Sterilised bees wax

[Frizzaldo]

beeswax has a flashpoint of 204 degrees C, wonder what temperature you need to heat it to kill AFB? I read somewhere it has to be kept at a temperature of over 160 for half an hour!! I can't imagine the state of the wax after all that.
By what I've seen of the prices NBS charge for most things - this looks like another ploy to separate the gullible from even more of their hard earned.

I'd imagine it works along similar principles as this, longer and lower temp achieves the same result:

https://www.amazingfoodmadeeasy.com...more/sous-vide-safety-salmonella-and-bacteria

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'd imagine it works along similar principles as this, longer and lower temp achieves the same result:

https://www.amazingfoodmadeeasy.com...more/sous-vide-safety-salmonella-and-bacteria

Don't you think if this was possible people would have thought of it by now?
I think over 30 minutes at 160 degrees would be a clue as to the minimum temperature required to kill aFB spores

 

[Murox]

All about AFB - lengthy article from Michigan State University - https://pollinators.msu.edu/resourc...ing-american-foulbrood-in-honey-bee-colonies/
"..........equipment that is not burned can be sterilized to kill spores. AFB spores can be killed by 30 minutes at 130˚C (266˚F) dry heat, by 1.5% bleach, 1.5% caustic soda in boiling water, gamma rays, and flames. It is important to remove all potentially spore laden materials including wax and propolis........."

 

[Hivemaker.]

Spore forming bacteria....https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b&q=spore+forming+bactera

 

[Into the lions den]

Looks like a new method is to hold it at 120 for 40 minutes And I’m sure not everyone is important wax from all over the world

IF its true then it is someone creating yet another false point of difference of no relevance whatsoever to 'motivate' the easily alarmed into buying their product instead of a competitors.

It does not matter one jot.

Experiments have been done rendering full blown AFB colonies wax down and milling it into foundation. Zero AFB in the colonies on the previously contaminated wax......without overt sterilisation.

 

[Into the lions den]

All about AFB - lengthy article from Michigan State University - https://pollinators.msu.edu/resourc...ing-american-foulbrood-in-honey-bee-colonies/
"..........equipment that is not burned can be sterilized to kill spores. AFB spores can be killed by 30 minutes at 130˚C (266˚F) dry heat, by 1.5% bleach, 1.5% caustic soda in boiling water, gamma rays, and flames. It is important to remove all potentially spore laden materials including wax and propolis........."

That's about sterilising equipment, not to do with processing the wax.

 

[Into the lions den]

"A healthy hive means healthy bees. Using our sterilized wax, that has been warmed to a temperature to ensure all known pathogens have been killed and spores of AFB, EFB and Nosema have been eradicated, means you can rest safe in the knowledge that your bees start the season drawing their combs in foundations made of the purest wax."

Thats taken from their site the point is its just BS........there is no evidence that afb and the like can be transmited by foundation

Stiffy he means when bees move it or maybe chew the stuff is my guess

As a great French beekeeper once said to me about this kind of scheme......'Just patter for sell'. Some will take it on board, and some will pay a premium for it.

Job done.....'K'ching!'

 

[TooBee...]

...
Experiments have been done rendering full blown AFB colonies wax down ... Zero AFB in the colonies on the previously contaminated wax......without overt sterilisation.

Could the temp. and length of time this wax (from the AFB hive) was rendered down have an affect on the AFB spores... do you have access to the research on this? I've done a quick search but can't find it.

Thanks for your input, the newbie in me was starting to panic over wax ... I'm now breathing easier

 

[TooBee...]

The subject of National Bee Supplies (NBS) sales has been brought up, so this isn't completely

What are "top travel frames", found here (bottom right, penultimate paragraph)
https://www.beekeeping.co.uk/products/live-bees-need-deposit

direct quote "The bees are supplied in a Nucleus Box with Travel Top, Frames and Foundation..."
yes, I see the comma, but with it, it doesn't make sense, actually with it, it still doesn't make sense does it mean bottom bee space or what?

 

[Hivemaker.]

What are "top travel frames", found here (bottom right, penultimate paragraph)
https://www.beekeeping.co.uk/products/live-bees-need-deposit

The bees are supplied in a Nucleus Box with Travel Top, Frames and Foundation

The travel top is a ventilated traveling screen to prevent the bees over heating while being transported.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

As a great French beekeeper once said to me about this kind of scheme......'Just patter for sell'. Some will take it on board, and some will pay a premium for it.

Job done.....'K'ching!'

PT Barnum would rub his hands with glee at the hordes of gullible 'beekeepers' with money to burn in gimics such as this:

"there's a sucker born every minute"

 

[Finman]

.
Guys should understand, that when new method/heating are starting now, with recent method the world should be full of AFB hives.

 

[Hivemaker.]

There is an old thread here about wax dipping wooden hive parts that touches on AFB.
https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38591

 

[Finman]

There is an old thread here about wax dipping wooden hive parts that touches on AFB.
https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38591

You can do the same with 3% lye in 90C.

 

[For want of a better word]

You can do the same with 3% lye in 90C.

Dr Pox advised me to dip it in Dettol.... 3% Lye at 90C... ouch!

Well.... let us all hope for a dose free 2019!

 

[Finman]

Dr Pox advised me to dip it in Dettol.... 3% Lye at 90C... ouch!
:

You think that 120C paraffin is better ?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You think that 120C paraffin is better ?

I think it would play holy hell with his prepuce

 

[Karol]

To sterilize beeswax you have to hold it at 160°C for two hours. Because beeswax has virtually no water of activation it holds bacterial spores in hibernation. There is a risk that when bees 'handle/work' with the wax, especially when they posit large volumes of water during honey production, that spores finding themselves at the wax-water interface may become activated.

Personally I think the risk is very low compared to the risk of honeybees picking up pathogens from their natural environment. I would be more concerned about heating beeswax to form polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at the sterilizing temperature which are potential carcinogens and likely to leach into honey.

 

[Finman]

There is a risk that when bees 'handle/work' with the wax, especially when they posit large volumes of water during honey production, that spores finding themselves at the wax-water interface may become activated.

Personally I think the risk is very low compared to ....

Is this clean thinking or you have some facts behind it?

 

[Beefriendly]

Is this clean thinking or you have some facts behind it?

Just more obfuscation.
The facts......It is virtually impossible for AFB contaminated beeswax to infect young larvae with sufficient AFB spores.
If I recall the biology correctly you need at least 10-15 spores per larvae ingested within the first 24 hours of larval growth. This is because AFB is a faculitve anaerobic bacterium and the ideal conditions for the spores to germinate and the bacterium to multiply are only present in the larval gut during this period. At 48 hours old they require millions of spores, thought to be due to antibiotic nature of the brood food now present in the larval gut.

However, Bees wax can be a source of viable AFB spores. "A PCR method of detecting American Foulbrood (Paenibacillus 2 larvae) in winter beehive wax debris" https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00520663/document These guys where able to culture AFB bacterium from AFB spores found in beeswax.
But the likelihood of sufficient spores ever being removed from any contaminated beeswax and then provided as food to the larvae is about the same odds as any of us living to 200 years old........