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Author Topic: Ok I have some sort of brood disease  (Read 2310 times)

Offline Haddon

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Ok I have some sort of brood disease
« on: June 06, 2011, 10:47:43 am »
The hive that I queened with the VSH queen from kelly is having problems.
The queen is been in there about 2 weeks I guess and she is still there.
on the outer frames I saw dead brood and very spotty some of the brood seem to be growing out of the cells too. I didn't smell anything and I looked for  the ropey test but didnt seem to be roping.
I had dead ones of different sizes some with black spots some look to be shriveling up but all seemed to be still moist. They all seem to be different so its hard for me to say these are the symptoms but I could pull all the larva out with a stick and they stayed together well so much so it would have been hard to mush them up. They didn't have that clear sac brood appearance.

Now this hive went queen-less weeks ago and stayed that way for a few weeks population seems to have drop off sharp in the last week or so too.
Could it just be neglected brood dieing off because of the population drop in the hive.


Offline Kathyp

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Re: Ok I have some sort of brood disease
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2011, 11:17:36 am »
do you see dried up grayish things on the bottom board or being pulled out.
 
http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1680&bih=881&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g2&oq=&q=chalkbrood

if it is chalkbrood, it can slow down a hive and in rare cases,  kill it.  requeening is often recommended, but i have not found it to be useful.  chalkbrood is caused by a fungus and so is usually self limiting.  when the conditions that are favorable for this fungal growth are gone, the chalkbrood disappears  ....but you may see it year after year.

i hear that you guys are also having weather issues that are making forage scarce?  you might try feeding and see if you can stimulate that queen.

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Could it just be neglected brood dieing off because of the population drop in the hive.

yes....is most of it together and in places where the bees might not have spread to tend the brood?
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Offline fish_stix

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Re: Ok I have some sort of brood disease
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2011, 02:19:20 pm »
If it's chalkbrood try ventilating the hive better. Fungus grows best in moist places. We've had best results with chalkbrood by just giving them a good flow of air; screened bottom board and prop the top up a little if your climate allows.

Offline Haddon

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Re: Ok I have some sort of brood disease
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2011, 04:03:24 pm »
The outer larva was the worst looking meaning the ones on the outer frames with very few bees on them.
The inter frames had eggs and c shaped ones healthy looking. Strangest one was the larva that had seemed to grow clean out of the cell like drones laid in worker cells maybe my queen was shooting drone at first I don't know most I do know is to give them time see if they can fix it themselves might get better when some of the VSH works start hatching out.

And yeah the flow is dead I have a friend here that says his are still bringing in nectar but mine is non existent. Sugar water on all the hives although I did cut back on the sugar water on the hive in question because of robbers hanging around the board feeder but that hive was the only one with honey stores so I thought they would be okay. Its so dry that last night I was making a 5 gallon feeder tank/filler  because the 1 gallon tea pitcher I normally use to fill the quart feeders was to small ( I only have 5 small nuc strength hives too). I am glad I bought sugar last thanks giving when it was cheap the 4 pound bags I am using only cost me 1.60 a piece.