AFB and saving a queen.

[Finman]

You've been in the wrong place then, try reading a book instead, honey farming by ROB Manley.

Who is Rob Manley? What does he know about AFB?

Mark Goodwin has written a book in NZ, how to manage AFB.

 

[Finman]

.
Australian researches about AFB are interesting. They do not use antibiots..
But in nature they have lots of wild colonies, which carry AFB.

When they have strong migrative beekeeping, many hives get soon disease from bature even if apiaries are totally cleaned.

NZ and Australia seems to have burn method.
Gamma radiation is possible too, if you have such opportunity.

 

[Finman]

.
We have a main advisor in AFB. He has 1500 hives.

Our AFB situation is not good, but were have not such style that we go to other's home to burn their property.

And AFB is not so big issue in human life that vets go out to hunt ABF criminals.
Our honey production is not worth to attack on hobbiests whose average age is 58 years.

IT does not affect on human health and people get their honey jar to their table.
.

 

[betterbee]

2 brood cycles clear after shook swarm,can also cage queen on i frame of brood ,foundation from healthy hive shake out bees away from hive ,infected honey in nurse bees lost field bees return to hive

 

[foghornleghorn]

Do hygienic bees get afb, or can they remove dead larvae before spores have developed

 

[Finman]

Do hygienic bees get afb, or can they remove dead larvae before spores have developed

Disease is very complex. It cannot be removed with dead larvae. Before that frames have more or less spores even if you do not know it without laboratory tests.

In NZ ABF book it is said that last year honey in super combs is the most common way to spread disease in the apiary.

That is why first thing to prevent spreading the disease is to keep own furniture and frames to each hive, and do not mix them between all hives.

But it depends on situation, do you have that disease., we can send an example to laboratory and seek an answer, that does my honey mixture has spores. It does not make sense that you do not have spores, but you nurse hives like they are going to die all the time.

Like Jesus said 2000 years ago: Only sick ones needs cure.

But the disease can hide 2 years before you see a tiny hole in brood capping. After that it spreads in a month that the whole brood space seems to rotten.

I think that British ABF policy is very good, because your hive density is big. Disease spreads quite easily by robbing. All kind of open open feeding is bad. It invents robbers from long distance.

My experince is too that sun melter is very bad, if bees have acces to melted combs. Spores need over 130C temp to die, and sun melter has only about 60C temp and carbage can have what ever diseases.
.

What ever you do out there, it is not bad , if British beekeepers know the facts, and do not generate their own " I do not know but" knowledge about things, which are serious. And I do not understand those village dog's poking with ha ha ha , when when handle disease issues on forum. It is same with varroa. It is not ha ha thing.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hygienic bees are a myth

 

[Finman]

Hygienic bees are a myth

That is very true.
.

 

[mbc]

That is very true.
.

Not.

 

[Finman]

Not.

Oh dear.
Give me a solution and I invent a problem to it.

But if we talk about ABF, hygienic queen change does not help in that disease. Otherwise it would be easy piece. Send me such if you have. But not black bees.

British university believe too, that hygienic bees solve chalk brood problem. But they are wrong, because you should find the queen strain which tolerates perfectly that disease. Stupid to invent a strain, which remove only dead larvae.
.
.

 

[madasafish]

Having had AFB and all the heartache that goes with it in the UK, I would not risk keeping a queen which MIGHT cross contaminate.
After all, compare the value of a queen to a colony..

 

[Hivemaker.]

After all, compare the value of a queen to a colony..

Should that be a deciding factor?

 

[madasafish]

Should that be a deciding factor?

No. But you need to weigh up all major factors. And Risks of contamination - and their costs- are.

 

[mbc]

Hygienic bees are a myth

Steve Tabor talked about a line of hygienic bees they had in baton rouge which they could introduce a frame heavily infected with afb to which the bees would clean out with no apparent ill effect.
As with all things bees, to achieve this super hygiene something had to give, and the bees were hopeless for anything but hygiene.
If you believe his words, certainly no myth though.

 

[Hivemaker.]

No. But you need to weigh up all major factors. And Risks of contamination - and their costs- are.

Yes, maybe a normal queen or a very valuable one.

 

[Finman]

If you believe his words, certainly no myth though.

I do not believe. If it is so, the whole world woud speak about that. Not only one man.

From where I can buy those queens?

But I have seen often, how queen sellers lie about their queens. No shame what they do.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Steve Tabor talked about a line of hygienic bees they had in baton rouge which they could introduce a frame heavily infected with afb to which the bees would clean out with no apparent ill effect.
As with all things bees, to achieve this super hygiene something had to give, and the bees were hopeless for anything but hygiene.
If you believe his words, certainly no myth though.

Maybe not - But Baton rouge is a looooooooong way from here - somewhere East of Twickenham (AKA the mausoleum of English rugby) I believe. And, if, as you say they are pretty damn useless for anything apart from tidying up, the all round varroa beating, AFB, EFB immune honey gathering bee is still a myth. -Nice if it happens, but in this instance I think we are just discussing an apiarist's attempt to conceal the fact he has AFB on his premises, no wonder it's rife over there

 

[mbc]

Baton rouge is (or at least used to be) the USDA bee lab in Texas, and Steve Tabor the head of a well respected team of scientists working there. In a country where prophylactic treatment with antibiotics is commonplace in many walks of life, not just beekeeping, he was working towards alternative routes of management, no bad thing in my view.
I'll try and dig out the reference from his little book, breeding super bees.

Similarly, by some* accounts, Marla Spivac's vsh ( varroa sensitive hygiene) bees can deal with afb and varroa.
*I was going to write all, but edited to stay on safe ground.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Baton rouge is (or at least used to be) the USDA bee lab in Texas, and Steve Tabor the head of a well respected team of scientists working there. In a country where prophylactic treatment with antibiotics is commonplace in many walks of life, not just beekeeping, he was working towards alternative routes of management, no bad thing in my view.
I'll try and dig out the reference from his little book, breeding super bees.

Similarly, by some* accounts, Marla Spivac's vsh ( varroa sensitive hygiene) bees can deal with afb and varroa.
*I was going to write all, but edited to stay on safe ground.

My apologies - I thought that baton rouge was just a mythical made up place (a bit like Twickenham claiming to be the home of rugby football )

Not a bad thing at all, a lot of their problems IMO is down to just chucking drugs at a problem and hoping for the best. I've got his book - just haven't got around to reading it yet (maybe after the second eye is sorted and I get a pair of reading glasses!!)
But the truth of the matter is, proper hygienic bees in this country are still very much in the wishful thinking phase, and until the holy grail is found decisive action is the way forward, not sticking one's head in the sand however good the queen is.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Around German language world beekeepers make shook swarms. They save the bees, but burn combs.

And here for EFB... used to do it for AFB as well, many years ago.

Some nuts also do shook swarms destroying brood and combs to control varroa, what a waste.