Trouble in One of the Hives

On the second Thursday of each month, the Bayou Beekeepers Club meets at Green's Cafe in Jennings.  The meeting starts at 6pm where we order food (generally fried shrimp or cheeseburgers) and we visit for an hour while we eat.  At 7pm sharp the meeting is called to order.  We stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and then we are led in prayer.  

The meeting generally goes on for about an hour and a half.  We discuss things we should be doing in our hives and learn about events that we should prepare for during each month.  Questions are asked and answered by members of the club.  Reports are given about things that people are seeing or experiencing with their bees.  The funny thing about beekeepers is everyone does things a little differently.  One person will tell you to do something and the next says, "Never do that!"  People have their own way of doing things and it works for them.  We have some very large commercial beekeepers as well as hobbyists who only have one hive.  

The club wants to raise up a new generation of beekeepers so we sponsor Hathaway High School.  In their Ag Department (FFA) they now have a number of hives and have gotten a grant to buy bee suits and equipment.  They recently pulled honey and are selling it and have made a lot of money to help the program.  We're now starting another neighboring town's ag department with bees.  The students really enjoy learning about bees and working in the hives.

Bayou Beekeepers Club in Jennings, LA

There is a funky smell coming from our hives.  The bees are making Golden rod honey and the honey really stinks - just like sweaty gym socks.  If you just walk by the hives, you can smell it.  Our goal is to pull some of this honey before too long as it is supposed to be really good for you.  

But there is trouble in one of the hives.  I noticed when walking past one just last week.  If you look, you'll see honeycomb and honey and devastation coming out of one of the boxes.  "What is it,?"  I asked the president of our beekeeper's club as I showed him a photo of what you see below.

Infestation of wax moths!  We've lost one of the hives.  Wax moths move into a weak hive.  A weak hive is one where the population of bees is down.  It could be caused by a queen not laying as many eggs as she should or other problems resulting in a weak hive.  A strong hive repels and pushes away predators.  In a weak hive, a wax moth comes in and lays eggs in the comb.  The larvae eat the comb, the pollen, the honey and destroy the entire colony.

We'll have to clean the entire box out as we've lost all the bees and this spring, we'll either make a split or we'll catch another swarm to replace this one.  It is unfortunate, but we were told that we need to have more than one box of bees, because sooner or later, we'll lose some.  So how do we keep this from happening again?  That is the big question.

We make sure each colony is strong.  If one gets weak, we may combine two hives so that they have the number to fight off wax moths.  I've read that wax moths hate mint.  I'm looking into planting mint all around the hives.  All I know is that we have quite a mess to clean up in this box so that we can be prepared for the spring.  I don't want wax moths to move in and decimate another hive, so I'm going to learn more about combatting them.