CBPV

[Gilberdyke John]

and here we see demonstrated the correlation between disease spread and open feeding.

I have taught all my mentees about the folly of open feeding but out in the rest of the world it seems the motto about taking a horse to water but you can't make it drink is true.

 

[Newbeeneil]

having observed a colony with CBPV left with a wide open floor, just a brood box sat on an empty shallow on an 18" stand over a month or two - I found that they didn't

Be careful - one or two of them are still in the shook swarm evangelising church and believes that it's the only cure for everything. If so, just smile, nod, wave them on their way, then ignore

No worries with shook swarm- my SBI is not in that camp.

 

[Sutty]

A quick update.
Returned to the hive today to see if it works
It does BUT the bees still seem to want to remove the corpses from below the funnel. I watched a dying bee fall from the funnel and an undertaker come and pick it up and take it away!
The bottom of the funnel is approx 12” from the ground.

Could you have them drop into a container of water with disinfectant (eg bleach) in it?

 

[Newbeeneil]

Could you have them drop into a container of water with disinfectant (eg bleach) in it?

That would certainly prevent any undertakers from spreading the virus if any survived!

 

[joebeewhisperer]

and here we see demonstrated the correlation between disease spread and open feeding.

I realize the risks of open feeding.

This is the risk of sharing observations on an Internet forum. Wish you all well.

 

[pargyle]

I realize the risks of open feeding.

This is the risk of sharing observations on an Internet forum. Wish you all well.

Open feeding is very much frowned upon in the UK ... fortunately, only a few misguided beekeepers do it over here. The fact that we have relatively few cases of AFB and EFB is a testament to this - coupled with a regime of disease notification and Bee Inspectors. CBPV seems to be more prevalent as every year passes - although it appears to only certain colonies that suffer ....

 

[joebeewhisperer]

Open feeding is very much frowned upon in the UK ... fortunately, only a few misguided beekeepers do it over here. The fact that we have relatively few cases of AFB and EFB is a testament to this - coupled with a regime of disease notification and Bee Inspectors. CBPV seems to be more prevalent as every year passes - although it appears to only certain colonies that suffer ....

A young man on another forum discussing dyeing feed changed my practices a good bit. I had said I wouldn’t use food coloring or other dyes. He said, “It’s really a question of being honest with your neighbors.” at which point I did a hard target search to find the only colony at the feeders I couldn’t identify. (very secluded area)

It was in the direction of a state park ranger station close to our home. Once I confirmed there were no managed hives, I began again. But you guys are absolutely correct that anything spread by contact or trophallaxis (bee to bee food sharing for anyone new) has a great potential to be spread when open feeding. I also raised an abundance of yellow jackets which are a nuisance in fall.

Over the past 2 years I’ve refined it a good bit, gorging during a short time frame along a grid akin to feeding troughs, but it is admittedly the trade-off of scale over the highest quality of care. I just loaded 10 nucs to deliver this morning to a bee supply in a nearby city. I hope to get back to “the fun zone” of 10-12 hives. I entered the apiary a few days ago and couldn’t remember the last time I did so for my own enjoyment. That day I took extra time to watch my little friends and relax.

You are not wrong when it comes to open feeding. This thing just grew out from under me. I’ve discovered there is very little money (per hour spent) at my scale, and my wife has encouraged me to get back to what is fun.

Forums have been very helpful, and advice given is at least considered. I’ve been back in bees for 7 years, along with experience going back decades with my father. Someday I aspire to get to bee 2nd grade, as I admittedly realize more of my ignorance year over year.

Thanks so much.

 

[pargyle]

A young man on another forum discussing dyeing feed changed my practices a good bit. I had said I wouldn’t use food coloring or other dyes. He said, “It’s really a question of being honest with your neighbors.” at which point I did a hard target search to find the only colony at the feeders I couldn’t identify. (very secluded area)

It was in the direction of a state park ranger station close to our home. Once I confirmed there were no managed hives, I began again. But you guys are absolutely correct that anything spread by contact or trophallaxis (bee to bee food sharing for anyone new) has a great potential to be spread when open feeding. I also raised an abundance of yellow jackets which are a nuisance in fall.

Over the past 2 years I’ve refined it a good bit, gorging during a short time frame along a grid akin to feeding troughs, but it is admittedly the trade-off of scale over the highest quality of care. I just loaded 10 nucs to deliver this morning to a bee supply in a nearby city. I hope to get back to “the fun zone” of 10-12 hives. I entered the apiary a few days ago and couldn’t remember the last time I did so for my own enjoyment. That day I took extra time to watch my little friends and relax.

You are not wrong when it comes to open feeding. This thing just grew out from under me. I’ve discovered there is very little money (per hour spent) at my scale, and my wife has encouraged me to get back to what is fun.

Forums have been very helpful, and advice given is at least considered. I’ve been back in bees for 7 years, along with experience going back decades with my father. Someday I aspire to get to bee 2nd grade, as I admittedly realize more of my ignorance year over year.

Thanks so much.

You are fortunate over there - from what I understand the density of managed hives is very low .. you have a big country and I've been there - outside of the cities the density of housing is very low and you have huge plots of land that are still vacant. Where I live in the UK there are over 300 known managed colonies within a 2.5 mile radius ... you can only begin to imagine the carnage if I left a few gallons of syrup out in my apiary !

 

[Sutty]

I open fed once some years ago (I feel like I should don a flame-proof suit at this point).
I had 2 colonies very early in the year on the point of starvation, had no fondant, and they wouldn't take down syrup from feeders on the crown board, but were still flying a bit.
I filled a 5l chicken drinker with syrup, with the open area filled with pebbles to avoid drowning.
They found it fairly quickly (15m from hives) and there was soon a regular flight line between feeder and hives, I let them finish it as they are used to nectar sources slowly drying up & it's supposed to reduce the chance of robbing compared with sudden removal.
Despite careful observation I never saw any flight lines in other directions & no other species feeding. I wonder whether the minimal odour of pure syrup let me get away with it.
Not something I'd do again in a hurry though - have some fondant available!
Both hives did well!

 

[drex]

I used to beekeep with a dear old friend, who was hopeless with bees ( actually failed his basic), but loved them. We used to extract in his kitchen since he lived alone.
One of his jobs was to stack extracted boxes outside.
I was on the swarm list, and once, mid extraction, had a call to collect a swarm....... the address was my friend's house. Went outside. He had not put any crown boards on the boxes and they were full of bees with clouds flying round. Took me a while to sort them out and get boxes back to apiary. No disease issues following this thankfully but I did keep a close eye on things.

 

[hemo]

This CBPV colony are looking much better now , no evidence of fresh mortality under the colony or in front . Bees are using the funnel as an entrance so thanks for your pic Neil.
No shaking bees seen though I did see some drones who still looked poorly so I turfed them out, I did watch/see one drone drag another out can't say I have seen them house keeping before.
Still have the same Q and brood has increased to nine brood frames now , it did drop down to six . With the emergence of new brood colony numbers are looking much stronger .
Fresh nectar incoming and hopeful of a nice recovery for this colony, for now I shall leave them without the floor and keep the funnel in place as long as I see no major wasp issues.

Drifting bees I think is a less likely the cause of infection of one hive to another but reckon that Drone general acceptance to be more of a factor.

The front of the hive looked like any other beehive today, plenty of forage activity with many 100's of bees busily coming and going.

 

[hemo]

Acting qucikly to what you see is key with a colony as one will lose many 1000's of bees over two or three weeks , the tell tale sign is quite stark a sudden large pile of dead bees in front of the hive and on opening a colony one can see the issue on the top bars of the BB straightaway (any good beekeeper will be able to notice something is not quite right, though detecting just one or two bees may be a bit harder). The stronger the colony the better chance of survival , no messing even if you have no kit with you as one will be unprepared simply remove the floor to prevent the undertaking occurring and then if need be sort out how to raise them up off the deck .

In an apiary with other colonies my concern is with possible robbing if acolony is weakened, for me this one was a strong double brooder until I carried out the A/S split. Whether this triggered the stress or the beginnings of the CBPV (who knows), but until the A/S all was looking great. It was only a couple of weeks after the AS that I noticed the difference in the colony health and the appearance of the shivering /shaking bees.

 

[hemo]

Add a cheap dustpan and brush to your kit and sweep them/tidy them up pronto from the ground.

Carry at all times a sprayer/mister bottle with sterilising/disinfectant solution with you, even if you are pretty religious with PPE between hives get used to being even more OTT between hives. I have been using chlorine tabs or Virkon s in a 600mm spray bottle for my unde ran dover gloves, smoker and hive tools , even though between each hive I have always used a seperate clean tool and pair of over gloves.
Wash you beesuit more often.

Once one has cleaned up the ground around the hive give it a bit of a soak with a sterilising agent.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thanks for those updates. So pleased they seem to be winning. Are you going to re queen?

 

[hemo]

At this moment in time no , I haven't seen evidence that it is Queen related. Brood is developing and emerging as normal so the vectors for the virus to take hold needs to be known first I think.

I have a colony in another apiary where I'm waiting to see a decent brood pattern and a queen, last week I did see some eggs so this is being considered for uniting if the CBPV colony continue to prosper .

 

[Garry R]

Sometimes it is a bit tricky to see the start of CBPV but once it gets going it is so sad. If I suspect a start I put a newspaper in front of the hive and next day look at the fall of ead. If it gets bad I clear them up every day and wrap them up in the paper and burn. Anything to prevent contact with the dead ones.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I've torched around the hive with a weed wand

 

[Newbeeneil]

This CBPV colony are looking much better now , no evidence of fresh mortality under the colony or in front . Bees are using the funnel as an entrance so thanks for your pic Neil.

My CBPV hive was one of the ones inspected by the SBI and I on Tuesday.
The amount of bees affected seemed less than the previous week so hopefully the funnel floor is working.
He seemed to like the funnel idea and took pictures and a video that he said he would distribute to his colleagues for their comment.
There was a small pile of weak shiny bees below the funnel but unlike last time no sign of undertakers removing bodies.

 

[blackcloud]

Got a mild case on one of mine
I didn't get round to making a floorless stand so I had to improvise.
Strapped down to eyebolts its pretty stable.
Within 10 mins there were a couple of shivering bees on the slab.
While the floor and stand are out they get a good decontamination.
Not sure If want to do this in autumn with wasps around.
These are ferals with behaviour approaching the limit and their roadmap ends with the year anyway so there's nothing to lose by trying.
See how it goes....

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

have you got an eke/empty shallow under the infected brood box?