EFB, distances and amount of forage

[meidel]

A while back I got an email from NBU with a warning that an outbreak of EFB had been confirmed within a 3km radius of our apiary. Since then nothing - I guess the bee inspectors have been kept really busy.

Meanwhile we've been on disease workshops and checked our colonies and even had our mentor come down to check 3 of the colonies - clean bill of health.

A few days ago i visited someone's home apiary about 3 kms from the diseased apiary and they themselves also about 3 kms from us. I suspected it wasn't the healthiest of colonies - the symptoms - a cheesy whiff, some larvae standing up in cells, a small hard whitish lump in one of the larvae tweezered out. Most larvae when tweezered out came out in a mushy dribble and scales on the lower edges of cells. We left a message with our RBI (regional bee inspector) who called back the next day and assured the beek not to worry until the area bee inspector came back from her hols in a week's time.

I wondered why those bees succumbed to disease when ours which are also just as near to the first diseased apiary didn't. Does it have something to do with availability of forage ie because there was more to forage within our area, our bees didn't have to go in the direction of the others? Or is it just a matter of time and with the coming dearth of forage, we're also likely to succumb?

 

[Heather]

Hope you washed your suit- dumped your gloves and scrubbed your boots. Sounds nasty

 

[Finman]

.

EFB is not a problem. When you get a queen from EFB RESISTANT STOCK, you have nothing to worry about.

I wonder why the British keep those bees which do not stand the disease. Many are willing to breed mite resistant bees but Why you do not use EFB resistant bees? Is it so nice to burn hives or what is the reason?

 

[meidel]

Came home and stripped off at the washing machine - threw in a couple of hypochlorite tablets with washing liquid. Scrubbed and soaked wellies in kitchen sink with about 10 of those tablets for about a couple of hours. Had a quick shower too - was that too much do you think?

Well certainly the queen chose to lay in the frames furthest away from the diseased frames ... actually i understand we only petrol the bees, burn the frames but blowtorch the wooden hive or sterilise in other ways if not wooden. Can you get AFB resistant bees? I think it's with AFB that you have to have a burning pile of hives and all

 

[Chris Luck]

EFB isn't considered to really be an issue in France and I always understood that strong colonies would get over it but hey ho, this isn't the UK where everything is different, (some good and some bad). Probably spread from hive to hive more by keepers than any other method.

Chris

 

[Luminos]

EFB isn't considered to really be an issue in France and I always understood that strong colonies would get over it but hey ho, this isn't the UK where everything is different, (some good and some bad). Probably spread from hove to hive more by keepers than any other method.

Chris

Nah. Meidel's in London, not Hove

 

[For want of a better word]

Fear of the Black Death created total panic across europe... even communities that totally isolated themselves became victims , until the intervention of modern antibiotics.....
EFB as with smallpox it seems, absolute and total eradication will be the only answer

From the little I have read about EFB it seems that a rigorous effort in eradicating the disease [ in the UK ] is being hampered by zealots who refuse to register on Beebase and keep small poxy colonies that are possibly the harbourers of the disease.

Rigours cleaning and virtual barrier nursing of each hive , let alone each apiary, must be something we all need to address?

 

[Chris Luck]

Don't forget total extermination of all feral unmanaged colonies.

Can't be letting wildlife or nature get in the way of our brave new world.

Chris

 

[MuswellMetro]

A while back I got an email from NBU with a warning that an outbreak of EFB had been confirmed within a 3km radius of our apiary. Since then nothing - I guess the bee inspectors have been kept really busy.

Meanwhile we've been on disease workshops and checked our colonies and even had our mentor come down to check 3 of the colonies - clean bill of health.

A few days ago i visited someone's home apiary about 3 kms from the diseased apiary and they themselves also about 3 kms from us. I suspected it wasn't the healthiest of colonies - the symptoms - a cheesy whiff, some larvae standing up in cells, a small hard whitish lump in one of the larvae tweezered out. Most larvae when tweezered out came out in a mushy dribble and scales on the lower edges of cells. We left a message with our RBI (regional bee inspector) who called back the next day and assured the beek not to worry until the area bee inspector came back from her hols in a week's time.

I wondered why those bees succumbed to disease when ours which are also just as near to the first diseased apiary didn't. Does it have something to do with availability of forage ie because there was more to forage within our area, our bees didn't have to go in the direction of the others? Or is it just a matter of time and with the coming dearth of forage, we're also likely to succumb?

Heard of a very similar case not far from you in South Finchley....very worrying, Caroline the SBI is visiting next week

keep your bio security high, don't cross contaminate between apiaries

My apiary did not get a 3km note but it is within 5km warning zone, so the EFB is your side of Mill Hill East station towards frith manor school

 

[meidel]

It's probably not too late to shook swarm and feed feed feed IF the colony has EFB?

As far as I know we're very careful - ie when visiting the association apiary, we only wear the suits and gloves which are there - we also dont wear the same shoes as we use in our own apiary. Each hive at the assoc apiary also has its own hive tool. We also have a bucket of soda at our apiary to clean equipment and gloves between hives.

 

[Chris Luck]

Simple for me, I don't let anyone else touch my hives and I don't touch other peoples hives.

Chris

 

[meidel]

Simple for me, I don't let anyone else touch my hives and I don't touch other peoples hives.

Chris

and you think other drones don't visit your hives or your drones go to other hives - or maybe you're far away enough to be isolated in your own disease free zone - jammy b*gg*r

 

[meidel]

My apiary did not get a 3km note but it is within 5km warning zone, so the EFB is your side of Mill Hill East station towards frith manor school

My friend's home apiary is near Woodhouse College.... as far as I know the chap who my OH got his first bees from (whose queen subsequently drowned, ie Blackie's mum) lives very near the area. But his hives have been fine.

 

[Chris Luck]

and you think other drones don't visit your hives or your drones go to other hives - or maybe you're far away enough to be isolated in your own disease free zone - jammy b*gg*r

Of course other drones visit my apiaries but the main cause of the spread of EFB is from dirty equipment, but as I also said earlier, it's not considered to be a serious disease in France and never used to be in the UK as I recall. Strong colonies should get over it...

....but I suppose I am a jammy b*gg*r anyway, at least here I don't have everyone wanting to report me to the bee police.

Chris

 

[meidel]

bee police!!

I think that's another misconception - the RBI was very reassuring when he spoke to my friend. And anyway it just makes everyone more conscious of hygiene

 

[meidel]

for some reason duplicated the last message

 

[meidel]

Neither my friend nor I have ever visited each other's apiary before now, we've only ever met at our association apiary. We can only think the EFB has spread through the bees as we've never even been to the other diseased apiary which we got the notification about from the NBU.

 

[Chris Luck]

Neither my friend nor I have ever visited each other's apiary before now, we've only ever met at our association apiary. We can only think the EFB has spread through the bees as we've never even been to the other diseased apiary which we got the notification about from the NBU.

I didn't think you had EFB, I thought you suspected your friend had?

So are you saying both you and your friend have EFB?

Chris

 

[Chris Luck]

The reason why I made the quip about being reported to the bee police is because there have been many instances of people on this forum making such a suggestion about reporting other keepers and the manner on which they choose to manage their colonies. Frankly there are enough control freaks in charge all ready without encouraging them.

Chris

 

[Polyanwood]

I have heard beekeepers say that EFB exists at very low levels in most colonies. Do people think this is true?

My neighbour has EFB most years. I've never had it, and I've had more than my fair share of RBI visits. I follow the Fin's advice and try to keep big colonies.