- Joined
- Jan 1, 2018
- Messages
- 5,117
- Reaction score
- 5,028
- Location
- Fernhurst Sussex
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 40 plus 23 that I maintain for clients.
CBPV is characteristic of very strong colonies, mid-season. The pic doesn't look like typical CBPV to me - too many clearly banded bees. However, as CVB says, check the box or shivering, shaking or quivering bees tottering around on the top bars of the hive. Sometimes on the stand and landing boards as well.
No current treatment. It tends not to kill the colony, but at this time of year the prospects are obviously pretty poor I'm afraid.
I had it spread to the next nearest hive, probably by crawlers.
Had it start in one hive and spread to every hive in the apiary, 19 others, start quite suddenly and large piles of dead bees dropping for three months or more, then suddenly clear up as quickly as it started and the colonies rebuild... with no further recurrence, had it in one hive in an apiary of 35 hives, no other hives infected, not even the hive on the same stand with its entrance six inches away.
The stink of dead bees in an infected apiary is awful.
Do you see much difference between different lines with it or is it fairly random?
No difference regards different lines or sub species, this spring two went down with it, one Amm of French decent one Buckfast, both towards the end of April, Amm recovered after a month and went on to do well, the other colony started to recover two weeks ago. These are the only two this year thankfully.
Had it start in one hive and spread to every hive in the apiary, 19 others, start quite suddenly and large piles of dead bees dropping for three months or more, then suddenly clear up as quickly as it started and the colonies rebuild... with no further recurrence, had it in one hive in an apiary of 35 hives, no other hives infected, not even the hive on the same stand with its entrance six inches away.
The stink of dead bees in an infected apiary is awful.
Did it spread down the line or all at once ? Just wondering if robbing or walking flightless bees were the cause .
Best advice I was given was to move hive 20 or so ft away and put empty hive in its place, then start shaking bees off frames, but trying to shake them into the air rather than the floor. Reason given was flying bees would find there way back to there original hive stand but with new hive ready for them.
That was the advice I took
I did it twice
It was heartbreaking to see young bees that had never flown take days to die huddled together in the grass.
I lost the colony anyway.
If it happens again I will put an extra clean drawn brood box on top, move the bees away and leave them to it, making sure they don’t starve of course
The best thing Ive found is to make sure they have enough food and let them get over it, or not, the vast majority do, 99.9% here anyway, and it does not appear to return again in that colony.
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