Wax Moth pays a Visit

Today's inspection yielded some good news :) Starting with Hive1 I checked the frame of eggs I'd added last week to see if the bees were making a queen. I was happy to see that they weren't and also there were new eggs on the comb. Going through the frames I saw the red marked queen who I'd been unable to locate previously. It seems she had a bit of a break from laying but has resumed again. I think I'll leave her in there, if the bees don't like her they can supersede her -I'm pretty sure they know a lot more about queen bees than I do anyway. Some of the brood from the frame I'd added had hatched out too and whilst I could still see some sacbrood infected larvae numbers were lower than in previous inspections, which I think may be in part due to the increase in workforce.

I had a look at the rapid feeders I'd put on both hives and found a few drowned bees in both. I pulled out the dead ones, my chickens seemed to enjoy their syrup coated bees. I think I may roughen the sides of the plastic island the bees walk down with some coarse sandpaper to give them better purchase. I noticed Hive2 had taken most of the syrup down already whilst Hive1 had taken just a little so far.

Drowned Bees in Rapid Feeder

Opening Hive 2 I was surprised to see a small pale moth between the follower board and the hive wall. Wax Moths can pose a danger to bees. They lay eggs in active hives and their larvae called Wax Worms then live on the beeswax, bee larvae casings and developing bees. I tried to catch it unsuccessfully and eventually it fluttered out of the hive. Bizarrely I found the moth sat on the frame perch after I closed up the hives and was able to take a photo of it before killing it.

Greater Wax Moth

After looking on google I've decided it's probably a Greater Wax Moth (Galleria mellonella). They're actually pretty common things and their larvae are often used as fishing bait or to feed reptiles and carnivorous plants, as well as being eaten by people who aren't too squeamish about entomophagy. The bees should be able to control wax worm within the hive but numbers are still a little low so I'd guess that's how it got into the hive. For the bees the space between the follower board and hive wall is technically outside of the hive as they see it so maybe they'd've got it when it went to try and lay eggs in the comb. Of course it may have already done that. Wax worms can also damage the wooden frames of the comb too so I'll be looking out for any on the next inspection.

There were no swarm preparations in either hive so far, but I did spot a couple of drones wandering about in both hives. The numbers currently being low though they're not being made in the sacrificial drone comb yet.

Spot the drones, there's at least 3 of them in this picture