A week and a half after our very warm weather (into the 60's for a couple of days), I looked at the bottom boards and found that there were cappings of various shadings that had dropped from frames across the hive. I imagine that this is the result of the bees taking the opportunity to move stores around during the warm spell, but I also noticed the following:
On one board, a small patch of dark capping dust that appeared to have some hive beetle parts in it
On another board, a similar patch of dark capping dust that had wax moth frass mixed in.
In both cases these patches were considerably darker than the rest of the buff-color capping dust (what is a better word for this?) on the rest of the board.
I am assuming that in both cases this is the remains of insect damage from the summer that the bees are cleaning out... I haven't seen any signs of either of these insects since August. Any thoughts?
Wax moths aren't active at your recent temps. Don't know about SHBs.
tj,
I have seen the same in my hives.
I think you are correct, general housekeeping and opening up stores.
I think what you see on a bottom board depends on if you are confining the brood chamber with a QE. If you are not confining then I think you see much more debris. In the spring the bees are higher in the hive and work their way down. While they are doing that mores dust, dirt and other insects get into the lower boxes. Also old pollen gets left behind down there. If you confine the brood chamber they are always using that spot so the debris is removed on a regular basis not all at once.
These are my thoughts.