lucky find at new site

praha said:

I thought EFB could be cured with a shook swarm and destruction of brood and comb plus antibiotics? AFB is a different beastie.

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I was taught that a shook swarm was the answer, also that antibiotics are banned now (is that just in France). Thought Chinese honey had been stopped because they had found Tetracycline s in it.
Please correct me if I am wrong.

James Templer said:

Defra has informed local beekeepers to Chelmsford in Essex of an AFB out break in your area.
Abandoned colonies ( as well as feeding imported infected honey) are one of the main caused of outbreaks of this devastating disease.

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I still can't believe people do this. Is it ignorance, laziness or something else?

leonotron said:

I still can't believe people do this. Is it ignorance, laziness or something else?

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Probably can't be arsed to mix a syrup or make fondant and see cheap honey as a simple alternative.

praha said:

I thought EFB could be cured with a shook swarm and destruction of brood and comb plus antibiotics? AFB is a different beastie.

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Yes that's right, Usual remedy is shook swarm but in my case the bee inspector for our area advised it was best to destroy the colony, frames, gloves etc. He even took the lot away and destroyed it for me and scorched all the other equipment for me with his own blow torch. All in all a very helpful man and whenever I see something suspect that I'm not sure about I give him a call.

The worst part is that I had only had the colony for a few months so the supplier had sold them to me (and another colony to my friend) in that condition. When I informed the inspector where they had come from it turned out that the supplier was known to the bee inspector and apparently they had a history of EFB in their colonies which was ongoing and they shouldn't have been selling the nuc's to anybody.

Took it on the chin and it went down as one of those lesson learnt scenario's......

After your poor start with EFB you deserve a bit of good luck .your post is very interesting keep us informed on how the colony is doing. good luck

For those who are not bored to death already.........

Part 2 is complete. The hive is now in the usual setup with my new stand, floor and B/Box on the bottom with a new super and the original 2 x supers with the wild comb above the Q/Ex.

Although I did have a little surprise I wasn't expecting when I was rearranging it all. The bottom original super is actually upside down and had the remains of three frame topbars which protruded below the bottom of the super out of the comb so it wouldn't sit flush ......

I had to poke them back into the upside down castellated spacers as best i could and then use the ratchet strap to gently persuade it the rest of the way. Not Ideal but i was running out of time.

By early next week the brood in that old section will have all hatched out so I'll let them fill it with honey and then take it away when i start extracting. Still looking forward to seeing inside properly.

A question for the people who have done this before. Is the honey and comb in the original supers likely to be any good as cut comb? If I can find any sections which haven't had brood in and are without remnants of frame in that is.

Ps- What difference a few weeks makes. The surrounding vegetation is now so tall and thick that if I was arriving to the new site for the first time now i would never have even found them......

A question for the people who have done this before. Is the honey and comb in the original supers likely to be any good as cut comb?

Possibly, although in the days when we produced it for sale in Exeter market, people wanted cut comb with pure white cappings.

The nearest I have seen to this in quality was at a Christmas Victorian market in Truro, produced by a commercial chap who kept black bees.

Procure a comb cutter and see what it looks like ( and tastes like!). alternatively make it into a methlegin!

I would not be too tempted to feed it back to the bees, just in case.

Enjoy

James

Thanks James, from what i can see in the top of the top box its pretty dark comb so maybe cut comb isn't the way with this.

But i like the Methlegin idea. I've never tried any proper honey based beverages up until now.

Should be taking the wild comb supers off this weekend weather permitting so I'll soon find out whats in there.

Hi Dazza
I would be tempted to put all the wild comb in buckets ( if no good for cut comb) and melt in the honey warmer and then siving though a muslin.

thurrock bees said:

Hi Dazza
I would be tempted to put all the wild comb in buckets ( if no good for cut comb) and melt in the honey warmer and then siving though a muslin.

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Good idea TB, thanks for the tip

Your welcome darren

James Templer said:

Defra has informed local beekeepers to Chelmsford in Essex of an AFB out break in your area.
Abandoned colonies ( as well as feeding imported infected honey) are one of the main caused of outbreaks of this devastating disease.

Click to expand...

leonotron said:

I still can't believe people do this. Is it ignorance, laziness or something else?

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psafloyd said:

Probably can't be arsed to mix a syrup or make fondant and see cheap honey as a simple alternative.

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Or more probably not beekeepers but naiive suburbanite 'save the bee' types putting out a saucer of tresco honey (it hardly costs anything - and it is good for the bees) next to the saucer of bread and milk for the hedgehog and the bowl of cheapy dog food for the foxes

why is there nothing on imported honey jars about their safe (to bees) disposal i.e. wash out before throwing out. That is something that could be done! That is something the BBKA should campaign for!
What is the point of having honeybee imports restricted if you can import the honeyand then throw it out where bees can find it?

derekm said:

why is there nothing on imported honey jars about their safe (to bees) disposal i.e. wash out before throwing out. That is something that could be done! That is something the BBKA should campaign for!
What is the point of having honeybee imports restricted if you can import the honeyand then throw it out where bees can find it?

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derekm said:

why is there nothing on imported honey jars about their safe (to bees) disposal i.e. wash out before throwing out. That is something that could be done! That is something the BBKA should campaign for!
What is the point of having honeybee imports restricted if you can import the honeyand then throw it out where bees can find it?

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But then you know how fickle some consumers can be....
If they read a label explaining that this imported honey could potentially contain diseases harmful to UK honey bees they'll just stop buying it thinking they are at risk too. So there's no incentive for those companies importing it to put it there.

It'd be good for UK beekeepers though as it might result in more people buying UK/local honey instead of the imported stuff.

Dazzabee said:

But then you know how fickle some consumers can be....
If they read a label explaining that this imported honey could potentially contain diseases harmful to UK honey bees they'll just stop buying it thinking they are at risk too. So there's no incentive for those companies importing it to put it there.

It'd be good for UK beekeepers though as it might result in more people buying UK/local honey instead of the imported stuff.

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it needs legislation hence a campaign

Dazzabee said:

I asked the farm owners to try to contact the original beek .

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that would be me, years ago I had a tendency to dress up as a little old lady when doing the bees

ratcatcher said:

that would be me, years ago I had a tendency to dress up as a little old lady when doing the bees

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Lmao...

Each to their own I guess. Was it a blue or purple rinse?