organic farm

[Cathy]

My bees are living at an organic farm. How can I pre-treat for foul brood organically? Should I take them off site, treat and return later?

[Andrew Dewey]

Hi Cathy,

You ought to talk with the farmer or his/her certifying organization to find out how your treating the bees will effect the farm's certification.

For what it is worth I've decided not to treat preventatively for foul brood. If/when I see signs of foul brood, I'll burn the hive. Thus far I've not seen any signs. I don't want to promote antiobiotic resistance by treating unnecessarily.

[rainesridgefarm]

USNEA is a lichen that grows in the Blue Ridge mountains. Go to your local health food store and ask them for it. Do a google search on it and you can learn more. AFB is gram positive and usnea is good for it. I have never had it so I never have treated for it.

[Aspera]

You can follow relatively simple "organic" hygiene practices. Cull 20% of your combs annually, keep bees selected for hygienic traits and avoid transferring comb from one hive to the next. Do not hive packages or swarms on drawn comb if you can avoid it. If you have never had AFB before, the classic way of contracting it is through honey feeding, the use of other peoples hiveware, and robbing. Some also recommend annually disinfecting equipment of hiveware with a 10% clorox solution and heating hives tools in your smoker before going from one yard to the next. All this is probably overkill, but it works, and requires NO antibiotics (unless you disinfect with bleach). Ask your queen supplier what they do to select for hygienic behavior (Spivak and Taber are breeders who have selected extensively for this trait).

[dickm]

The other thing about treating before you have the disease is that you'll never know whether you have the disease, or not, in your hives. It only supresses but does not cure. I can't think of anything less "Organic." There are no treatments other than antibiotics that work. If there were someone would be making millions on it. Also, some bees can handle the disease. You may have some but you'll never know if you treat.

My 2 cents,

Dick Marron

[Michael Bush]

>My bees are living at an organic farm. How can I pre-treat for foul brood organically? Should I take them off site, treat and return later?

Why? I haven't treated for AFB for 30 years. What do you intend to accomplish?

Even the mainstream bee scientists don't recommend preventive treatments for AFB anymore.

[buckbee]

I agree with Michael. The essence of 'organic' is to avoid unnecessary prophylactic treatments. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[Cathy]

Thanks for all the input. I really appreciate it and will let it go this year and see how we do.