chalkbrood aftermath

[clarkfarm]

If it is certain that hive equipment was used with a colony that had chalkbrood problems, what, if anything, needs to be done to make that equipment safe for use with OTHER bees -- the affected bees are no longer an issue.

I intend to trash and burn the 3 old frames that came with the affected bees in a nuc but want to know about my other equipment which was new when used for only 3 months with these bees. (Yes, now I wish I had immediately requeened last Spring when these bees first showed CB problems right after I brought them home but alas . . .).

I searched on this forum but couldn't find anything recent. The old threads I found showed some people do nothing but some use bleach. If anyone on here has had either positive or negative experience with reusing equipment from a hive that had the CB fungus or has read any recent articles on this subject, I would appreciate your advice. My other two hives (one 2 years old and one a swarm from that) are very strong and successful so far and I don't want to give them CB issues. Thanks. I appreciate this forum.

[Grid]

Google is our friend. :)

"Chalkbrood Treatment: Good husbandry is important; hives should be kept well ventilated and free from damp, with plenty of food. Where persistant chalkbrood infections occur re-queening is advisable."

I never heard of anyone burning their gear for anything other than foulbrood. I have heard of people increasing the ventilation and having chalkbrood go away.

Grid.

[clarkfarm]

Grid - thank you for your reply. I had good ventilation. May was damp here but other hives were not affected. I am a second year beekeeper so have a lot to learn but I suspect there were not enough bees with the nuc to keep the brood warm considering the frames obviously had CB fungus on them.

In hindsight, I think the only solution in my case was to requeen but everything seemed to clear up for awhile so I just procrastinated. Last week heavy loss of larva again. Want to avoid it in the future but if I get it in another hive, I will definitely requeen. But now, to bleach or not bleach. Will only burn 3 old frames. May not be necessary but it will make me happy.

[topdog17]

I made a simalar post a while back about old comb that carried chalkbrood. I was advised to get rid of it but I decided to do just what you are wanting to do, I soaked them in bleach water over night. After I soaked the frames with comb in the bleach water they looked very nasty and kinda gooey like. I shook all the water out of the comb and laid them back by the beehives and the bees seem to take to them and started cleaning them. I let them do this for a couple of days and inserted two of them into one of my hives. I checked yesterday and the queen had laid almost a full frame of eggs in one and the bees had moved nectar into it also. So, so far so good, i will have to let you know later how the eggs develope or if I have any problems.

[clarkfarm]

TopDog - Thanks. I am going to try this with the bleach. Most of the frames in one box are now empty comb with the occasional capped cell, some pollen and some nectar. The other box has capped "honey" which is undoubtedly mostly sugar syrup as I have been feeding this hive a lot. So it may well make a mess but its worth a try. You didn't mention the bottom board, but I am going to wash it down with bleach and put it in the sun. Please do let me know how your hive does with the cleaned frames. Sounds good so far. I don't need mine right now so will store them for the future. Actually there are a few bees left so got to deal wit that first. Cheers.

[beedeetee]

All of my deeps older than 5-6 years have had chalkbrood. I had it pretty bad 5-10 years ago. I ended up changing queen breeders and it went away. I never did anything with the frames and I haven't seen one or two mummies a year. So you don't have to do anything except get hygienic queens.

[Michael Palmer]

So you don't have to do anything except get hygienic queens.

So true. I used to have a chalk problem. Many stinky rotten colonies. Once I started breeding bees from those colonies that didn't show chalk...when many others did...the problem all but disappeared. Even this year, with all the rain, I've seen only a small increase in the amount of chalky colonies. It really is all about the queens.

[beedeetee]

Chalkbrood is a frustrating problem. Back when I had it so bad I assumed it was from our damp long springs. We do have very dry July an August months though. The year that I decided to find a new queen producer I had a hive that always had a few mummies even into August. The hive was dwindling but in July I looked and saw several frames packed with capped brood. The pattern was great.

In August I looked and it was still dwindling. I looked and saw several frames of capped brood. The same frames. I took my hive tool and started raking the cappings off and found sheets of capped chalkbrood mummies. That day I killed the queen and put the boxes on another strong hive that I had with newspaper in between.

In two days I found a huge pile of chalkbrood mummies in front of the hive. They had cleaned out every cell. That hive never got chalkbrood and that is when I decided it was the queens.