Chalkbrood - home remedies?

[Parsonage Bees]

Don't try this technique.
https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38873&highlight=Canesten+cream

Actually further down that thread derekm links to an academic presentation which would help explain why this queen has a problem with chalkbrood but her sisters don't (well, not as bad).

On another forum someone commented that when there are not enough bees to maintain the brood and maintain the temperature then he sees cb. This queen was merged with a 3 frame nuc where the queen had failed to mate and return. There were only a few bees left so the brood could have been chilled.

. . . . Ben

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Otherwise really one is just f00kin' around dabbling in lost
"feel good" causes.

That would be the syrup made with camomile tea then.

I'm not a commercial operation so I don't need these boxes to produce honey this year. If as has been suggested cb colonies rarely swarm I'll try clearing them into fewer boxes and get them working on clearing out the mummies.

Requeen in a few weeks.

Thanks . . . . Ben

 

[eltalia]

"If as has been suggested cb colonies rarely swarm..."

Understand the swarming urge to know why that is, buggerall to
do with CB other than yet another effect. What can and does
sometimes happen is the colony absconds however I'd suggest
this one is well past that window also.
Perhaps not in your realm of experience so I only note there
exist commercial aspects of beekeeping which are n0t honey
focused at all, deal with it as a necessary 'evil' when planning
husbandry paths - pathways wholly focused on bee health.

You're onsite and so best placed to assess numbers in each caste.
Yet should your choice indeed "clear(ing) out the mummies" do then
resist joining a very very long line of peddlers in declaring
a fix, as IF the result is any form of a colony on the rebound it is
more likely to be only from the prime conditions for CB outbreak
to have abated.
Also where your requeening delay is anchored on raising such
yourself I'd advise revisiting that choice as the odds of importing
a "nonhygenic" strain are way less than repeating what is already
proven present in your apiary.
Good Luck.

Bill

 

[Murox]

That would be the syrup made with camomile tea then.

I'm not a commercial operation so I don't need these boxes to produce honey this year. If as has been suggested cb colonies rarely swarm I'll try clearing them into fewer boxes and get them working on clearing out the mummies.

Requeen in a few weeks.

Thanks . . . . Ben

I am currently nursing a chalk brood colony along with thymolised syrup until I can requeen it; they have improved significantly coupled with warmer conditions as well.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I am currently nursing a chalk brood colony along with thymolised syrup .

No evidence that thymol does anything for chalkbrood

 

[Finman]

No evidence that thymol does anything for chalkbrood

So it is. Thymol has been used in syrup over 50 years and no one has reported that it has something to do with chalkbrood.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Thymol can be quite effective for treating/clearing up chalk brood, but it is not a permanent fix.

 

[SDM]

No evidence that thymol does anything for chalkbrood

Not quite true. Thymol at 1,000 ppm was found to totally inhibit ascphera apis for 172hrs in lab tests
Journal of apicultural research 1997, 36, 3-4, 163-168

 

[SDM]

Thymol can be quite effective for treating/clearing up chalk brood, but it is not a permanent fix.

Beat me to it.

 

[Hivemaker.]

There are also claims that thymol treatments such apiguard, api-life var clear up CB, but thymol syrup sprayed onto the bees/combs is more effective.

There has been research done.

Commun Agric Appl Biol Sci. 2005;70(4):601-11.
A novel approach for the management of the chalkbrood disease infesting honeybee Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) colonies in Egypt.
Mourad AK1, Zaghloul OA, El Kady MB, Nemat FM, Morsy ME.

Outdoors (apiary) studies revealed that ceder oil 4% gave 100% reduction in mummies numbers. Reductions in number of fallen mummies ranged from 63.22 to 96.94, 18.93 to 81.74, and 10.11 to 68.16%, on average, for thymol, mycostatin, and oxalic acid, respectively. From the practical point of view, thymol could be recommended for controlling the CHB disease, as it is the cheapest material and proved to increase the brood nest as well. In addition, thymol has other uses in the field of apiculture.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16628894

 

[Finman]

Thymol can be quite effective for treating/clearing up chalk brood, but it is not a permanent fix.

At least you can spoil hive's honey.

Most stuffs help in chalkbrood, because it will be heal during summer by itself . Then it comes again next spring.

When chalkbrood hits in spring, it delays build up so much that the hive is not able gather normal yield.

 

[Finman]

Not quite true. Thymol at 1,000 ppm was found to totally inhibit ascphera apis for 172hrs in lab tests
Journal of apicultural research 1997, 36, 3-4, 163-168

Why then thymol is not recommend to heal shalkbrood.
Controversy it is said that there is no chemical cure against chalkbrood.

Year is 1997. In those days it was said that chalkbrood does noh kill hives.
Later it was written that chalkbrood make serious reduction in honey yield.

.

 

[Finman]

The most important in chalkbrood healing is that you get chalkbrood sensitive genes away from your apiary. You cannot treat hives with thymol during yield period.

I know from my own experinces that there are lots of chalkbrood immune bees stocks in the world. You just buy a such.

My strategy was that I kept my new queens in contaminated mating nucs (3 frames) and I killed such queens at once when the brood area was not even.

Next weapon was the spare queens. When I saw disease in the hive in spring, I killed at once the queen, and I gove new. Vain to keep sick queens, because to heal such hive does not help.

I bought from Italy queens, and I got very resistant queens.

It took 4-5 years that disease vanished from my hives.


Why it is so difficult to buy a new imported queen and tolerate the chalk in the apiary.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Thymol can be quite effective for treating/clearing up chalk brood, but it is not a permanent fix.

Learn something new every day

 

[Finman]

Learn something new every day

I did not. You cannot treat chalkbrood/honey crop with thymol.

About breeding...

I had splended Elgon hybrid 25 years ago. It did not have chalkbrood in the hive.
I reared 50 virgins from that hive. 80% out of daughter nucs were sensitive to disease.

Then I had a good Italian colony. Its daugters only 20% were sick.

I bought from Italy a queen. Its daughters 100% were healthy.

Last sign about disease was, that drone brood area was porous, even if there were no sick workers.

Carniolan bees are more resistant than Italians. I do not know about Black bees.

In ultimate cases I can put a new queen into very sick hive and it starts to make normal brood area.
.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I did not.
.

Doubt you ever do, in fact you probably refuse to.

 

[Finman]

Doubt you ever do, in fact you probably refuse to.

And somebody said that he learns every day "something new".

When I studied in university, they taught me to make difference with facts and imagination. They taught me to seek truth.

 

[SDM]

I did not. You cannot treat chalkbrood/honey crop with thymol.


.

You are unlikely to be in a position to get a honey crop early in the season from a colony suffering badly from chalk brood, so not really an issue to my mind.

You use supplemental heating don't you ? So you shouldn't see chalk brood with or without resistant genetics.

 

[Finman]

You are unlikely to be in a position to get a honey crop early in the season from a colony suffering badly from chalk brood, so not really an issue to my mind.

You use supplemental heating don't you ? So you shouldn't see chalk brood with or without resistant genetics.

A strange analysis, but do as you like.... Your hives.

That I can say that hive heating does not prevent chalkbrood.
.

 

[SDM]

A strange analysis, but do as you like.... Your hives.

That I can say that hive heating does not prevent chalkbrood.
.

Pederson (1976) Birkteren 92; 18-22

Every day is a school day.