you sense wrong clyde.
i was hoping you might sense that there is more to efb than some are acknowledging but alas, i'll hope no more.
i don't believe in boogeymen nor did i have any battles to fight with respect to my bees thriving off treatments season after season until some out of state packages were installed down the road and allowed to collapse...
are we still using prophylactic antibiotics in the spring and fall up there?
Only time will tell if I sense wrongly about your new found boogeyman or not.
Blame, blame, blame. How about the beekeepers' responsibility and their inability to detect efb in their bees in a timely manner and treat it?
At least take
some action while waiting for test kits and vfd! Shake out on clean foundation, feed, requeen are all actions that could have been taken. Or just kill them off. Does anyone do that anymore? or do they wait and 'do nothing if they are unsure'?
It's a game for many, these bees, until it hits home and the pocketbook. Playing the game until it hurts, then get spooked and rationalize it away.
We? Up there? still using?
I live on a Island, I'm a stationary beekeeper, I raise my own bees, most times I know what comes in here and most times from who.
I'll bet my combs and equipment do not test + for antibiotics, can you make that same bet with yours?
I don't know who treats prophylacticly, or if anyone actually does. I do know many beekeepers who know
when and
how to properly deal with a historic brood ailment like efb, but most of all they know how to detect it before it infects the whole operation and take action.
Same with afb.
There was a uptick in efb this spring in NY, anyone who pays attention expected it due to the late, wet, cold spring- and took care of it. Smart beekeepers know their bees.
It's a whole lot easier to talk about bees than it is to actually keep bees. Nothing has changed.