EFB honey - safe to give to the bees?

[julesbeek]

Greetings,
I'm actually asking this on behalf of another beek who is not on the forums. She recently discovered that one of her hives has a serious EFB problem, and there are few bees left, so she's closing up the hive and letting it die out. Her question is this:

The hive had a couple supers of honey (for overwintering) and she wondered if it's safe to freeze the frames, then give the honey to a different hive. Since EFB is spread by nurse bees and is a bacteria, I'm not sure of the answer!

Perhaps some wise one here can answer the question. I know to burn ALL the stuff with AFB (well, you can torch the boxes, but that's it), but not sure about EFB, since a strong hive tends to keep the infection at bay.

Thanks for anyone who might have the definitive answer!

Jules

[John Smith]

In case the Wise ones are too busy, Jules, I’ll offer you my opinions.

I would extract the honey and use it or sell it, but it would be better not to put it on another hive.

Many would do that, however, especially those who regularly feed antibiotics, which I do not use. If the receiving hive was on the verge of starvation, maybe one would go ahead and give it to them. How young and vigourous is the queen in the receiving colony, is another consideration.?

It will not necessarily spread the infection to the new hive, but it simply increases the exposure of that hive to the spores of the disease. An acute infection happens in any hive with any disease when the level of contamination exceeds the level of resistance to it. Every colony has its own level of natural ability to fight off these diseases, and some spores are present always, but by increasing the contamination level, you are also increasing the risk to any one hive of having an acute infection.

If the honey has granulated, then maybe the problem has compounded. Whatever you do may work! It may not also. Go ahead and make your own decision and study the outcomes.

Good luck,

JohnS

[julesbeek]

Thanks John - looks like you ARE the only wise one to comment so far.

The only thing that's of concern to me (since I also do not use antibiotics) is that this beek DOES use them, and the bees still got EFB. So it's not necessarily true that the other hive might stave off an infection from the honey, though I know that strong hives can beat an infestation of EFB.

Hmmmmmmm. Dunno. I guess she'll have to see how risky she feels about this!

Thanks,
Jules

[brac]

Why chance it? I would'nt.

[brac]

of course if you extracted it then heated it to a temp that kills bacteria, then there would be no harm. But since it's safe for humans to eat, once it's extracted....