?? If
>> you have not seen a single case in five years and have not used a
>> preventive
>> treatment then I would say you are due for a AFB issue.
>
> I find this statement strange. Why should a beekeeper who has not had AFB
> for 5 years with no preventative treatment be due for AFB?
Jeremy places his hives in almonds around operations with AFb problems.
Drifting and robbing are common ways AFB spreads.
There are many feral swarms in California and some of these no doubt are
infected with AFB.
Open feeding is common with 55 gallon drums and bees exchange food (and AFB
spores) at these sites.
Once we were next to a out of state beekeeper in California with around
10,000 hives and he was open feeding 20 barrels of syrup. He complained our
hives were visiting his barrels. He wanted compensation from us but we
assured the beekeeper our bees would not visit his barrels so when you open
feed you spread disease and pick up disease. We were not happy our bees were
robbing his feed but we treated for AFb when our bees returned and saw no
problems.
There are hundreds of abandoned bee yards in and around the almonds. I have
looked through a few of these myself. I saw AFb in much of the comb.
Commercial beekeepers often leave their mess behind ( not myself of course).
I figured those were hives dead from AFB and simply left behind.
The world of commercial beekeeping is not perfect. I try to do the best I
can with my operation but I have seen others do as they please with little
regard for their fellow beekeepers.
> Another reason could be introduction of infected gear to the outfit but if
> only new equipment so introduced then AFB will not be a problem..
The above is not true many times. Only protects from getting AFB from used
equipment. I posted a couple years ago about a beekeeper which started 35
hives on all new equipment. Fed a preventive the first year but not the
second year. Ended up burning all his frames. His source had to have come
from outside the hive. Perhaps from the package bees he started from but
others received package bees from the same load without AFB issues.
Bob H.
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