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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: mhanks <mhanks7 AT earthlink.net>
  • To: Catherine Adamson <cadamson AT alumni.unc.edu>, "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 09:38:52 -0400 (GMT-04:00)

Thanks Catherine for that great news.......i thought it was me! ;-)
A few of our hives (south orange county) has a mild smell as well...goldenrod is everywhere out here. I just found out yesterday that wax moths can give off a pungent odor as well. 
So thanks again for the great news and i was wondering if you had found any honey made from goldenrod in an early summer harvest? I'm guessing it had been consumed by then...good news its a fall bloom. Not sure if that smell would transfer into taste after several weeks of curing??
 Our remaining hives are doing great.
cheers,
marty

-----Original Message-----
From: Catherine Adamson
Sent: Oct 11, 2011 8:11 AM
To: "birdcr AT concentric.net"
Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [ocba] hive ready for winter?

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"
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
> 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
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > ocba mailing list
> > North Carolina Beekeeping
> > http://www.theocba.org/
>
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