Chances are like stated before that it is fermented honey. The best way
to tell is to stick your nose inside the hive and give a goof sniff of
the smell of the hive. Fermentation has rather characteristic smell
coupled with the smell of excess carbon dioxide. It can occur if the
humidity gets too high and moisture gathers inside the hive, then when
the weather begins to warm the moisture is drawn towards the
supersaturated honey, and fermentation is allowed to begin when
saturation decreases. Yeasts gather on top of the honey comb, the same
way yeasts are drawn to the surface of grapes (the white powder often
found on grape skins), the honey is usually too "dry" for yeasts to
multiply in, but once the saturation levels decrease even a percentage,
some of the high sugar tolerant yeasts will start to multiply. This
increases CO2 biological activity and warms the hive even more, allowing
more moisture to be drawn to the honey.

If you live in a hive beetle area as well, this could be characteristic
of a larvae population explosion, which although the beetle larvae are
damaging in themselves, they cause the above fermentation scenario to
begin as well.

The last possibility is simply that a comb or few has broken.

Scot Mc Pherson
Bradenton Fl

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