The thing with antibiotics is they are designed to kill all micro-flora - beneficial bacteria and pathogens
No they are not. This is simply false and misleading. In fact a number of antibiotics are "designed" for particular types of apoplications, or to combat a narrow segment of the microbial world.
That's true, I mis-spoke there. I should have written
Antibiotics Kill Your Body's Good Bacteria, Too, Leading to Serious Health Risks This sets up a sterile environment, perfect for pathogens to flourish (no competition from the beneficial bacteria).
Sort of, kind of, and not exaclty. A) it is not a given that taking antibiotics will produce a secondary infection. It happens, as nothing in life is 100%, but that is where judicious use comes in. Willy nilly applications of microbiologicals is clearly unwarrented, but you are painting with too wide a brush.
As this relates to humans, animals and plant life ~ there is an opposite, probiotic approach of which I practise and am an advocate.
Offhand I can think of dozens of bugs that would do an endrun around any probiotics. I am not knocking them necessarily, thought their efficacy is often grossly overblow, but the world needs both approaches.
I am purposely being general. You're specifically referring to antibiotics in humans/animals... I'm referring to rhizospheres, phylospheres, intestinal tracts, etc., etc.,. A nutrient rich environment with no natural competition is at an increased risk of infection.
Organic agriculture utilising living, compost teas as foliar feeding is one example of an effective probiotic approach to pathogen prevention. Of course nothing is 100% in all circumstances.
I am new to beeking so I need to research/determine if/how this might apply to bees (sounds like a topic for the new organic beeking sub-board) but I would suspect that insects also have a symbiotic relationship with beneficial bacteria.
May well be, but remember, we steal their food, and anything you put into a beehive, should be something you can sell and or feed to another person. I would not be surprised if such a bnug or bugs exist, just be careful.
The beauty of probiotics (beneficial bacteria) is that they are naturally occurring and there's not necessarily a need to introduce additional. I'm not a commercial honey producer, I've not had any antibiotics in 10+ years, and no cooked foods in 5 but, yes - of course, I would do due diligence on adding
anything to the hive environment (for the bee's sake and my own). I'm fortunate to have my hives adjacent to 20+ acres of unadulterated wetlands so, although there is no 100% guarantee of protection against exposure to unnatural chemicals, I'm hopeful it will be very minimal and my bees will thrive.
& back to the general topic - I'm not trying to chastise anyone for their choice of meds. That is a personal choice and everyone needs to proceed within their own reasoning. I am just attempting to contribute an alternative... food for thought, as it were. =) (& it works for me).