>
> >I am wondering if anyone else has had an outbreak like this and how long
> EFB typically persists on used comb.
Jeremy, you and I seem to observe similar phenomena in our apiaries (we are
several hundred miles apart), although not necessarily in the same year.
Historically for me, I'd see EFB occasionally during springtime when rain
kept bees inside, or when colonies suffered from lack of forage or high mite
levels. It is also very common in laying worker hives.
But since about 2005, I'm seeing much more "EFB-like" symptoms, and
especially "corn yellow" larvae. Unlike the "old" EFB, which nearly
invariably went away with a good nectar/pollen flow, the "new" EFB lingers
on, and infected colonies simply do not grow.
As Allen noted, I suspect that EFB may be an opportunistic parasite taking
advantage of bees stressed by mites, malnutrition, and viruses.
More to the point, this season I've also seen a number of cases of the
"watery brood" that you observed. It generally went away when the weather
improved. In cases where it didn't, it responded to a single dose of OTC.
I've been restocking the infected combs for a number of years now, burning
anything that I suspect has AFB involved. I allow the combs to dry out for
a few weeks first. I have not noticed the infection to spread, although I
can often find an infected larva in hives.
I sell hundreds of nucs each spring, and carefully inspect each one for
brood disease when we are making them up (we don't nuc up diseased hives),
and then again later when I am selling them with the new queen (mated in the
nuc). It is extremely rare to find diseased brood in the new nucs. I
suspect that the break in the brood cycle is the reason.
I don't have advice for you other than that you may wish to treat at least
one yard with OTC as an experiment. I'd be very interested in hearing your
results.
--
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com
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