Disease Inspections

[Teemore]

Here's a question for the commercial beekeepers on the forum (I know you guys are busy at present).
How often do you inspect colonies for disease? I know it is something I am thinking about each and every time I look at a frame of brood from one of my hives or from someone else's.

I was at Gormanston yesterday and learned of a problem with two full colonies brought along to be used by people doing hive inspections as part of the exams that take place during the week. My current understanding is that the two hives and bees were provided by a commercial beekeeper. They were inspected at the start of the week by a lady visiting from England (some of you will know her) who pointed out that these two colonies were infected with AFB. This is a sound diagnosis as the lady makes inspections such as this as part of her paid employment and made a not too dissimilar diagnosis at Gormanston a few years ago...... Other visiting delegates have asked the question, how was this not spotted before the bees were brought to Gormanston? One chap suggested that "the big guys" don't have time to look in depth at each hive. Is this true?

I gather that the bees from these two hives were still flying freely yesterday despite the diagnosis of AFB at the beginning of the week.

 

[Tim1606]

Looking for signs of disease in brood and the cappings is what i do every time i look into a colony. 9 day inspections, so every 9 days during the season.

It doesn't take long to shake the odd comb here and there.

 

[beebreeder]

One chap suggested that "the big guys" don't have time to look in depth at each hive. Is this true?

I gather that the bees from these two hives were still flying freely yesterday despite the diagnosis of AFB at the beginning of the week.




As we rely on bees for part of or all of our income their health and the checking thereof becomes second nature, as Tim says when inspecting shaking frames takes seconds and its only the brood you want to look at, food frames can be left, someone should look at bio security or there could be beekeepers leaving Gormanston carrying AFB spores!

 

[Teemore]

Ta for the responses. It confirms my own thinking on the matter and reflects what I find myself doing instinctively.
A beginner recently asked me why I wasn't interested in finding a queen in a hive: I told her that eggs, larvae and brood cappings told me a lot more about the colony than looking for the queen.

 

[joctcl]

someone should look at bio security or there could be beekeepers leaving Gormanston carrying AFB spores!

Talk about stupid this isn't the first time there have been problems with inspection hives at Gormanstown either

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Cui bono...

 

[Teemore]

Talk about stupid this isn't the first time there have been problems with inspection hives at Gormanstown either

Same lady spotted it this time as well.

 

[Teemore]

Cui bono...

I don't think anyone benefits at all.

 

[joctcl]

As a paid member and supporter of FIBKA, I find it really embarrassing that something like this can even happen, particularly since this is not the first time.
This is a notifiable disease over here with very clear guidelines from the Dept. of Ag. and FIBKA on how to deal with its discovery, I hope they were carried out to the letter.

 

[Meg]

OK, thought I would clarify things a little....

AFB was found in one colony on the lawn at Gormanston during a demonstration on Monday morning. The colony had quite a bit of chalk brood and was suffering from a reasonable infestation of varroa which did not help the brood pattern and state. No scale from the AFB was found, but just a few sealed cells which did not look right and when investigated the contents were roping.

At the end of the afternoon, the other bees on the site were looked at by 2 Inspectors and an experienced 3rd person who is a commercial beekeeper and disease course teacher but unrelated to the colonies. Clean kit including disposable gloves and hive tools were used. All 6 nucs were clear of both foul broods at the time, although a number had significant chalk brood. The remaining full colony (same supplier as the first, but not the nucs) was not showing any signs of AFB or EFB.

Since the colonies had already been there for 2 days by this time and the beekeeper was unable to collect them on either Monday or Tuesday evening (work commitments), a decision was made to use the problem as a learning opportunity. Great thought was put into the risk taken, and given the state of the colonies (All queen right with plenty of stores), current situation - no robbing, and hive spacing - well spaced so unlikely to have any drifting, then they were used for demonstration of disease purposes only. Beginners were using the nucs with separate demonstrators.

The infected colony was opened twice on Tuesday (after lunch and 3.30pm) and again twice on Wednesday. On each occasion an inspector was handling the combs with disposable gloves and clean hive tools and tweezers. Anyone present at the hives were told not to touch anything but also to wash their suits and washable gloves (or destroy them) when they returned home. Only people with experience who were teaching others or in charge of association apiaries were asked to come to the demonstrations.

The hive in question was taken away on Wednesday evening when the bees had stopped flying. The other colony was left on the site but as far as I am aware, apart from being checked for disease on Monday afternoon was not opened again.

Compared to the last time a few years ago when EFB was found in 6 out of 10 boxes of bees and very few people were told about it, I think that this years experience is a great leap forward for all beekeepers who attended Gormanston and for beekeepers in Ireland (North or South). Education has to be the way forward in the fight against disease, especially when there are no or limited inspection services available.

I hope that helps everyone to understand the situation last week.

Meg

P.S. the AFB was not obvious and I would only expect an experienced person to have been able to see it at the early stage that existed in the colony.

 

[joctcl]

Thanks for the fuller information Meg but I have to disagree with the approach that was taken.

I will be writing to FIBKA and The Dept to confirm the correct course of action was followed.

FIBKA's own policy states;

If the presence of A.F.B. or E.F.B. is confirmed the beekeeper should close the hive entrance as soon as the bees have ceased flying and ensure that the hive is absolutely bee-proof.
Pour a half litre of petrol through the feed hole in the crown board to smother the bees. Ensure OMF is closed. All bees are dead in minutes.

Thoroughly test all other hives in the apiary for Foul Brood.

Dig a hole in the ground and burn the contents of the hive: dead bees, frames, combs and honey. All wooden parts should be blow torched to coffee brown with particular emphasis on all crevices.

In our own association 4 years ago we had a member who called us with suspected AFB.
Three of us showed up in TYVEK suits, disposable gloves and the owner alone manipulated the hives as we watched. Regrettably there were the obvious signs that we are all familiar with. After we killed the bees, the beekeeper agreed that everything should be burnt, frames and even brood boxes and obviously our disposable suits and gloves went into the fire.
We also reported it to the Dept. and there was a follow up by them.
The positive outcome was that that this beekeeper now has 4 healthy hives.

Forgiving the beekeeper who provided Gormanstown in the first instance, there are clear rules that need to be followed upon discovery.

It is a notifiable disease to the Department of Agriculture and there should have been a representative present at Gormanstown to verify the proper disposal has been carried out and also inspect the apiary where they came from.

Interesting and all as it may have been for those that were there from an education perspective, there is sufficient documented and video readily available already for those wanting to learn.

This should not be the way to educate beekeepers about the disease as the potential for transference by exposure to the spores to the four corners of the country far exceeds any benefit and the law is there for a reason.

 

[Meg]

Hi joctcl,

I do understand your concerns and appreciate what the policy is. However, should FIBKA then have destroyed the bees on site and dug a hole in Gormanston's lawn to burn it? Would that have been good PR and the way to go given the number of beginners around? Getting a representative from the department of Agriculture to both confirm the problem and check that it was dealt with correctly would I suspect have been a little difficult if not impossible. No one official has the training to identify this disease in Ireland - to confirm it yes, but not to identify it (unless I have been seriously mislead). The colony was tested with a lateral flow device (same as would have been used by the D of Ag) which was subsequently given to the beekeeper for them to hand over when they contacted the authorities.

You mention that there are plenty of photos and video's for people to learn about disease. Might I ask why then did you and 2 others go to an apiary to view a suspected case of AFB? Surely only one person was required to confirm the disease? Also, in the case at Gormanston, the beekeeper has already missed the disease as had the 2 demonstrators looking in the hive on Monday morning. If it had not been picked up then, then I agree there would have been a risk of spores being spread across a large area. However, as I said in my earlier post, the risk was minimal and the educational opportunity far greater.

We frequently deal with disease in the UK and practise sensible biosecurity and do not spread it around the country.

AFB is much more likely to be spread by a beekeeper within their own apiary or from apiary to apiary by not knowing they have it in the first place than from the circumstances at Gormanston. Many cases occur as a result of picking up spores in honey either at honey packing factories or when a kindly member of the public puts out the remains of their jar of honey ("produce of more than one country") to 'help' the bees.

I think it would be great if this incidence means that all beekeepers in Ireland north or south have a closer look at their bees and clean all their equipment more thoroughly in the future. A greater understanding of the disease itself and its pathology would be good too so that people are not frightened buy it but react sensibly to contain outbreaks.

If you or anyone else wishes to discuss this further, then please feel free to PM me. We can arrange to chat on the phone as well if you wish.

Best Wishe,

Meg

 

[itma]

OK, thought I would clarify things a little....

AFB was found in one colony on the lawn at Gormanston during a demonstration on Monday morning. The colony had quite a bit of chalk brood and was suffering from a reasonable infestation of varroa which did not help the brood pattern and state. No scale from the AFB was found, but just a few sealed cells which did not look right and when investigated the contents were roping.

…

It does seem somewhat strange that such a colony would be chosen by a professional beekeeper to be used for demonstrations at a national/international gathering.

And it seems even stranger that no account seems to have been taken of the spread of spores from this hive BEFORE the infection was recognised.
Such a gathering of beekeepers has the potential to spread any such infection to apiaries much much more widely than would be likely with an outbreak at any ordinary apiary.

Any info on the scale of the infection at the beekeeping operation that supplied the bees?
Had the supplier suspected that he had ANY foul brood, he shouldn't have been moving anything (let alone colonies) off site …

 

[joctcl]

Hi Meg there is no interpretation of the law when it comes to confirmed AFB, irrespective of whether its bad PR or for educational purposes no matter who or what the circumstances are.

To answer your interest in our local case we minimised the inspection to the original supplier of the bees which was 6 months previously, our local secretary who is also a neighbour to the apiary site and myself, as I was local Chairperson at the time so we had a plan both to minimise the exposure but to maximise the publicity to ensure no other local apiaries were infected. A petrified new beekeeper and seller of the bees had no clue. I had never seen it in person but had the benefit of training from an accomplished beekeeeper who has spent many years studying bee diseases and a person you know well. Only I and our secretary knew what we were looking for.
Once confirmed on the spot the course of action was swift and decisive.
We subsequently rolled out an education program to all members and gave out flyers to those who weren't even in our association but we knew had bees locally and the Department were notified and sent out an inspector.

Its a pity that FIBKA didn't take that approach for educational purposes.

If I was being flippant, if we followed what happened in Gormanstown we should have opened the hive for a couple of days for any Beek that was interested to "rubber neck" and then transported it around the parish.

I'm sorry but the provider should have been notified and, and the confirmed hive/s they should have been taken out the back where there is plenty of space, bees killed and hive set on fire.

What FIBKA have done is not followed clearly laid down procedures.

As posted I will get a full statement from both parties but as an experienced beekeeper you should not be condoning unnecessary inspection of hives to "have a look" with confirmed AFB no matter who is involved.

Whoever authorised the subsequent opening and inspection, not notifying the Department and worse still allowing them to be transported back, probably to the original apiary, is breaking the law.

John

 

[Meg]

Hi John,

The provider of the hives was informed of the disease. I understand they are near a honey packing factory so I would not be at all suprised if other colonies in the same (original) apiary are showing signs of infection as well, but who will look at them?

Here in England I have written movement licences to move colonies of bees (albeit already dead) to sites where holes can be dug. When someones apiary is on rock, then it is not possible to burn on site. Taking the hive 'out the back' at Gormanston would still constitute moving them if we applied the law as we do here.

Situations like this rarely have ideal outcomes. There was an issue at an auction in England this year where many colonies and nuclei of bees were brought to one temporary site to be sold. When looked at one of them was found to have foulbrood. Ideally they should all have been under standstill for 6 weeks at that site (the diseased ones being destroyed). This was not possible as the landowner had a weekday business to run that did not mix with bees.

What FIBKA really need to do is to have a plan for the future so that this does not happen again. Any colonies brought to the site should be fully checked a few days before they are moved in. That would save an awful lot of heartache all round.

The situation where the disease was NOT found would have been far worse for all concerned and potentially lead to several out breaks elsewhere.

To end on a positive note, I was very pleased to see that the majority of beekeepers at Gormanston this year had clean suits (new for the beginners obviously) and many had washable or disposable gloves. Still a lack of evidence for cleaning of hive tools between hives and keeping smoker bellows clean, but progress even so.

Have a good evening all.

Meg

 

[itma]

What FIBKA really need to do is to have a plan for the future so that this does not happen again. Any colonies brought to the site should be fully checked a few days before they are moved in. That would save an awful lot of heartache all round.

What strikes me as gobsmackingly slapdash is that inspection - and selection - of colonies being taken to such an event seems not have been considered worth the bother.

Even if the source apiary DIDN'T have an imported honey packing factory as a near neighbour, I'd have expected someone competent to have had a look inside the hives before showing them to the public.
But with a previously-known hazard like that, it reflects rather badly on those concerned that there should NOT be a careful pre-inspection of the demonstration colonies - before they were loaded to go anywhere.

 

[Teemore]

Hi Meg,

I'm posting to learn. I take it that the only visible evidence was a few greasy looking brood cappings? Are these easier to see in old comb or new comb?

Anything that will help beekeepers recognize AFB is to be welcomed - too many established and beginning beekeepers have no idea what it looks like and if you ever heard the discussions some of them have about it, you would realize that many, many beekeepers in Ireland (North and South), have a very cavalier attitude to disease recognition, management and containment. This is why I started this thread. I know that there are instances of AFB which are recognized but go unreported and still more that go unrecognized and unreported.

I started keeping bees in 2010 and have gone out of my way to learn about bee diseases. In that time I have identified AFB in one of my colonies and in colonies belonging to other people. On one of those occasions I spotted a few greasy looking brood cappings in a recently hived swarm. These greasy cappings were very evident on the new comb (at least I thought they were). After spotting them I shook bees off frames: there were perhaps 8 or 9 cells like this scattered through the whole brood box. The cells roped on being tested with a handy thorn.... I culled the bees and my diagnosis was confirmed in the AFBI lab after I dropped off a comb sample. My local bee inspector commented that it was unusual for someone to spot AFB so early. Of the other instances of AFB I identified, in one case it took a lot of work to convince the person who owned the bees to report the incidence of AFB.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

What strikes me as gobsmackingly slapdash is that inspection - and selection - of colonies being taken to such an event seems not have been considered worth the bother.

Even if the source apiary DIDN'T have an imported honey packing factory as a near neighbour, I'd have expected someone competent to have had a look inside the hives before showing them to the public.
But with a previously-known hazard like that, it reflects rather badly on those concerned that there should NOT be a careful pre-inspection of the demonstration colonies - before they were loaded to go anywhere.

It seems that this laissez faire attitude is cropping on both side of the Celtic sea - look at the Gloucester Bee auction fiasco.

 

[Teemore]

Just re-reading the thread: really have to agree with this:

Meg - "What FIBKA really need to do is to have a plan for the future so that this does not happen again. Any colonies brought to the site should be fully checked a few days before they are moved in. That would save an awful lot of heartache all round.

The situation where the disease was NOT found would have been far worse for all concerned and potentially lead to several out breaks elsewhere."

This reflects a lot of conversations that took place last week at Gormanston and further afield.