confused over hive hygiene

[Cuckmere couple]

I read the importance of minimising risk of transfer of disease between colonies such as cleaning hive tool, not using brood comb or even supers on a different colony and even changing gloves during inspections etc.

All seems sensible, however, there are then quite a number of instances where people's advice seems to disregard these risks e.g. using swarms to draw out comb and particularly adding frames of eggs/brood to strengthen other colonies

This latter example seems to me to carry many of the risks (even if it is from a colony you trust to be disease free) people seek to avoid in the first list all in one go and yet is frequently done.

Should i just ignore this apparent inconsistency?

P

 

[enrico]

If it's all in one apiary and you are not a commercial honey farm then to be honest a good wash of tools etc after inspection of all the hives is all I do. I swap boxes and hive parts all the time so it would be impractical trying to do it after every hive. If I help at another apiary I clean tools and gloves before and after....
E

 

[Beefriendly]

Learn to recognize disease.....then if all your hives are healthy there is no way you can transfer disease between them by say moving frames, using same hive tool no changing gloves between hives etc.
If you end up with say, EFB (it happens) then all your hives in that apiary will be "quarantined" anyway.

 

[Cuckmere couple]

ok, thanks both

 

[Finman]

.
If you end up with say, EFB (it happens) then all your hives in that apiary will be "quarantined" anyway.

Stupid EFB. when you change the queen of the sick hive, that disease vanishes.

But like Bee friend said, identify the disease and act then.
.

 

[Uncle Betty]

I hope there's no copyright problem in me reproducing this from Roger Patterson's book.

There is a modern view that I have seen in print and heard from lecturers that if you sterilise your equipment between inspecting each hive you won’t get or spread foul brood, but I think this is a wrong and very dangerous approach. This gives the impression to beekeepers that you don’t have to look for disease, just sterilise everything and you won’t get it. Now let’s think about this logically and bear in mind that your bees can easily be infected without your help. Sterilisation is only likely to be effective if you have foul brood in the first place, so why not look for it? I always encourage people to check one frame with brood in all stages in every colony at every inspection, the unsealed brood for EFB and sealed brood for AFB. I think that is a much more sensible approach and it should be a habit, takes no time at all, aids your learning and awareness of what’s happening in the colony and is likely to detect the disease at an early stage. There is the added benefit that you will learn about other diseases as well. Sterilising hive tools, smokers and protective equipment together with good apiary hygiene will certainly focus the mind on disease, but they probably won’t prevent its spread if you already have it and don’t notice it, so I repeat that in my view it would be much better to know what healthy brood looks like and to learn about diseases and how to recognise and deal with them.

Patterson, Roger. Beekeeping: A Practical Guide (p. 142). Constable Robinson. Kindle Edition.

 

[B+.]

Should i just ignore this apparent inconsistency?

It's probably best to think of hygiene not so much at the hive, but at the apiary level. That allows you to move things around to an extent. Drones will move from hive to hive anyway, so, changing gloves between hives is probably a bit over the top (unless you notice disease in one of your colonies, but then, you should be taking action on that hive anyway).
If you are in a high-risk area, you may face disease more often than others who live in a low-risk area. You may have to intervene more too.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

not using brood comb or even supers on a different colony and even changing gloves during inspections etc.
P

sounds like the ramblings of a certain person on the BBKA facebook page who claims to be a 'bee farmer' whatever that means. I think you need to take such advice with a large pinch of saltWhere do you stop? should you change bee suits, not between apiaries but between each hive?
Use a bit of common sense, that's all that is required, clean gloves and tools between each apiary (I have a bucket of washing soda water and tools for each site) and remember what most people forget - clean the bellows of your smoker where you hold it.

 

[madasafish]

Drones travel between hives. So a drone with AFB may be capable of infecting other hives? Is this possible?

 

[Cuckmere couple]

sounds like the ramblings of a certain person on the BBKA facebook page who claims to be a 'bee farmer' whatever that means. I think you need to take such advice with a large pinch of saltWhere do you stop? should you change bee suits, not between apiaries but between each hive?
Use a bit of common sense, that's all that is required, clean gloves and tools between each apiary (I have a bucket of washing soda water and tools for each site) and remember what most people forget - clean the bellows of your smoker where you hold it.

thanks...all sensible stuff and also am using the bucket of soda...

 

[Finman]

Drones travel between hives. So a drone with AFB may be capable of infecting other hives? Is this possible?

First time when I see that.
.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

thanks...all sensible stuff and also am using the bucket of soda...

Bucket of water and washing soda with dish washing brush and hive tool at each location - also helps as I invariably used to forget to put the hive tool in the truck before setting out. Hive tool gets a quick scrub when taken out of water (a seven day soak gets rid of all the stuff accumulated at last inspection) I wear marigolds now rather than inspect bare handed as they are easier to scrub clean in soda than skin so at the end of inspections they get a good scrub in the bucket (easier when you're wearing them) thus they are nice and clean for the next apiary.

 

[oliver90owner]

Common sense would have prevailed had he/she not been killed off years ago.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Drones travel between hives. So a drone with AFB may be capable of infecting other hives? Is this possible?

We were told at a VERY well-sourced talk at our BKA that in certain circumstances you can get food transfer FROM drones. I will try and get the source.

 

[madasafish]

s
Use a bit of common sense, that's all that is required, clean gloves and tools between each apiary (I have a bucket of washing soda water and tools for each site) and remember what most people forget - clean the bellows of your smoker where you hold it.

I cover that part of the bellows with masking tape and change it regularly. Saves all that cleaning (a tip from a BI)

 

[Finman]

We were told at a VERY well-sourced talk at our BKA that in certain circumstances you can get food transfer FROM drones. I will try and get the source.

Drones tranfer food to another hive?

It has been researched that drifting and robbing by workers move AFB to another hives. But if you have a sick hive, it does not meant that all 20 hives in your apiary are soon sick.

I wonder, how many of you have had AFB and do you know what are you talking about?
.
And about another diseases, they do not spread like AFB. Nosema is one, which drift and varroa. But washing hands does not help.

And everybody should act like they have AFB all the time.... You are kidding. Jesus said 2000 years ago: Only sick needs healing.

.

 

[madasafish]

Drones tranfer food to another hive?

It has been researched that drifting and robbing by workers move AFB to another hives. But if you have a sick hive, it does not meant that all 20 hives in your apiary are soon sick.

I wonder, how many of you have had AFB and do you know what are you talking about?
.
And about another diseases, they do not spread like AFB. Nosema is one, which drift and varroa. But washing hands does not help.

And everybody should act like they have AFB all the time.... You are kidding. Jesus said 2000 years ago: Only sick needs healing.

.

Yes have had AFB in 2015. lost 6 out 0f 7 hives.

 

[Finman]

Yes have had AFB in 2015. lost 6 out 0f 7 hives.

That is bad. I have done many stupid things with AFB. One is to feed uncapping wax honey back to bees. Sun melter is bad place too, if bees can suck its juices and melted combs. Sun melter need a good hygienic maintenance.

 

[citrus]

Use a bit of common sense, that's all that is required, clean gloves and tools between each apiary (I have a bucket of washing soda water and tools for each site) and remember what most people forget - clean the bellows of your smoker where you hold it.

picking up this old thread ... but if I have one apiary (4 hives) ... could argue I dont need to clean the gloves or tools at all ? ......

..... reason i ask is that if the marigolds get stung on hive 1 .... when i move to hive 2 i am carrying that scent so was thinking about washing between hives ( in one apiary)

 

[madasafish]

Just smoke your marigolds when they are stung: hides the scent
Edit: I do that to my hands.