Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => DISEASE & PEST CONTROL => Topic started by: romduck on May 08, 2010, 08:33:27 am
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Cleaning out from AFB last year.
How burned do the insides of the hive bodies have to be? Black char or just “toasty”?
Also, Most frames are going in the garbage, but can I save a few that are comb only (no honey / pollen) and didn’t get much traffic? What if I scrape out the wax and just leave the foundation?
Any thoughts / experience?
-Rom
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For confirmed foulbrood, I would simply start a nice fire and toss everything in and start with all new stuff. No sense in running the risk of spreading it.
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Ditto on stopping the spread. If you know you had it, don't chance spreading it around. Clean your tools also.
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AFB spores die in 130C temp. When you flame the surfaces, it is enough that resins and wax boil.
Plastic and metal tools you may handle with 3% lye solution. After handling wash the lye away.
Old frames you may boil in the 3% lye.
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I advise check your state laws. Arkansas allows only dig a hole burn the hive completely and bury. State inspectors may be a resource, if you have them, for education in this area.
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You have AFB in a Hive dig a pit about three feet deep put everything in it frames dead bees hive bodies suppers and use 1part gas 2 parts diesel light a match and watch it burn.
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It should also be noted that you can treat (save) your infected hive. It was known in the time of CC Miller, CP Dadant, M Quinby, J Dzierzon and LL Langstroth (or discovered about that time and commented on by all) that you can shake all adult bees from the hive onto non-infected combs or foundation and the disease will more or less clear itself. Effectively, you are removing all of the brood from the colony.
It's most effective to do this twice and destroy all the old comb. Woodenware needs no further treatment, per the documentation of the time.
The laws in your state, however, probably tell you to scorch your wood. You need only enough to "toast" it - slight discoloration.
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I try to run a very clean operation by not buying and implimenting old used equipment.
And as my operation ages, I know the potential to have AFB grows.
But to diminish the possibility I try to replace combs as they age on a 5-6 year cycle, and clean frames as Finski as stated (nice work Finski).
I have done my homework on the disease. I have read the old timers papers and even the aussy paper that describes the "Shake Method" to "clean-up" AFB. But its pretty tough to eliminate all the spores when the bees themselves are active carriers of the spores in their honey guts. I've also have been in numerous camps that toted the use of medications in various on-label and off-label methods. The immediate results are the same, the symptoms subside, but ultimately, the disease returns.
The bottom line is there are numerous ways to diminish the number of spores in the colony to supress the disease enough to make it appear that the disease is gone. But often it is just in hiding, and microscopic spores can easily hide in places we don't see or consider. The safest bet is to burn everything wood, and boil everything else as Finski described.
Why worry about saving a little bit of equipment, if you're going to have replace more costly bees each season? (plus, you become an unfriendly disease reservoir to infect other colonies around you.)