A sad fact of beekeeping is that each of us will sometimes discover one of our colonies has completely died. In beekeeper jargon, we say we "lost the hive," similar to how we describe a deceased family member. Sometimes our bees are just as important to us as our pets and family.
Losing a hive is disheartening but can also be a learning experience and cause a person to become a better beekeeper. Mapping out the next year's improved mite control strategy and honey harvest plan is often the best response to discovering a dead colony, or "deadout." Showing the frames from a deadout to a more experienced beekeeper will help a person learn from the hive autopsy.
Can I safely use the frames again?
In most cases, yes.
Getting the dead colony's frames and other hive equipment ready for future bees is important. There are only a few cases when the combs cannot be used again. Careful examination of combs and some simple choices and small cleanup tasks will give your new bees a jumpstart in spring. The comb, and food left in the comb, are great resources for the new bees.
Is there any chance the bees died of American Foulbrood (AFB)?
An AFB scale is really the slumped, then dried, corpse of bee brood in its cell. The dark scale is on the floor of the cell. In this photo, about 10 cells have a scale in them. Can you see them?
See the photo of the most classic sign of AFB: "scales." If you aren't sure if you see AFB scales in your brood combs, ask an expert at Betterbee, your State Bee Inspector, or a University Extension Agent who specializes in honey bees. Some veterinarians are also trained in honey bee diseases and can help you. AFB is both contagious and resilient, and spores remain in the comb, on frames, and in equipment for decades after the bees have died of the disease.
Could my bees have died of poisoning?
Though rare and hard to diagnose, poisoning happens. It might have been that the bees robbed out another honey bee colony in a wall that an exterminator had sprayed with insecticide. Other poisoning possibilities are vandalism of hives, drift from agricultural spray or seed treatments from neighboring farmland, or serious misapplication of pesticides within the foraging area of the bees. Live bees that can't fly but instead crawl in circles in the ground near their hive, or that shiver and twitch as they stand at/near the hive entrance, give strong reason to suspect poisoning. These symptoms also could be caused by certain viruses, however, so every twitching bee isn't evidence of pesticide issues. In a completely dead hive, we usually search for evidence of varroa, starvation, or bacterial disease, which are more common and can usually be more definitively diagnosed. It's extremely unlikely that a colony with pesticide issues will make it part of the way through the winter since they will only be exposed to external pesticides in warm weather when the bees are flying.
The moral of this story is that it's sometimes difficult to diagnose AFB in old equipment, especially for a beginner, though you'll usually know if your colony was dying of AFB infection in the fall. Similarly, unless you saw the bees die with pesticide poisoning symptoms in the fall, your equipment is unlikely to have chemical residue problems. As long as the equipment you're considering came from your own dead colony, you'll likely be able to rule out AFB or chemical causes of death. However, accepting used equipment from another beekeeper deprives you of that insight into why the colony died, which is why we recommend only reusing equipment from your own deadouts and never buying or accepting used beekeeping equipment.
Losing your bees is always sad, but it's worth your time to examine the deadout and try to learn what went wrong.Watch this video as we walk you through the basics of examining a deadout on your own.
What should you do with equipment from your deadouts? After deciding AFB and poisoning are not the culprits, equipment in nearly all other cases can be reused. Prepping it during winter will ensure it's ready for your spring bee purchases or splits from colonies that lived. Spring hits fast, so be ready! Read these housekeeping tips to keep your equipment in working order below.
Cleaning dead bees and mold off combsfor reuse
Remove accumulations of dead and moldy bees, but don’t struggle to pull bees out of cells.
Combs may contain starved dead bees with their heads and bodies down in cells. A few taps on the frame may dislodge them, but if it doesn't, don't keep bopping your frame. Future bees will more efficiently and carefully remove the dried bodies.
Bees may also have died and fallen to the bottom board, or be clumped between frames. You can easily brush these bees into a wastebasket, or right into the grass.
If the dead colony was left for a time, mold may have started to grow on the clumps of bees. Usually, mold on bees just clings to their bodies when you sweep them off but if it's on bees stuck in cells, your future bees will clean it up as they remove the bodies. Mold also forms on stored pollen in cells, and we can't clean that either. A small amount of mold is nothing to be worried about. If it's more than a few square inches per frame, you can always throw out the frame, though bees are remarkably good at cleaning up large amounts of mold. It's important to realize that mold occurs after bees die. Sometimes people mistakenly believe thatmold killed the bees or some hive moisture problem caused the mold and also killed their bees.
What to keep an eye out for on your used combs
Now is a good time to check for any damaged comb, or comb built in odd shapes. The most desirable combs are flat combs with no bulges or irregularities because odd shapes interfere with the smooth movements of frames while you inspect the bees. Trim off any crazy comb now, but be aware that cold comb is fragile. Letting it come to room temperature will help you avoid extra damage while you trim. Be careful with well-made comb that is properly built within the frame, since this is valuable and costs the old bees a lot of effort to create! If any holes appear due to breakage or mouse damage, your new bees will repair the comb as soon as they can in the spring.
If combs have brown lines of bee feces dribbling down the surface, this can be delicately scraped off with a knife using a shaving motion. The feces may just be bee feces, or it may also contain spores of Nosema spp. and the bees will have to clean it if you do not, which is a dirty chore for them since they clean with their tongues. It may also be on the top bars and should be scraped off with the hive tool.
If the bees died of varroa mites or viruses associated with varroa, you may find a small brood nest, all dead. Your new bees will remove the dead brood and throw it out the exit as soon as they are put in the hive in the spring.
Put down the Lysol! It's not necessary to spray bleach or cleaning solvents all over combs in an attempt to kill mold or sanitize them. The original colony probably died of cold, starvation, or mites and viruses that are long-dead. The molds and bacteria that may be growing on the combs now will be cleaned very efficiently by your new bees, without you bringing new chemicals into the hive.
This frame has a lot of crystallized honey, and some pollen. Future bees will love this frame.
Honey remaining in the combs may look odd to you since it is crystallized. The granular, but wet, appearance of this honey causes some concern until you learn to recognize it as honey in another form. Though we can't extract it since it stubbornly clings in the cells, the bees can get it out. The liquid portion will be a real boost to the bees that are hived in the spring, and will save you some effort making sugar syrup, though some of the dry sugar crystals may be discarded out the front entrance by eager housekeeping bees.
If the brood combs are dark brown and may be older than 4 years old, replace the darkest ones with a frame of lighter comb or a frame with foundation. This can be done at any time of year and keeps all your brood comb from becoming too old to use at the same time. The oldest wax will hold chemical residues, disease particles, and the accumulated "gunk" of many years of brood development. If the original foundation was black plastic, comb color might be harder to gauge. Scrape off a small piece of comb and examine that piece to get a real sense of its color.
Clean wax and propolis off your used frames
Having the hive apart with no bees around gives you a chance to really tidy up, which can be more difficult during the summer during colony inspections. Check out the side bars of the frames. Side bars are the shorter sides of the frames, and the upper flared portion of each side bar touches the next frame's side bar. If side bars have propolis on them, scrape it off with a hive tool so the side bars really touch each other. This will allow all frames to fit nicely in the box, tightly against each other, with a small gap at each of the two side walls. If the top or bottom bars have a lot of bumpy wax on them, scraping that off will help prevent frames above sticking to frames below. A frame that is damaged or falling apart will only cause you headaches later, and is usually better discarded and replaced at this stage.
See this past article fortips on rehabbing old framesfor reuse.
Cleaning up hive bodies and other equipment
Before and after: By scraping propolis off side bars, frames will move better in summer!
The frame rest areas tend to accumulate propolis, which can be scraped off with a hive tool to allow frames to be manipulated easier. Don't go overboard and scrape all propolis off the insides of the boxes, though! Propolis is a good thing and bees chose to coat the inner walls with this glossy amber antimicrobial substance for their health. We just don't like it in places where it impedes easy frame movement. Propolis isn't the enemy - propolis in the wrong place is.
Examine each other piece of hive equipment with a critical eye, and don't keep anything that isn't worth keeping. A bottom board can be scraped and reused for years, but if moisture and dead bees caused the wood to start rotting, you may be happier with a new bottom board. Feeders, inner and outer covers, and any other hive piece can be cleaned up and used again as long as the structure is still sound.
Store the tidied frames in their own hive boxes, with as much ventilation as possible, while at the same time preventing mice or other critters from entering. Don't be tempted to store frames in a plastic tote with the lid taped shut, or inside a plastic bag. This encourages mold growth. Proper hive boxes are always the best place to store frames because hive boxes are designed to keep frames vertical and safe.
Storing your salvaged combs, frames, and boxes outdoors or in an unheated outbuilding with an inverted screened bottom board at the bottom is good protection from critters as well as mold. In cold weather you don't have to worry about wax moths getting in and causing trouble, but when springtime arrives your equipment will be safest if it's being guarded (and used) by a new colony of bees. Every colony you lose can teach you lessons to make you a better beekeeper for the following year.
