekeeping
> http://www.theocba.org/

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