Stonebrood?

[Camey]

I know is rare, this hive never made it into Spring, first full inspection today, weather, temperature not been suitable till now. A few foragers , some capped brood , some stores, no queen, and most frames have 40-50 cells with white chalky cells. No mummies , seen chalk brood before , looks more like Stonebrood? Anyway, burning frames and sterilising boxes and kit

 

[oxnatbees]

I know is rare, this hive never made it into Spring, first full inspection today, weather, temperature not been suitable till now. A few foragers , some capped brood , some stores, no queen, and most frames have 40-50 cells with white chalky cells. No mummies , seen chalk brood before , looks more like Stonebrood? Anyway, burning frames and sterilising boxes and kit View attachment 39764

Take care not to breathe in dust etc. Maybe wear a mask. Stonebrood is the one bee disease which can affect us (our lungs).

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

That's just mouldy pollen

 

[pargyle]

I know is rare, this hive never made it into Spring, first full inspection today, weather, temperature not been suitable till now. A few foragers , some capped brood , some stores, no queen, and most frames have 40-50 cells with white chalky cells. No mummies , seen chalk brood before , looks more like Stonebrood? Anyway, burning frames and sterilising boxes and kit View attachment 39764

Sometimes ... even when you think the worst ... it's a good idea to take a step back, pause, and think about what is going on. Stonebrood is very rare in the UK and if you find it then it will, generally, be accompanied by other symptoms and the affected cells will be in an area of brood. Pollen tends to be stored on the periphery of the comb as can be seen in your photo .. JBM is right - mouldy pollen cells. Not uncommon in spring. Hopefully the frames are not yet ablaze !

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Stonebrood is very rare in the UK

so rare it wasn't even mentioned in our DASH training, it's not even on Beebase

 

[pargyle]

so rare it wasn't even mentioned in our DASH training, it's not even on Beebase

I'd only heard about it when a fellow beekeeper down here mentioned he had seen it last spring ... I had to look it up ... I suspect that (as in this case) that it was either chalk brood or mouldy pollen !

 

[hemo]

Yes as the two lads above have said, mouldy pollen.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I know is rare, this hive never made it into Spring, first full inspection today, weather, temperature not been suitable till now. A few foragers , some capped brood , some stores, no queen, and most frames have 40-50 cells with white chalky cells. No mummies , seen chalk brood before , looks more like Stonebrood? Anyway, burning frames and sterilising boxes and kit View attachment 39764

I've never encountered stonebrood either in reality or in print so it seems it's very rare. It did give me a chuckle as it brought to mind the episode of last of the summer wine where a Stone Worm infestation was invented by Howard.

 

[Camey]

https://www.scientificbeekeeping.co.uk/stonebrood.html

 

[Camey]

John Gilberdyke- thans for your comment- stonebrood is not in same book as Nessie, and if you did look at my original brood picture and compared it with the stonebrood pictures in scientificbeekeeping.co.uk you will see just how closely the resemble each other.

 

[Camey]

https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/3816652

Standard methods for fungal brood disease research.​

2. Stonebrood​

2.1. Introduction​

Stonebrood is a very rare honey bee brood disease caused by several fungi from the genus Aspergillus. The disease was first described by Massen (1906) and has since then been found worldwide. Aspergillus flavus has most frequently been reported, followed by Asp. fumigatus, but also Asp. niger and other species can kill honey bees (Gilliam and Vandenberg, 1997). Aspergillus is able to infect the host through the gut if the spores are ingested, but also through the cuticle. Therefore, adults as well as larvae and pupae can become infected. In addition, most species of Aspergillus produce aflatoxins that have been suggested to be the primary cause of death in stonebrood infected honey bees (Burnside, 1930). However, a non-aflatoxin producing Asp. flavus strain has been observed to induce stonebrood symptoms equally well in in vitro reared honey bee larvae as afaltoxin producing strains (Vojvodic, unpublished).