In article <[log in to unmask]>, Christopher Slade
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>As today was about our first warmish day I looked briefly through my hives to
>see how they had got through the winter.  In some of them I saw a few bees
>whose wings looked as if the ends had been painted white.
 
We see this effect quite often.
 
In our case it is nothing sinister, just an adhesion of their winter
food to their wings, usually near the tips, which can soon enough be
cleaned up. It usually happens around the time the winter cluster begins
to open up and is more prevalent in smaller colonies than large ones. If
you feed fondant this almost certainly the cause, but we do see it
occasionally in non fondant colonies.
 
If your situation does not fit this model by all means have them
checked, but there are many funny things out there which are usually
benign.
 
--
Murray McGregor