diseases in spring?

[RoseCottage]

So I am almost not going to ask this question as I know I am likely to reveal that I haven't been listening in class...


Besides Varroa are there any checks I should especially carry out for diseases that may manifest themselves in spring having incubated over the winter? Do any diseases thrive during the winter break - Varroa, foul brood, efb/afb, etc?

All thoughts are appreciated,

Sam

 

[Midland Beek]

The foulbroods are often more spottable on account of the challenges a colony might face during spring build-up. And there are fewer bees, which in itself makes the foulbroods more spottable.

 

[Skyhook]

Failure to build up can be a sign of nosema.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Not a disease, but starvation - according to Hooper bees staggering from side to side as they leave the hive to die, or just staying still on the frame, many with heads in cells

 

[Chris Luck]

Do any diseases thrive during the winter break - Varroa, foul brood, efb/afb, etc?

Being pedantic, (why spoil a habit of a lifetime?), Varroa isn't a disease and they don't actually kill bees.

et je suis completement en accord avec Monsieur Abeille, starvation is always a threat until fresh supplies are being provided in sufficient quantities.

Chris

 

[RoseCottage]

Chris....ok so I am a sloppy writer sometimes...brain to fingers is the weak link.

Mind you ... what if already deformed with short wings from an attack in the cell, a bee with a mite on her, loses her footing and falls from the top of the hive...

Depending on her age it could result in a nasty twist of the ankles or worse much worse...

Sam

 

[Hombre]

Osteoporosis appears not to be a general problem due to bees not being overweight or generally clumsy like us mere mortals.

I appreciate your concern for a potentially twisted tarsal though,

 

[Finman]

.
Disease identificiation does not go that way that you try to find something in spring, summer or autumn...

Nosema has done its dirty job during winter.When bees can fly and make continously their poo, nosema will disappear.

In spring brood area is often sporous and difficult to say why.

In summer spotty brood area makes to look out, what is on the bottom of empty cells. Internal breeding may cause those spots too. If weathers are bad, bees go into saving mode and eate some larvae and stop rearing them.

Starvation is a dead hive. Low food store is one thing to look for. It happens in one second. Bees cannot starve many hours when the colony dies.

The meaning is not to handle mites all the time. Makes no sence. There are several proper time during a year when it is better to act. Mites are allways there but does not mean that you are acting all the time and make more harm han the mite.

Chalk brood appears in spring if it appears. It is easy to notice when you see grey odd things in front of hive. Porours brood area too. But that you see in one second.

'''''''''''''

In spring you take care that the hive is warm and you enlarge the hive in right time. Better to enlarge later than early.

If food stores are too much, take some off, if stores are low, give more.
Minimum stores are 2 full food frames in the box. 4 is too much and it takes room from brooding.

.

 

[louiseww]

Yes Chris (now I am blonde too, albeit with a PhD so please speak loudly and clearly)
Varroa is actually a parasite and all good parasites do not kill the host (in theory!)
Louise

 

[Chris Luck]

I'll see what I can do Louise, probably a bit like some Brits do when speaking to the French in English, just shout at them. Tell you what, I'll write slowly.

Your point about parasites is, as I guess you know better than me, only a half truth. Some, such as ticks, will be carriers of diseases which can be fatal to host species.

Others will definitely kill their host species but never in enough numbers to threaten the overall host population. A favourite of mine which we have in large numbers here is the Violet oil beetle. The female places her eggs on plants that will produce flowers that attract solitary bees. The larvae, which has three claws, climbs up to the flower when it opens, waits for a solitary bee to land, attaches itself to it and is thereby transported into the bees egg chamber where it consumes both the food and the bee larvae.

The Varroa mite, AFAIK, doesn't really fall into either of those categories as such and would appear to simply weaken colonies making them susceptible to disease or allegedly in some cases to prevent brood development , perhaps this is in those colonies that are already weakened for other reasons.

I'll try not to drone on about it, but my bees seem to manage without treatment.

Chris

 

[BobH1]

Varroa is actually a parasite and all good parasites do not kill the host (in theory!)

The problem of course is that the Varoa mite is not a "good" parasite, but an exotic introduced to the Apis Mellifera by man.

Currently the mite and western honey bee have not evolved a balance of toleration. It has been postulated that the lowering virulence of the mite and the increasing "hygenic behaviour" of the bee are signs of the evolution of the necessary balance

 

[Chris Luck]

Currently the mite and western honey bee have not evolved a balance of toleration.

Again apparently something of a half truth at best as I have posted elsewhere about the situation in France...

http://www.apimondia.org/2009/bee-health/symposia/Honeybees%20surviving%20Varroa%20destructor%20infestations%20in%20France%20-%20LE%20CONTE%20Yves.pdf

Chris

 

[BobH1]

Chris,
As your man in France says: "Some Honeybee strains can survive to the varroa mite in France"
So currently not all honeybees can or will.
The Apis Mellifera and Varroa mite have not yet evolved a succesful coexistance. However I suggest this is evolution in action (which is one of the points I was making). Those strains that can survive will survive. Those that can't, won't. Eventually the only strains around will be those that can survive.
All that of course assumes man does not intervene to prolong the survival of the unsuccessful!

 

[Finman]

Chris,
As your man says: "Some Honeybee strains can survive to the varroa mite in xxxx"
!

That has been said so many time and many years.

Some wrote 15 years ago: " It is easy to breed varroa resistant stock"

In every country some one has "breeded tolerant stock"

BUT where is it now?

 

[Chris Luck]

In every country some one has "breeded tolerant stock"

BUT where is it now?

Errr, everywhere? I certainly have bees that manage OK and large numbers of bee keepers here don't treat and find no difference in colony survival, the INRA study results are the norm.

Bee colonies "fail" for one reason or another all the time and that should be seen as a good thing not a problem, if they didn't we would be buried in bees.

Chris

 

[Heather]

I have evidence of K wing in one colony- getting them under a microscope tomorrow when warm enough to reopen the hive. There are no wandering lost bees outside the hive which typifies Acarine so fingers crossed