Frame swapping

[user 20297]

Having been hit by a foulbroof in one apiary, a contributor to this forum, who produces an ongoing series of beekeeping videos on You Tube, has decided that frames will not be exchanged between hives from now on. I'm not sure that policy will be viable for very long, and he accepts that this is a bit of an overreaction to the horrible experience of destroying infected colonies. He is combining this with a very stringent hygiene regime in all other respects, but is it futile when bees from your own and from other colonies mingle so much by their nature?

A related matter is that he's pointing out that using bait hives with a frame of old comb as a lure may be one of the most significant ways to spread EFB. I'm not sure about that, but certainly, inviting all the bees in the neighbourhood to inspect an undefended beehive in your apiary could be construed as "looking for trouble".

 

[Newbeeneil]

Having been hit by a foulbroof in one apiary, a contributor to this forum, who produces an ongoing series of beekeeping videos on You Tube, has decided that frames will not be exchanged between hives from now on. I'm not sure that policy will be viable for very long, and he accepts that this is a bit of an overreaction to the horrible experience of destroying infected colonies. He is combining this with a very stringent hygiene regime in all other respects, but is it futile when bees from your own and from other colonies mingle so much by their nature?

A related matter is that he's pointing out that using bait hives with a frame of old comb as a lure may be one of the most significant ways to spread EFB. I'm not sure about that, but certainly, inviting all the bees in the neighbourhood to inspect an undefended beehive in your apiary could be construed as "looking for trouble".

I think being biosecure at hive level is almost impossible as one hive may need 5 supers this year but only one next where as the reverse maybe the case with the adjacent one. A point I put to the chair of a BKA who wanted their teaching apiary ran at hive level.
Since having 2 cases of EFB in 3 years I keep my apiaries biosecure which I assume is what most commercial beekeepers do.
With regard to bait hives, I am confident that the "manky" frame of brood I insert is desease free but as pointed out you can not be so sure about any visitors and the final residents. That is why any swarms or bait hive captures are left in my isolation apiary until they have proved to be healthy.
The important thing is to be able to recognise any desease early and be able to contain the outbreak.