Hive Odor

[snispel]

When I checked the bees after this past cold snap, I noticed one hive had an odor I would describe as like bread dough. Temp lows were down in the 20s for 4 days and one day was 19. The bees looked healthy, but the propolis on the frame rims was super gooey. This was the hive that exploded with brood a few weeks ago. Back then I vertically rotated the boxes to eventually get rid of a bottom 10 frame deep that I can’t lift safely and threw a blanket over that “now top” 10 frame deep box as it was separated from the queen and contained brood overnight when temps were SO cold. All the brood in that top excluded box is now capped and soon I can swap it with an 8 frame medium.

This is the first year I’ve had hives make it through winter. What is up with that smell and gooey propolis?

[BobTheBuilder]

The odour worries me, but I'm not having a guess as to what could be wrong. You say the bees look ok, but how about the brood? What does the brood look like? Where does the smell come from, is it from the honey or the brood ?

[snispel]

I'll look again this weekend. I didn't notice anything wrong with the brood either. Thanks for the reply.

[snispel]

So, I inspected the hives. The odor had waned some. I think it comes from the honey. The bees and brood all look healthy.

[BobTheBuilder]

If it's the honey then there's not much to fuss over. Some nectar might have started to ferment, but the bees can handle that. At least, that's my experience.

[Michael Bush]

Bread dough is the normal smell of a hive. The bee bread is called that because it is yeasty.