I started as a one hive owner at the age of 18, I recognised chalkbrood just after receiving them that was 35 years ago. Our national bee unit gives regular bee disease courses which educates our 2 hive owners very early on in their journey into beekeeping. I am confident they can recognise a difference in the health of their hives. Our education support system must be totally different to yours.
Totally ... Day courses run by Bee Inspctors that cover everything from hive and apiary hygiene right through to examining actual examples of foul brood (under controlled classroom conditions) and everything in between. This sort of education is so much better than books and internet videos. Every beekeeper should take the opportunity to attend one of the Bee Disease Days if the opportunity arises.
Finnie is right about one thing - the density of hives in semi-urban beekeeping in the UK is high and with the recent trends, over the last 20 or so years, for gardens that are stocked with plants and shrubs that are not of immense benefit to our bees it does not provide the best environment for large crops of honey. I feel fortunate to get an average of 30lbs a hive as a surplus and still be able to leave the bees enough to overwinter, mainly, on their own produce.
The health of a colony is easily seen by someone who has their hives close by and daily bee watching tells you that all is well. IMO a lot of bee problems are caused by beekeepers 'fiddling' - provide the right conditions in the hive, keep an eye out for swarming and with luck the bees will know what is best for them and get on with it, strong colonies living the way they want to live.
The element of bad luck is the potential for the diseases that really do affect colonies - DWV, the foul broods, CBPV - I don't think there is much that any beekeeper can do to keep these at bay except hope for the best and pray it's not your bees that get infected. I worry less about Nosema as I've never had a problem with it - again, I think the right hive conditions help - but knowing what to look for, in terms of ANY of the bee diseases, is an essential part of the learning curve.
It doesn't take 54 years to learn about beekeeping and be able to successfully keep bees - you won't know everything in 5 years but if you are prepared to learn, take information from every source you can lay your hands, ears and eyes on and evaluate the information you garner and spend time on your bees and beekeeping then 5 years will get you enough knowledge to know how much more you need to know and when to look for more advice.
This thread is now so far off topic but it's been a good one in some respects - Varroa is a burden to our bees and the pros and cons of treatment or non-treatment will be discussed endlessly for the foreseeable future I suspect. The mite is unlikely to ever be eradicated from our beekeeping so we either have to find ways that challenge the mites existence or hope that our bees will learn to co-exist.
