Chalkbrood

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Skylark

New Bee
Joined
Jul 19, 2011
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Location
Bakewell
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
1
I'm halfway treating for varoa and inspected today and noticed quite a bit of chalkbrood. The guy from the local association who sold me api guard said to block the bottom vent with newspaper to make the stink of the apiguard higher so the bees take it out, but I'm wondering is this causing hot damp conditions in the hive and causing the chalkbrood.
Advice on treatment or remedy please.
 
Chalkbrood is a fungus which is present in most hives, but the bees manage to get along just fine, however some strains are susceptible and the only cure is to requeen, which is a problem this time of year for obvious reasons (no queens available).

So they may recover, but generally they won't as the strain of queen and her offspring are susceptible to it.
 
autumn requeening is a relatively common practice out in the real world AFAIK.
just seems amateur UK beeks aren't in the loop.

Norton - what proportion of your output goes for sept/oct requeening?

just done a quick search and found a post from our old friend finman - he requeens 1/3 of hives during feeding period.

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2348
 
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I've just ordered some of the Bee Vital Chalkbrood treatment is it worth giving that a go first. Also I read a few teaspoons of salt can work.
Or are they doomed without a new queen.
Dont know about bees being stressed I certainly am after first year of beekeeping !!!
 
I think that you need to change the genetics to be on the safe side.

About 50% of our production is used to requeen colonies in the fall. Most of these are sold in Greece when the beekeepers come back from the pine honeydew flow, the colonies are "whacked out" and the beekeepers want to boost the colonies before winter.

Believe me there is nothing like a well bred 6-10 month old queen for spring build-up!
 
I'm halfway treating for varoa and inspected today and noticed quite a bit of chalkbrood. The guy from the local association who sold me api guard said to block the bottom vent with newspaper to make the stink of the apiguard higher so the bees take it out, but I'm wondering is this causing hot damp conditions in the hive and causing the chalkbrood.
Advice on treatment or remedy please.

I have seen v bad chalkbrood when bees are packed/congested in nuclei with v small entrances, no OMF, bad or non-existent ventilation (high humidity).
 
I'm halfway treating for varoa and inspected today and noticed quite a bit of chalkbrood. The guy from the local association who sold me api guard said to block the bottom vent with newspaper to make the stink of the apiguard higher so the bees take it out, but I'm wondering is this causing hot damp conditions in the hive and causing the chalkbrood.
Advice on treatment or remedy please.

How much is quite a bit, I had a few colonies showing signs perhaps 10 to 15 per frame over seven frames of brood ( only a guestimate)
They may well sort their self out as a couple of my hives did last autum although i did treat with Bee Vital in the spring ( not sure it did any good though ) and still got a nearly full bottle of the stuff
 

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