Guilfordbeekeepers.org

I have a question I would like to ask. What is the stink in the bee yard this time of year? Is this a problem?

Hey whg3,
IF, IF the smell is kind of sour or dirty gym socks kind of smell it is most likely the Goldenrod being cured and its a good thing. So that is not a problem. IF its anything else you will have to describe the smell or have a member drop by to give it a wiff.
Ski

If your bees are getting into the goldenrod like this--



Your hive may smell like this--



My neighbor's hives in the country and mine in the city had the identical bad smell. I took the photo of the bee on goldenrod in the pasture near his hives. I am looking for fields of gym socks in my neighborhood!

I used Apiguard in a very large hive I have to control mites. A total of 4 weeks of treatment and you could smell that hive 50 feet away. Dirty socks is a good discription but added Apriguard evaporation and it is pretty rank. I have golden rod near by but only the hive with Apiguard had this smell. RB

My hives were being treated with Apilife Var when I smelled the stink. My neighbor's hives were not treated and we did not smell the stink until we opened the hive. I wonder if the volatility/evaporation of the thymol in both forms of treatments helps carry the stink with it?

It was recommend I treat this hive because of high levels of mite counts. I have 3 other hives sitting within 50 feet and it was suggested I treat these also. I am all for killing fleas on my dog but if I kill him in the process I don't know what I have gained. I know that before I treated this hive there were bees bearding half way up the boxes and now no beard. I also understand the mites could have reduced the population but I sure miss the beard. Maybe next year they will just be bees with flees. RB

We need to have a talk about "the beards and the bees." If you don't treat for mites when needed you probably won't have to worry about beards or bees the next season because you won't have bees or bees enough to beard. Bees aren't bearding now because most hives are reducing in population for the winter and with lower numbers inside the hive and lower temperatures outside the hive, there is no need for them to beard. Bearding is generally a hot weather event to lower the inside temperature of the hive. (One recent exception is one of my hives that hated the Apilife VAR so much that they bearded in cool, drizzly weather.)

I miss the bearding because I miss the hot weather.

I went out today and took the lid off just to see how full the beetle traps were and there were 2 bees laying on top of the frames curled up dying. Not dead yet but something hanging out of their rear end. What ever this was appeared to be pulsing with rhythm. The healthy bees were trying to haul it off. I also found roaches in another hive that had a couple empty frames. Any thoughts on either one. RB

Sounds like the 2 bees got rolled when the lid was removed, mashing their insides. The mass was their stingers and the pulsating was the venom bags.

Roaches are no problem. You nay have the inner lid on upside down. The 3/8 space should be up, so the bees can crawl up there to remove any intruders.

I've heard goldenrod bloom has come and gone so I guess Aster is what the girls are bringing in... all 4 hives smells like dirty gym socks