First relatively warm day in Columbus Ohio for a long time. Record February snow fall. Thought I might see some bees today. Carefully poked around the hive and got nervous when I saw so many dead bees on the bottom board. Took the hive top off and saw that the bees are dead. Ugh. I tore down the hive and saw black spots all over the inside of the hive. Is this a symptom of dysentery? Is it possible that with the long cold snowy winter here in Ohio, the bees didn't have any chances to poop outside and got sick?
Black spots sounds like mold, but I am not an experienced beek nor do I have to deal with your cold winters so hopefully someone else will come along with some answers.
Sorry for your loss.
Can you post a pic? Hard for me to comment on black spots if I can't see what it looks like. Bees will cover contaminated pollen cells with a black cap of propolis material. Mold /yeast can be black. There are some brood diseases that will give black look. Dysentery is normally a dark brownish looking color, I think, and will look like drips in the hive.
Sounds like dysentery.
Dysentery can be caused by many things. Poor quality food, lack of cleansing flights, and nosema are probably the big three.
Nosema does cause dysentery. However dysentery is not all caused by nesema.
There was definitely something that caused the bees to mess inside the hive. This is not normal and even in long winters, this does not happen unless the hive was not functioning correctly because of disease or weakened.
I find that bees, no matter why they are stressed, if stressed enough will mess up the hive good and poop on the top bars. One year a mouse made them do it, this year a hive starved and did that somewhat.
Could be nosema, but any stress, especially if they are forced to emergency move cluster, will cause them to defecate in the hive.
Sorry about the dead hive. It stinks, especially if that is your only hive.
Rick
I had one of my hives die. There was some honey stored in there so I cleaned the dead bees out as best I could. Multiple small clusters, no brood whatsoever. Did appear to be some mouse damage though I had a screen on there. It may have occurred before I got it on there. I scrubbed off a couple patches on a couple the top bar frames that has dysentery. I then split the double deep and put each one right on top of a couple of hives that were low on stores. I assume the hives will move move up. I'll swipe the bottom deep and use it for expanding my overwintered nucs into hives with drawn comb.
Lemonaide is the best thing I can make with this lemon.
Yes it was dark brown and did look like dried drips all over the top bars. I will try to take a picture soon.
Is there any danger in using these frames again (many of them are filled with honey), or do they need to be destroyed?
It should be fine to use them again. You will probably want to scrap that crap off as best as you can, the bees have a hard time cleaning that off but will just cover it up. I have and haven't had a problem with it.
Rick