European Foulbrood in Baits hives

[odfrank]

I have caught two bait hives in the last month who appear to immediately have EFB, both from within a few miles of each other and where I had EFB problems already last year. Are they bringing it in or is it in my combs? These combs were from winter deadouts but not hives in which i suspected EFB lat year. They call it a stress disease, but how can bees so healthy to swarm be under stress? And what stress is it? There is an ample flow and bloom.

[Tim B]

It was probably in the combs. As I understand it, the bees don't bring many spores with them. You might also be seeing chilled brood and not efb. Time will tell.

Some recommend curing efb by shaking the bees out in clear equipment and combs and doing away with the old. One study I read suggested that 33% of hives with efb that is cleaned up with antibiotics are reinfected the next year while only 5% that are placed on new combs and treated with antibiotics are reinfected. I've fought efb in a handful of my hives and am about to shut them down in an effort to rid my apiary of this scourge. It seems to hit at the beginning of the spring nectar flow ruining the hive's productivity and then debilitates the hive in times of dearth leading to a dwindling colony. Some folks have suggested that acetic acid will kill efb spores. I treated some of my combs from efb infected hives with acetic acid. I recently hived a swarm on what I consider the worst infected combs that I treated. Its been 3 weeks so if they are showing efb we'll know that the acetic acid doesn't work after all.

[hummingberd]

I'm also seeing EFB in my hives this year. First time there has been a hint of any problems in several years.

EFB DOES NOT PRODUCE SPORES!!!! That's AFB. It's caused by a bacteria in the soil. A friend of mine mentioned that it's prevalent in areas with lots of pine/evergreen trees.

The stress for us in Maine is the weather specifically the rain. March was exceptionally warm and then April and May were quite cold. The past 5 weeks, we've had rain Monday through Friday and sunny weekends. Bees were healthy coming out of winter into early spring, and then the rain started and EFB showed up.

You can treat with Terramycin or requeen and break the brood cycle.

[Rader Sidetrack]

You may find this reference useful:

http://www.extension.org/pages/23693...oney-bee-brood

Here's a small portion of the page from the link above:

European foulbrood disease is considered to be more problematic in situations where forage nectar is sporadic, or other situations that result in fewer nurse bees in colonies to feed larvae. At the onset of nectar flow in early spring, forage recruitment of house bees may increase rapidly resulting in few bees in colonies to feed honey bee larvae. Often, when the nurse bee to larvae ratio stabilizes later in the season, or remains stable throughout a season, symptoms disappear. However, this disease can occur throughout a season and will sometimes not clear up on its own. In severe cases, colony death can occur. Also, yearly reoccurrence of EFB from contaminated combs and equipment can occur. The bacteria that causes EFB does not produce spores, but combs contaminated with the bacteria can still reinfect honey bees in subsequent years.

[Barry]

I found one hive today that has succumbed to EFB.


Nice pepperbox appearance. Cappings slightly concave with minor puncturing.

[Slow Modem]

I found one hive today that has succumbed to EFB.

Sorry about your hive. But those are some excellent pictures. Thanks for that.

[Barry]

This hive is a split this spring that came from a LC package last year. This is the second time I've had EFB in a hive and both times found in hives that were being regressed in cell size. I pulled the worst frames and we'll see if they can get the upper hand.

[odfrank]

Did it succumb dead or just decline? Are you throwing out the combs/frames? Melting the combs? I combined two this spring and medicated with Mann Lake patties and it has recovered and moved into the super I put on later. I have another languishing for a year I am going to destroy. I have another medicated and fed in fall that is now a super hero. Didn't see it for my first 35 years in beekeeping, now see it annually for five years.

[Barry]

It is/was actually expanding quit well. The hive consisted of two full mediums and they were up into the third medium with three full frames. I took the top chamber off and brought it home to inspect the comb closely. Now that I'm sure what it is, I'll go back and pull all the pepperbox comb out and most of the brood to give them a break in brood cycle. Since there's still a long season ahead, they should be able to rebound. With so much brood in the hive, I don't think they would at this point without creating the break.

I'll cut the combs out and put foundation back in. I talked to Dennis Murrell about brood diseases and there seems to be some hybrid forms showing up, which wiped him out a year ago.

[Barry]

Wish I didn't have to do it, but after looking through the complete hive today and seeing diseased cells throughout, I decided to terminate the hive. I will not be reusing any of the combs.

[Tim B]

I shut a strong nuc that had shown efb 6 weaks ago. I shook them into another nuc box with frames of foundation. They have taken 3/4 gallon of syrup and have drawn almost all of the frames already. We'll see in a few days if the efb comes back. In reality, the move sets them back three weeks but they weren't going to make honey anyway. I have put the frames on a fire ant hill to clean out and will fumigate them with acetic acid for a week and put them back to work. I have also treated two hives with persistent efb with hopguard (which claims to treat efb). If it cures these two then I'll be a believer. After two weeks the brood in these hives is pearly white like it is supposed to be but there is still some residual cleanup to be done so the results appear mixed so far.