Cha(u)lk Brood...

[Codford]

Can any of the Forum's Cognoscenti vouch, or otherwise, for the efficacy of banana skins in encouraging the removal of mummies..?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU2fb8KWpac&feature=share

 

[Hivemaker.]

...

Chalkbrood is a mycosis (a disease caused by a fungus), which affects bee brood. It is an infectious disease of the larvae, and is caused by a fungus called “Ascosphaera apis”.

Fungi are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms, while bacteria are single-celled prokaryotes. The cells of fungi have nuclei that contain the chromosomes and other organelles, such as mitochondria and ribosomes. Bacteria are much smaller than fungi, do not have nuclei or other organelles and cannot reproduce sexually.

 

[For want of a better word]

...

He sure did sat "bacteerreeia"

The banana's skin lifts the crownboard up a matchsticks height and increases ventilation ( especially on solid floors)... last season I tried rhubarb leaves... low varroa and no chalkbrood!

my sides are still aching from laughing so much at Hammond's Budget jokes!

Mytten da

 

[user 6228]

Primary cause for chalk brood infection infection taking hold is low nest temperature. Best to fix that with a lower thermal conductance hive. The researchers name is florescent. I can supply a full reference later

 

[Michael Palmer]

Primary cause for chalk brood infection infection taking hold is low nest temperature. Best to fix that with a lower thermal conductance hive. The researchers name is florescent. I can supply a full reference later

Not trying to disagree Derek, just giving my experience with chalkbrood. At one time my bees had an apiary wide (40+ Apiaries) infection of chalk. I tried everything reported as methods to control the disease...well, everything but banana skins. Extra ventilation, moving hives into sun, etc. The chalk mummies were present even in mid-summer when temperatures were in 70s and 80s, and more.

Heavily infected colonies had piles on chalk mummies on the bottom board, and on the ground. In '98, I requeened chalk hives with a stock that was highly hygienic. After a month, I could find no mummies. None. From piles of mummies to none in a month. From that point on, I used those hygienic colonies in my breeding program. Any colonies with as little as one mummy were eliminated from the program. I sell queens and nucs to Cornell University. They tested my bees for being hygienic...97%!

Today, I rarely see chalkbrood in my bees. Maybe a handful of chalk colonies in more than a thousand colonies in my apiary. I'm not saying increasing ventilation or colony heat can't eliminate the symptoms temporarily, but for long term control, requeen with hygienic stock, and select from those stocks.

Just my take on how to eliminate chalk from the operation.

 

[TooBee...]

last season I tried rhubarb leaves... low varroa and no chalkbrood!

Are you being sarcastic about the Rhubarb leaves? Or did they really work?

 

[TooBee...]

Primary cause for chalk brood infection infection taking hold is low nest temperature. Best to fix that with a lower thermal conductance hive. The researchers name is florescent. I can supply a full reference later

Hi derekm,
I would be very interested to get that reference, as I'm sure others would.

 

[For want of a better word]

Are you being sarcastic about the Rhubarb leaves? Or did they really work?

On another thread a Polish study on varroa and rhubarb leaves... perhaps coincidence, but I did not see any chalk brood in the hives that had a rhubarb leaf fall into them!..... perhaps the colonies were hygenic already.

Our SBI says he notices chalk brood more in colonies kept close to running water... possibly air damper making a situation where bees are more susceptible to the fungus?

Yeghes da

 

[Beefriendly]

Primary cause for chalk brood infection infection taking hold is low nest temperature. Best to fix that with a lower thermal conductance hive. The researchers name is florescent. I can supply a full reference later

How come my Amm's in their nice cosy poly hive are martyrs to it and my Buckfast have non? I think genetic susceptibility has big influence on prevalent chalkboard.
That said when I ran local mongrels it would crop up in spring and nearly disappear by early summer as conditions dried out, so their is an environmental influence as well. About the time it would take a banana skin to dry out on top of the frames which is where that old chestnut comes from.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Our SBI says he notices chalk brood more in colonies kept close to running water... possibly air damper making a situation where bees are more susceptible to the fungus?

Yeghes da

Two of my apiaries are on the banks of deep well fed busy streams (less than six feet from the water) - no chalkbrood

 

[Apiarisnt]

Primary cause for chalk brood infection infection taking hold is low nest temperature. Best to fix that with a lower thermal conductance hive. The researchers name is florescent. I can supply a full reference later

To quote DerekM in this Forum, 11th Feb this year (but without the glowing autocorrect of Flores):

There is a lot of lore around chalkbrood. If you prefer research rather than lore you will find some answers here .
http://www.uco.es/dptos/zoologia/Api...od_disease.pdf

you will note that temperature is the biggest factor... try adding insulation to allw better temperature regulation by the bees I see Tasmania is quite cool in winter.

other reference:
Flores, J.M., Gutiérrez, I. & Espejo, R., 2010. The role of pollen in chalkbrood disease in Apis mellifera: transmission and predisposing conditions. Mycologia, 97(6), pp.1171–1176.

Flores, J.M., Gutierrez, I. & Puerta, F., 2004. A comparison of methods to experimentally induce chalk brood disease in honey bees. Spanish journal of agricultural research, 2(1), pp.79–83.
Flores, J.M. et al., 1996. Effect of temperature and humidity of sealed brood on chalkbrood development under controlled conditions. Apidologie, 27, pp.185–192.

 

[Dodge]

Link no longer works.

 

[Apiarisnt]

Link no longer works.

try:

https://www.google.com/url?q=http:/...:nbtdm60cjlc&usg=AOvVaw3wwpF_tscmcAuncJTBvzz4

 

[Plenty of honey]

How come my Amm's in their nice cosy poly hive are martyrs to it and my Buckfast have non? I think genetic susceptibility has big influence on prevalent chalkboard.
.

I agree and most say the cure for chalk brood is to re queening with a more hygienic queen! We have exactly the same here. No mater how you look after your AMM"s black bees , wild bees or feral bees, whatever you want too call them, they get Chalk brood. Not bad bad, but enough to make you concerned.
Since I've gone over to buckfast type genetics, not seen it in two years.
I am sure cold damp springs cant help but hey, thats rubbish for bees anyway, no matter what type of stocks you have!!

 

[Swarm]

So how does this answer Beefriendly and his insulated hives scenario? Why didn't insulation cure his bees?

Some bees are prone to it and others are not, warming them up won't make a difference, as Michael has already pointed out. I had a colony last year with quite bad chalk and they were moved to a sunnier spot. This year they were just the same and it persisted into Summer so the queen will be replaced next year.

On another note, chalk or not, this was possibly one of my best colonies for production, this year and last.

 

[user 6228]

Google for the correct links

Flores JM. Temperature and climate in chalkbrood disease [Internet]. Available from: http://www.uco.es/dptos/zoologia/Apicultura/Power_Point_Apicultura/Temperature_and_climate _chalkbrood_disease.pdf

Flores JM, Ruiz J a, Ruz JM, Puerta F, Bustos M, Padilla F, et al. Effect of temperature and humidity of sealed brood on chalkbrood development under controlled conditions. Apidologie. 1996;27:185–92.

Flores JM, Gutierrez I, Puerta F. A comparison of methods to experimentally induce chalk brood disease in honey bees. Spanish J Agric Res [Internet]. 2004;2(1):79–83. Available from: http://www.uco.es/organiza/departamentos/bio-animal/Apicultura/trabajos_libros/A comparison of methods.pdf

Flores JM, Gutiérrez I, Espejo R. The role of pollen in chalkbrood disease in Apis mellifera: transmission and predisposing conditions. Mycologia. 2010;97(6):1171–6.

 

[For want of a better word]

Two of my apiaries are on the banks of deep well fed busy streams (less than six feet from the water) - no chalkbrood

I wonder if the bees genetics do have something to do with chalk brood suceptability.. The Cornish native Amm that are alongside the banks of the River Lynher do not have chalkbrood.. but the New Zealand Italians along side the banks of the GreatgreygreengreaseyTamarriverallsetaboutwithunaffordableandemptysecondhomes.... seem to suffer a bit... unless a rhubarb leaf accidentally drops onto the frames below the sealed crownboard??

OR perhaps the Amms are so crowded into one BB they do not have mushroom inside?

Wheres me coat...

Nos da

 

[Beefriendly]

Since I've gone over to buckfast type genetics, not seen it in two years.
I am sure cold damp springs cant help but hey, thats rubbish for bees anyway, no matter what type of stocks you have!!

Might get an odd cell or two per frame with chalkbrood in my Buckfast come early spring, but hey it's cold and damp uup north that time of the year; and it quickly disappears...unlike the Amm's which have it all year round. Same hives.
Two major factors me thinks; genetics certainly and internal hive conditions can sometimes provide a more suitable environment for the fungus to develop.
Poly hives don't seem to make much difference, at least not in my experience.

 

[Beefriendly]

Flores JM, Ruiz J a, Ruz JM, Puerta F, Bustos M, Padilla F, et al. Effect of temperature and humidity of sealed brood on chalkbrood development under controlled conditions. Apidologie. 1996;27:185–92.

Link for that paper is here.
Without sitting down and reading in depth one wonders how relevant these papers are to a natural situation. Not only are these guys feeding 5000000 spores to each larvae they are taking frames of brood and chilling them and subjecting them to different temperatures and relative humidity to see which produce the ideal conditions for chalkbrood development. Not really a helpful practical approach when they are getting up to 95% of all sealed brood going chalky.

 

[Millet]

Had chalk brood last year on several frames of drone brood that had the laying worker and all the bees shook of, that was down to the bees not keeping the brood warm i presume, i have also had chalk brood this year in a 6 frame NUC from different bees and a different Queen, for me this was down to robbing and the remaining bees desperately clustering around the last available stores, thus leaving the brood to go cold and die, so from me with my two examples of chalk brood i put it down to chilled brood not disease or bacteria, but hey ho i aint no scientist.