- Joined
- May 29, 2018
- Messages
- 1,635
- Reaction score
- 304
- Location
- East Sussex
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 9.5
i hear people talk of sensible precautions such as cleaning hive tools between apiaries or even hives, sometimes gloves too etc to minimise risk of cross infection
all sensible, even if no visible signs of disease
but then, there are suggested actions such as balancing brood, swapping brood frames, not always giving supers back to same colony...swapping colonies to balance out strength by picking up flyers etc which clearly risk cross contamination on a much larger scale than the first categories
keen to hear thoughts as to whether this is a contradiction, or a risk people just live with out of necessity to take the action required, and i don't think its as simple as it being ok providing you check for signs of disease before swapping hives or frames etc as early stages can be easily missed.....
all sensible, even if no visible signs of disease
but then, there are suggested actions such as balancing brood, swapping brood frames, not always giving supers back to same colony...swapping colonies to balance out strength by picking up flyers etc which clearly risk cross contamination on a much larger scale than the first categories
keen to hear thoughts as to whether this is a contradiction, or a risk people just live with out of necessity to take the action required, and i don't think its as simple as it being ok providing you check for signs of disease before swapping hives or frames etc as early stages can be easily missed.....