Brood disease

[dixiedogger]

I was inspecting some hives today and one of my strongest hives with the most honey supers seems to have a brood disease. I am hoping it is not the dreaded foul brood. I noticed it most in drone cells. The caps were darker and when I started pulling the mummies out. The bee would move around a little but was darker than it should be I think. What does this sound like? Also looked like it is going to swarm. Found 2 capped queen cells. I was going to split it but now I am scared that I would just be spreading foul brood to more equipment.

[DRUR]

The following information is from the University of Tenn. extension service short course on beekeeping PB 1745.
My understanding is that terrimycan is no longer available, but duramyacin has been substituted as a treatment. This is probably available at you local farm and ranch supply. Email me at dannyrunger@cs.com and put Re: to foul brood and I can try to email this short course to you. See below the excerpt dealing with foulbrood.

Danny


American Foulbrood
American foulbrood is a disease of honeybee
brood caused by the bacterium Paenobacillus larvae.
Symptoms of the disease include a spotty brood
pattern; concave, punctured capped brood cells;
discolored larvae; dried, shrunken brood (called
scales) stuck tightly onto the bottom of cells; and an
unpleasant odor. The disease is spread by long-lived,
hardy spores transmitted by bees, on beekeeping
equipment, in honey and in other ways.
Because of the persistence of spores and the
devastating effects of the disease, the recommended
action for American foulbrood is burning of the
infested colony, including bees and woodenware. Once
an infestation is detected, the bees in the affected
colony should be killed (one way to do this is by
spraying ether starter ?uid in the entrance). Plug the
entrance, then burn the entire colony in a hole in the
ground. After burning, the remains should be covered
with soil. Tools coming into contact with the hive
should be sterilized.
American foulbrood can be prevented with
treatments of the antibiotic terramycin. Terramycin
can be applied as a powder or in sugar/shortening
patties. To apply as a powder, mix terramycin powder
with powdered confectioners sugar. Dust 1 oz. (= 1/3
cup or 5 & 1/3 tablespoons) of the mixture over the
top of the outside frames in the brood chamber. Apply
this mixture three times at 4- to 5-day intervals in
February/March.
Mixing Terramycin
For TM25®: TM25® is sold in 6.4 oz. packets, each
containing 10,000 mg oxytetracycline. Eight hundred
mg oxytetracycline is applied per honeybee colony. To
produce dust containing 267 mg oxytetracycline/oz.,
combine entire packet with 2 lbs. powdered sugar to
produce enough dust to treat 12 colonies (3 dustings of
1 oz. each).
For TM50®: TM50® contains oxytetracycline at
50 g/lb. (=3125 mg/oz.). To prepare the
TM50®+powdered sugar dust (267 mg oxytetracycline
/oz.) add 3 oz. of TM50® to 2 lbs. powdered sugar to
produce enough dust to treat 11 colonies (3 dustings of
1 oz. each).
Terramycin Extender Patties
Colonies can be treated with terramycin in
extender patties, one treatment in March and another
in October. Due to increasing incidence of foulbrood
resistance to terramycin, we caution the routine use of
this material as a preventative when there has not been
any recent incidence of foulbrood in the local area.
Terramycin Extender Patty Recipes
TM25 6.4 oz. only Shortening Granulated Sugar No. Patties
4 teaspoons 0.9 oz.* (1/8 cup) 2.7 oz.* (2/5 cup) 1
1 6.4 oz. pkg. 11 oz.(1 1?2 cups) 2 lbs. 1 oz.(4 3/4 cups) 12
3 6.4 oz. pkgs. 2 lbs. 1 oz.(4 1?2 cups) 6 lbs. 3 oz.(14 1/4 cups) 36
TM50D + Powdered sugar Shortening Granulated Sugar No. Patties
1 lb. 10 oz. + 6 lbs. 5 lbs. 10 oz. 11 lbs. 12 oz. 100
8 lbs. + 30 lbs. 29 lbs. 4 oz. 57 lbs. 12 oz. 500
16 lbs. + 60 lbs. 58 lbs. 8 oz. 115 lbs. 8 oz. 1000
* = weight

First mix the terramycin (TM25®, TM50®) and
powdered sugar thoroughly with granulated sugar.
Then add vegetable shortening, mix and ?atten over
wax paper into 1/4 lb. patties. These can be frozen
in plastic bags for later use. Feed the antibiotics 30
days or more before a honey ?ow. Do not treat honeyproducing
colonies during the nectar ?ow.

[dixiedogger]

I am not sure it is foul brood. Could be sac brood or something else. Form the images I have seen I do not think it is foul brood.

[Michael Bush]

Go look for pictures of Sacbrood, EFB and AFB and compare them to what you saw.

[RayMarler]

The bee would move around a little but was darker than it should be I think. What does this sound like?

What strain of bees do you have? Sounds like it could be a dark drone is all, like carniolan drones or maybe russians? Many queens are crossed up and lay both light and dark drones. A darker drone will make the cappings look darker as it matures.

[dixiedogger]

After much research I am still not sure what I have (if anything) I am thinking I will wait and do nothing a couple of weeks and check it again. If it is American foul brood it is early stages because I had no odor and could not get the ropey stuff. If it is AFB what should I do? This is a double hive body with 5 suppers on it. Can I recover any of the honey? Or do I just have to burn the whole thing? This could be a major set back fro me since I do not have many hives and this was 1 of 2 that would make honey.

[pilothawk]

Tennessee REQUIRES the destruction of ALL bees and woodenware associated with a hive if AFB is confirmed! This is to prevent the spread of AFB to other colonies.

If you suspect the you have AFB contact your local inspector to confirm whether or not that is the problem.

[justin]

sounds like nothing to me, but since you yelled fire you need to make sure there is no fire before you continue.