Wax outside my hive?

[L Daxon]

I hived a package of bees about 2 weeks ago and noticed a bunch of little white pellets that looked like sea salt.  Today I picked up a few of these "pellets" and they appear to be wax.  Is this normal?  I have a screen bottom board.  I could also see a few pollen balls that must have fallen off the bees legs.  Should I sweep the wax away?  Will it entice wax moths? Will the bees eventually use the wax.  I had bees years ago and don't remember this happening.
Linda

[AllenF]

Were the little beads of wax in the hive now, or in the package?   I really would not worry about it.   They will reuse some wax.  And they will clean up their hive.

[L Daxon]

Here is a link to a photo of the wax pellets outside the front of the hive.  These did not come in the package.  At first I thought it was the wax paper off the pollen patty I put on the hive, but after picking up a few and touching/cutting through them with my finger nail I believe it to be wax.  And as I said, I see a few pollen balls dropped in also.  I would like to think the girls would eventually use this wax to draw comb as when I got in after 10 days they were not drawing comb out as fast as I would have liked.  I am not sure I have a good queen.  There was a half dollar size area of capped brood but it didn't look like the over all laying pattern was particularly good.  I'll reserve judgement on that for another week.  I have new white plastic combs and the bees may not be liking the plastic too well.
Linda

[fish_stix]

Just raise the lid a little and peek inside. I'm betting it's the wax from the wax paper on your patty. Bees make short work of any kind of paper in the hive.

[Kathyp]

when did you last do a good check through the hive.  they will go into wax producing overdrive with a good flow.  you need to see what they are doing with that foundation.  you also need to check again on that brood.  after 2 weeks, you should be seeing more than that.  if they are building out the foundation they may need the room if the queen is finally doing her thing.

[iddee]

Were the frames wax coated? Did you have new or used equip.? Is the 2 weeks accurate, or has it been more than 3 weeks?

No, they won't reuse the wax. Once it's dropped, it is history. Same with the pollen.

[L Daxon]

The bees had been in the hive exactly 10 days (all new equipment) when I checked and saw the small patch of capped brood. I did see other larvae around but not capped yet. The first 3 of those 10 days was very cold and rainy and they hardly got out at all.  I got in the hive on day 3 to see if the queen was out (she was) and then again on day 10 cause I had caught a swarm (my first swarm ever) and added the swarm to the pkg bees to get the colony built up faster since I got a late start this year.  In adding the swarm I added a second brood chamber separated by newspaper.  That was late last Friday.

On Monday, I got into the top swarm box to add another tiny swarm I picked up off a call. I am pretty sure that one was queenless so I just threw it in with the other swarm ( I am not sure if I got a queen with the first swarm or not).  I didn't check the pkg. bees in the bottom box on Monday (which was day 13 after they were originally hived) and I have been trying to stay out of the hive to give them some time to settle in. I have a top hive feeder and a queen excluder between the two brood chambers, besides the newspaper, of course.  I have the top cover a jar to give the swarm bees a way to come and go for now.  They all seem to be getting along fine.  I think I will get in on Saturday and remove what is left of the newspaper, check the bottom package bees and possibly remove the queen excluder if 1) there is no sign of a swarm queen, or if 2) there is sign of a swarm queen but the package queen is laying too erratically.  Does that sound like a good plan?

[Kathyp]

if you are going to combine the hive and you have two queens, pinch the bad one.  if you don't, you may find your good queen is the one that gets killed.  if you find both queens are good,  divide the hives.  there's plenty of time for build up.  just feed them if there is no flow in your area.  i don't know what your goal is for the year, but 1st year should only be to get good, strong, hives for winter.  IF you get excess honey, consider it an unexpected bonus.

[TheMasonicHive]

I get a lot of this stuff in my screened bottom board trays and honestly I think its something to do with the sugar syrup that we spray the packages with.

I think its just whatever drip off of them that crystalizes.

[caticind]

A different theory here:

Colony background - I started my hive from a package back in April.  I have a screened bottom board on, gave them wax foundation.  They have built out the comb very well, and my queen has a great laying pattern - brood nest exceeding the volume of a football within 1 month, with very close and consistent laying.

On the one occasion I lifted the bottom box off the SBB, I also found a thin layer of white wax scales that had fallen through the screen.  As Idaxon said, they are definitely wax, not sugar.

I think this is just the byproduct of bees building wax.

They secrete these little wax scales from between the segments of their abdomen, and occasionally I bet a bee drops a scale.  No reason for them to break down or be moved, so they gradually build up.  Although you may have a weak queen, or a colony that really hates plastic, I don't think stray wax scales are a symptom of anything other than active wax production within the colony.  The bees will not reuse these, but conditions under the hive are also not hospitable to moths unless you have lots of other problems, so you can just ignore them.  If the "mess" really bothers you, you can brush them away, but I wouldn't bother the bees over it.

[Jim134]

 This is a

Here is a link to a photo of the wax pellets outside the front of the hive.  These did not come in the package.  At first I thought it was the wax paper off the pollen patty I put on the hive, but after picking up a few and touching/cutting through them with my finger nail I believe it to be wax.  And as I said, I see a few pollen balls dropped in also.  I would like to think the girls would eventually use this wax to draw comb as when I got in after 10 days they were not drawing comb out as fast as I would have liked.  I am not sure I have a good queen.  There was a half dollar size area of capped brood but it didn't look like the over all laying pattern was particularly good.  I'll reserve judgement on that for another week.  I have new white plastic combs and the bees may not be liking the plastic too well.
Linda

This is a by product of bees building wax or bees takeing caps off to eat.


                          BEE HAPPY Jim 134  :)

[OzBuzz]

Agree with the comments in regard the wax - just a thought though in regard your brood build up and foundation draw rate.

You say you have a swarm in the top box and your package in the bottom box - is it possible that there are queens in both and the presence of the second queen is distracting the package queen from doing what she should be doing. This would, i assume, also impact on the rate that the foundation is drawn out at

[L Daxon]

Ozbuzz,
The last tim I looked at the comb in the lower brood chamber was when I was putting on the swarm chamber so there wouldn't have been any connection yet.  I'll know more on Saturday when I check the two chambes again.
Linda