Gross honey-comb

[omnimirage]

I've came to observe something when scrapping off honey from frames; some frames have a "layer" of something not quite honey underneath the layer of honey. I've noticed that one can visually see the difference; if it's all honey underneath, it tends to be more white, whereas if it's gunk, it's much darker. When scraping the darker stuff, I've noticed that it tends to be rather stuck to the frame. It has a gross smell to it, not sure how to describe it but it smells putrid. I've noticed that a minor part of it tends to have some pollen to it; typically to each frame there's a small cluster of pollen underneath.

Does anyone know what this is? My suspicions is that it's old brood comb that has been sealed over with a new fresh layer of honey on top of it, but I'm unsure. I've come to avoid scraping it into the honey bucket as it's simply gross. Should I be removing the gunk and burn it?

[sc-bee]

Pics please... sounds like bee bread... are you taking honey from old brood combs?

[omnimirage]

I'll post some pictures tonight! What's bee bread? I believe I am.

[sc-bee]

I'll post some pictures tonight! What's bee bread? I believe I am.

A mixture of honey (carbs) and pollen (protein). And it will get a slick look as it goes through a slight fermentation. You should not be taking honey from brood frames for consumption IMHO. Sounds like you are scraping honey, bee bread, and old cocoons from emerged bees.

[sc-bee]

American Foul Brood is in brood comb and is a brood disease and has a very putrid odor. The state inspector describes it as a rotten meat smell. He states it is very recognizable odor you will not forget. AFB is a serious issue and will spread to other hives from bee drifting or even using the same hive tool in different hives.
Is there is any brood  give it the rope test. Google American Foul Brood for pics and symptoms.

[omnimirage]

Well I'm scraping the honey from this super because I'm seeking to move it; it's four supers deep, and the super that I did remove was quite heavily damaged and splitting. Since I removed the super, I extracted all the honey that came from the super.

I did some research into that, I'll have to check my hive closer next time I see it. I took some photos of the gunky frames. These frames have already been processed, I scrapped the honey off into a bucket and left the gunk on the frames, I then left the frames on top of the hive to let bees rob the honey from them. They were super sticky, they've been sitting here for four days now so are mostly cleared up. It was difficult to get a good shot but here is what I managed:

http://imgur.com/a/JIIHO

What does it look like?

[kanga]

I then left the frames on top of the hive to let bees rob the honey from them.

In most states of Australia it is an offence to leave exposed honey or stickies for other bees to rob as this is one easy way to spread AFB

Kanga

[omnimirage]

Offense as in, it's illegal? I really was unsure what to do with the sticky frames, there was lots of honey on them still.

[amun-ra]

put them in a box over a working hive they will clean them up but dont leave them out for robbers

[chorrylan]

put them in a box over a working hive they will clean them up but dont leave them out for robbers

If you have any honey coming in it works better putting an empty box on the hive first and then the stickies on top of that; otherwise the little varmints can start stashing nectar into the frames instead of cleaning them out.  The gap helps to convince them that it's someone-elses  honey and therefore needs to be moved downstairs.

[sc-bee]

Looks to me like old comb, pollen and bee bread. How old is it. I see no brood pictured as I see it or very little....

[omnimirage]

I'm not sure how old it is. My guess is it was part of the brood chamber at one point, probably about 2-3 years old.

[tjc1]

that's pretty weird looking stuff - never seen anything like it. It looks like a thin coating over everything, esp the woodwork... Plus you say it smells really bad?

[omnimirage]

Smells quite bad, not close to an inducing vomit or strong reaction level, but it's quite offputting and mildly-moderately gross smelling.