The beekeeper’s trash pile
I’m not proud of it but, since misery loves some company, I hope some of you have a bee equipment trash pile too. A pile of trashed bee equipment seems to go hand in hand with a long-time beekeeper. The longer one keeps bees, the larger the pile. You know the look … weeds growing around old, once-loved equipment — equipment that could, in a desperate moment, be restored to a degree of functionality but probably never will be. It’s too much effort and new equipment is cost-competitive. So, this equipment sits around waiting for a day that will most likely never come.
The swarm
In earlier articles, I briefly discussed a small swarm that recently moved into empty equipment in my home apiary. The swarm (I estimate hardly a pound of bees) found my pile of old winter-killed equipment and set up housekeeping in that equipment. I thought you might be interested in the story of the struggle that ensued between the bees and wax moths — both wanting the neglected hive equipment at the same time.
The old equipment
Last spring, I noticed flight activity from a hive in which the colony had died the year before. The equipment was essentially abandoned and the swarm that now occupied it appeared to be small. It didn’t look too promising. I made a mental note to check the small colony later. Later was long in coming. I had just completed working two splits that I’d bought last spring. Now, as autumn approached, I felt an increased need to be certain that things were going well enough that the two splits could survive the winter. Happily, the colonies are currently in decent shape. After finishing with the two splits, I remembered the old equipment a few yards away in which the small swarm had taken up residence. Though tired, I went to have a look — fully expecting the colony to be dead. It wasn’t. In fact, the colony had made a bit of a recovery and was putting up a good flight. As the outer cover broke loose, I heard the gentle roar of bees up top. The inner cover was another story. It was soundly stuck down. Only by prying and cajoling could I get it loose and then I knew why it was so obstinate. Wax moth webbing was holding it firmly in place. The bees were in one side of the hive while the wax moths were in the other. This was obviously the mini swarm that had I had seen earlier in the season. I couldn’t help but wish they had stayed put. This was going to be a headache.
The mess
What a mess. I didn’t mention last winter’s mouse nest that was also in the hive. Some frames were clearly allocated to the bees while other frames were clearly allocated to the wax moths. Then there were many frames that were allocated to neither and for which both opponents were fighting. Where frames had been reclaimed from the moths, bees had covered the cocoons with wax and propolis resulting in misshapen comb. The equipment was mostly rotted, and broke apart easily. The mice, to no surprise, had built a large mouse condo in the bottom deep and had chewed through several bottom bars and …
