Breeder with SAC

[BjornBee]

I have had a hard spring with some of my grafts. And I might have some circumstances playing into it.

Yesterday I went into my Carni/SMR hive and noticed that a good number of cells have SAC. I did not notice this before. Some of my takes were very poor and I had problems nailing down what was happening.

I am assuming that the bees have stayed ahead of the SAC up till this point, and I was grafting from eggs/larvae that could of been infected, but yet they were so young, I did not visible see signs at the time of grafting. And so the bees would start a graft and end up tearing all the cells down or not taking them at all.

Other grafts seemed to be fine from other queens.

SAC is a virus with no treatment and most information suggests that SAC clears in the spring. Requeening is also suggested.

Beyond general information I don't know alot about it.

My questions involve wondering if the queen herself contributes to SAC? This is a breeder queen that was bought, and is in a nuc yard with many other nucs that seem to be fine. Can SAC increase or decrease as the queen goes through her sperm, with some sperm/genetics more prone to outbreak?

I am not looking to lay blame, but would like to know if the queen was part to blame (genetics) or is this solely a management problem created by the stress of nuc production and hive manipulations as dictated by grafting, etc.

Thank you.

[Michael Palmer]

>I am not looking to lay blame, but would like to know if the queen was part to blame (genetics) or is this solely a management problem created by the stress of nuc production and hive manipulations as dictated by grafting, etc.<


I don't know for sure, but I would think it's genetics. I would call the breeder, and discuss the problem. They'll probably replace her.

[simplyhoney]

bjorn,


Any other signs of brood problems? Are the bees acting normal or slow and slugish? Is the queen looking lively? And finally, is the population of the hive increasing at a rate consistant with your spring? I only ask b/c SAC was the first sign of problems I saw late last summer that eventully was coined "CCD" But, and this is a big BUT, it was present with other brood problems, most noticably something that resembled foul brood but wasn't in addition to major population decline at a time when the bees should have been growing.
just a heads up.

SH

[mobees]

I was doing a search on google and this came up. Sac brood
seems like a pretty nasty virus to get rid off. They recommend
replacing the Queen and burning or melting the frames.


http://www.fftc.agnet.org/library/pt/2003041/

[Michael Bush]

Marla Spivak recommends getting hygienic queens.