[ElderBombadil]

Greenhorn beek here. I have a early season split that I can't find the queen have some cap worker brood, eggs that are singles and doubles layed and I think I have sacbrood. I pulled one of the larvel out with a forceps and it came out and looked much like this link
http://www.4shared.com/photo/SlygMsiL/Sacbrood20865820lar20from20cel.html

What do I do????

 

[Michael Bush]

I went years without ever seen any sac brood. I've still never seen any in my hives... but in recent years I've seen more and more of it other people's hives. I can only assume the Varroa are spreading it. I don't know of any treatment for sacbrood. Most any brood disease will benefit from a brood break, but I have never had sacbrood to observe personally if it is beneficial or not with that disease.

 

[ElderBombadil]

What would you do... should I just shake it out and give up on this hive? If I do what can be done with the drawn comb. I am a newbeek and have very little drawn comb. Do I dare use the comb in other hives that are strong and hope they can clean it out?


I found this so if I am readiing this paper right after a few weeks the virus is no longer spreadable.

The infectivity of SBV is lost after a few weeks in larval remains and experiments to spread the disease by placing combs containing many dead larvae into healthy colonies were unsuccessful (Hitchcock,1966) Under natural circumstances sacbrood abates and usually disappears spontaneously during summer even though larvae are easily infected by feeding them the virus at any time of the year. This is probably because adult bees quickly detect and eject diseased larvae from the colony. Their action is probably responsible for the rapid disappearance of sacbrood in summer when bee colonies are reaching their maximum size and the ratio of larvae to adult bees is diminishing. It may well be also for the mechanical spread of infection causing epizootics when colonies are growing and the proportion of larvae to adult bees is large. However, sacbrood is perennial and common in spite of its virtual disappearance in summer, its failure to remain infective for long in larval remains and the absence of larvae in temperate regions in winter. The gap is almost certainly bridged in nature by adult bees, in which SBV multiplies without causing obvious disease.

http://om.ciheam.org/om/pdf/b25/99600239.pdf

 

[JSL]

Elder,

That does not look like sacbrood to me. It is hard to tell from the pictures...but it appears to be either an advanced case of EFB, heavy Varroa infestation, or laying worker. From one of the pictures I see some eggs on the side of the cells, which makes me suspect laying worker with a little EFB thrown in. Once you get to laying workers, the colony is heavily stressed and brood is often stressed and neglected which can result in EFB creeping in. The colony is pretty far gone at this point and I would be really hesitant with moving the combs around. Perhaps your local inspector can give you a better diagnosis with a closer look and maybe even a sample to the USDA Beltsville lab.

They also look really hungry.

 

[Michael Bush]

It's hard for me to tell from the pictures as well. Usually you pull them out and see the sac around the larvae and you know it's sacbrood. I didn't notice the eggs on the side. The brood is spotty for sure. There are a lot of drone caps mixed in, but they don't all look like drone caps. It's one of those ambiguous circumstances that are hard to diagnose without watching them over a period of time. I'd keep an eye out for multple eggs (it may be too soon in the process for them) in case they have laying workers. If you do see a queen, you might want to confine her and do a brood break and in the meantime try to obtain a queen.

 

[ElderBombadil]

There is multi eggs and some single eggs. I have spotty caped worker and drone brood. Frankly the population is low and should have been very easy for me to find the queen I could not. I did see her in there when she was a virgin and not yet laying. But that was back in 6/17/14. The Next inspection 6/26/14 I could not find her but had eggs some double and some single laid. I saw no sign of disease at that time. The 7.4.14 inspection was about the same as the 6/26/14 inspection.


SO should I give it a few more days and look again if its not getting better. Take the bees far from the yard and shake them out? Then trash the comb and use a propane touch and blacking all the wood ware?

 

[johng]

I'm thinking EFB too.

 

[ElderBombadil]

have a testing kit on the way and will know for sure.

 

[ElderBombadil]

Update... went back in today and the hive did have a bit of smell to it. Most of that bad brood was gone and I had to look to find more. Found some and tested and it came back negative for EFB. The bees do have some small patches of caped honey and the egg laying is still multi eggs, single eggs some on the sides of cells. Some capped worker brood and some drone brood.
My mentor says just dump them out. Then the question is can I use the comb at all?

 

[winevines]

Update... went back in today and the hive did have a bit of smell to it. Most of that bad brood was gone and I had to look to find more. Found some and tested and it came back negative for EFB.

I am reading up on this and the test kit says it has a lot of false negatives! Bummer. No false positives but can have false negatives.
Anyone else seeing an increase of EFB around?

Did you treat with Terramyacin?