Chronic bee paralysis overnight?

[Erichalfbee]

Perhaps the Suffolk RBI might have time to give us his thoughts? @Pete D

 

[WoodenBeam]

Would the thinking behind throwing out be the immediate disposal of anything weak leaving only the healthiest to return? Albeit a certain amount potentially still infected but then coupled with the lack of floor a sort of belt & braces approach? Only asking so don’t bite. The colonies I’ve had infected previously have pulled through with minimal attention and it has been contained to the single hive with one exception when the colony next door also succumbed. I’m hoping luck holds out for any future outbreaks which I’m sure there will be.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The trouble is twofold. You lose a heck of a lot of young healthy bees who don’t know where they live. Not all infected bees are sick enough to not get back to the hive.
I did it once. I shook the bees out into the grass and for days they huddled in ever decreasing numbers in a lump till the rain got them.
It’s awful the things you do in ignorance
Never again. I’d rather just euthanise them.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

people have been moving away (or have moved away) from the shakeout 'cure' for years, it was obviously ineffective and probably counter productive. The 'no floor' method (without the shakeout) is something new and still in its informal trialling stages, by what I hear though, from various parts of the country is that it's seeing positive results.
As for combining shakeout and no floor - to mee it sounds like a recipe for even more bewildered infected bees begging their way into other hives.
Bit like when Penicillin was discovered - but they amputated anyway - just in case.

 

[Lottie]

Not according to three RBI's when I did my DASH training last year - shaking them out at any distance was seen as pointless and foolish.

I totally get that 10 beekeepers have 10 different responses but was not expecting sbis to be of the same ilk!

 

[pargyle]

I totally get that 10 beekeepers have 10 different responses but was not expecting sbis to be of the same ilk!

They are beekeepers ! The other issue is that 'new' ideas in beekeeping do take an inordinately long time to be disseminated and even when they are there are, amongst beekeepers, those diehards who are reluctant to accept change - on the basis of what they do at present works for them.

Our national organisations are sometimes ineffective or slow in bringing new ideas and methods forward and in the case of Oxalic acid for treating varroa, for instance, are actually obstucting progress.

Is it any wonder there is a difference of ideas across even Bee Inspectors.

 

[JamezF]

They are beekeepers ! The other issue is that 'new' ideas in beekeeping do take an inordinately long time to be disseminated and even when they are there are, amongst beekeepers, those diehards who are reluctant to accept change - on the basis of what they do at present works for them.

I think you do beekeepers a minor disservice there, in that the same behaviour is quite obvious in many other fields of expertise. It's certainly evident in swimming coaching, and look how long it took for the organic movement to become fully accepted rather than being considered some sort of fringe element.

If I recall correctly it was Max Planck who suggested that progress is made "one funeral at a time"...

James

 

[Lottie]

I think you do beekeepers a minor disservice there, in that the same behaviour is quite obvious in many other fields of expertise. It's certainly evident in swimming coaching, and look how long it took for the organic movement to become fully accepted rather than being considered some sort of fringe element.

If I recall correctly it was Max Planck who suggested that progress is made "one funeral at a time"...

James

Perhaps it should have been, ' they are human after all'

 

[Lottie]

They are beekeepers ! The other issue is that 'new' ideas in beekeeping do take an inordinately long time to be disseminated and even when they are there are, amongst beekeepers, those diehards who are reluctant to accept change - on the basis of what they do at present works for them.

Our national organisations are sometimes ineffective or slow in bringing new ideas and methods forward and in the case of Oxalic acid for treating varroa, for instance, are actually obstucting progress.

Is it any wonder there is a difference of ideas across even Bee Inspectors.

You mean they are human too??

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If I recall correctly it was Max Planck who suggested that progress is made "one funeral at a time"

was he related to Max Headroom?

 

[pargyle]

I think you do beekeepers a minor disservice there, in that the same behaviour is quite obvious in many other fields of expertise. It's certainly evident in swimming coaching, and look how long it took for the organic movement to become fully accepted rather than being considered some sort of fringe element.

If I recall correctly it was Max Planck who suggested that progress is made "one funeral at a time"...

James

Perhaps ....but when we see beekeeping courses still trotting out things like "bees are better kept cold over winter, it's damp that kills bees not cold and they eat less stores over winter if they are cold" .... all things that were debunked (to my knowledge) at least 50 years ago, possibly longer.,.. I do wonder what goes on in beekeeping circles. If simple things like this are not taken note of what chance is there of more complex ideas like treating CBPV ?

Obviously, there may be other hobbies similarly affected ... I'm a woodturner (principly a craft practised by old men and some women (in my woodturning association I'm known as Young Phil - which gives you some idea of the age demographic !). There is a similarity insomuch as in woodturning there are multiple ways of achieving the same goal and a variety of techniques that can be employed to get there.

I don't see the same reluctance in people there to take on new ideas, new techniques and new bits of equipment that make a difference - just the opposite in fact - most are eager to try something new or a different way of doing things. So it's not altogether a case of 'old dogs and new tricks' or human nature generally as far as I can see.

 

[fullframe45]

This last couple of weeks one of my hives has had a significant number of dead and dying bees on the grass.This hive had the same problem a few weeks previously but it seemed to clear up. Today i sat and watched the entrance and saw several bees simply dropping out of the entrance and on to a board i placed in front. This is/was a national polly hive DB and with two supers and if memory serves me right it was united late last year and has a last years good laying queen.
From what i have read there is no guaranteed way of getting rid of paralysiss.So reluctantly today i euthanasiaed them along with frames etc. As i only have four hives i am not willing to risk it spreading ,if it has not done already.But other hives seem ok.I am assuming it was CBPV as they were showing all the sighns from what i have read,But only being in my third year and not come across it before it was panick stations.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Taking the floor away, so that dead and dying bees drop to the floor rather than being dragged out by house bees, and requeening usually works.

 

[fullframe45]

Thank you, i read about the the open floor thread and one from a previous posting ,But i am restricted with equipment and Knowledge and maybee if had a bit more confidence it would have been something i would have gone for.Maybee i was a bit too drasticBut nervous in case it got transmitted to my other hives.If it had not been for the massive ammount of information this site provides i would not have even had a clue as to what it was.But i have learnt another lesson.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Don’t worry. S h * t happens all of us. Dust yourself down. Learn from it and move on.
I only know so much about it because I’ve had it three times in the last three years.