Being as I'm a not so smart one...

So here is the situation: Have (had) five active hives this season, but being overloaded with farm work never seemed to find time to get them treated for varroa. Experiencing a warm day today, I finally got out there to check on things and treat with formic acid packets. Good bee activity in four of the hives, but happened to notice a weird thing... a queen wandering around outside the hive about 7-8 ft away. Once I got into the hives the western honey supers were mostly full but the lower main deeps were mostly empty and moldy looking. No brood at all.

Would I be correct in assuming that mites weakened the hives down to failure level and what Im seeing for bees are either robbers from the one good hive with an active queen (which incidentally was a late swarm that moved in) or the survivors of the dead and dying colonies?

Also many of the honey frames were taking on a moldy look and the honey under the caps was much darker than honey around the edges. Or, alternately, could that darker honey be from some late buckwheat that I had going in my peach orchard?

Anyway, if it is mold causing the dark parts of the honey supers would it be safe for human consumption? Need to be pasteurized?

Following is a pic of what many of the honey frames look like:



Thanks in advance for any help!

B P

Looking at the frames from the pictures, it appears to be a frame that has honey in the outside circle of where brood was raised and honey in the cells where the brood was raised which is the darker area. I don't see any mold on top of the frames.

Were there not any bees around the queen you saw wandering? Any weak hive this time of year gets joined with a strong hive by putting a sheet of news paper on top of the strong one then a queen excluder and the week one on top. After two weeks you can carefully inspect the week hive to see if it has a queen.

You can call me any time to talk bees.

TrapperKent

On your frame with the honey you see a few white looking ones. This is moisture that the honey has drawn into that cell. They bees with take care of it.

TrapperKent

Carl, are you sure you didn't see a drone? This time of year they are thrown out of the hives because they are no benefit, since no breeding is going on.

Keith

Interesting!!! That’s why they were getting bigger and bigger when I was seeing yellowjackets in my kitchen.

If I never see another it’ll be too soon

It wasn't a drone. No bees were paying attention to her.

You were likely seeing overwintering fertile queen yellowjackets. They are the ones responsible for next year's colonies.

Well I destroyed many of next years colonies.