counting board debris

I'm not a fan of leaving the counting board beneath the screen.  However, for spring swarms I usually start with the board and remove it when entering warmer weather.

 

Budgeting time between my day job, gardening, dog walking, going to physical therapy, blah blah blah - Well, I left the board in place without inspection for too long - 77 days, what was I thinking?

 

I tugged on the corrugated plastic sheet without success.   I shared my why do I keep making my life difficult story with a friend, Michael Willis, who had a great idea - attach a strip of duct tape along the length of the plastic sheet for additional grip.  If one duct tape strip is good, I thought to myself, let's try two duct tape strips, let's include a handle.  No luck, the board would not move!   In desperation, I pushed an 18-inch metal ruler beneath the screen a few times and was able to move, then pull out the board in one piece.

 

The debris consists of:

• lots of beeswax and you guessed it, wax moth larvae
• pollen
• ants 
• small hive beetles

The last photo was taken after discarding the fine debris with a screen.  The wax scales/flakes look fabulous.

swarm abscond

After a 3 week vacation, I returned to a hive with:

• no May 10th swarm bees
• no wax capping waste on the screened bottom board
• wax moth egg laying concentrated on the only frame of dark comb
  
• most amazing, no small hive beetle (SHB) destruction which makes me more convinced that the bees absconded leaving no brood or honey behind for SHB
  

I found the pre-cleanup look too sci-fi horrific for the blog post.  So, the video was taken after the cleanup of sticky wax moth destroyed comb.  Wax moth larvae were offered to the chickens which they voraciously consumed.  

As you can see in the video:

• new comb was built on all frames showing no reluctance to build on plastic starter strips
  
• previously I donated a deep frame of capped honey to this hive and now this frame of comb is intact less the honey contents

wax moth larvae cleanup

Lazy beekeeping has a few downsides. This summer, two tall stacks of boxes with drawn comb and no bees attracted wax moths.  Next, the wax moth larvae ate the drawn comb...all the comb.    Larvae chewed the wood too, compromising some frames and boxes.  What was I thinking - to busy with other things, to hot to wear the beekeeping hoodie.   The not so lazy cleanup went on and on.  I'm a philosophical contradiction.

The chickens enjoyed live snacks and a few wasps helped with the crushed larvae.  I'm grateful that the problem was not small hive beetles.