# UGH! Will cockroaches hurt a hive?



## Terri (May 10, 2002)

A swarm set itself up in an empty hive box, and DH and I just now got around to moving it to a place that would be protected from the winter wind. We were just to busy to get to it earlier in the yeaar!

It was a very simple move of just moving the box a couple of feet: just a lift and move. Because I had forgotten anything to pry with I did not take the inner cover off. Even so, I could see that there was bur comb everywhere, including between the lid and the inner cover as the lid was ajar. Swarms love stored bee equipment!

When we moved it 3 cockroaches crawled out the bottom. UGH!

Now, it is late October and we are already getting the occasional frost. 

If it were warm out I would simply open up the hive on a sunny day and the cockroaches would pretty much leave to a darker location, but it is very late in the year and there is obviously bur comb EVERYWHERE in this hive! And, since there might be less than 10 frames in the hive it could be even worse than it looks! 

I would disturb the hive greatly if I tried to take out the frames now, and since there MIGHT be less that 10 frames in that box anyways it would give the bees a lot of work just at a time when they need feeding and quiet. This hive is too light: they do not have enough honey to last the winter unless I feed them ASAP.

The question is, what are the chances that the cockroaches will hurt the hive?


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## BjornBee (Jan 17, 2011)

A colony of bees (think about a feral colony in a tree) is a wide and varied ecosystem with all kinds of ants, roaches, mites, wax eating larvae, and who knows what at the bottom of the tree cavity where all the junk and crap falls.

A few roaches will not harm the colony. Don't worry about it. Many insects, (ladybugs, earwigs, spiders, flies, roaches, etc.) seek out the warmth and moisture of the hive to survive as the weather turns cold. Some may overwinter nicely all year long under the top cover, in the corners, etc. It's normal.

Watch Andrew Zimmer some on the food/travel network. Some insects are tasty. And you have honey to coat them making them delicious! larvae, roaches, bee pupae....great tasting protein foods.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Uh-huh. You go first.

You are right about hives in trees having to co-exist with roaches. Our bees in this country were origionally imported from Europe and Italy, and aren't cockroaches also found in both countries? That would make the bees able to withstand the nasty little things.


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