Bee Friends,
 
I have something of an emergency (well for me it is) that I need your advice
on.  I just bought 60 hive bodies from a retired beekeeper who swore to me
that he never had a problem with foulbrood.  He maintained that he had his
hives registered with the state and they were inspected twice a year.  He
even allowed that he fed Terramiacin year round.  Yes even during the honey
flow.  His comment was  Antibiotics are cheap .  So much for the background.
 
I have been spending free time the last two weeks cleaning up frames,
removing the old comb (wax moth destroyed) and scraping propolis.  Never once
did I see scale in any of the combs.  I found only 4 or 5 capped cells among
thousands.  When I uncapped these there was no scale or anything the cell was
empty.  Upon the advice of another beekeeper I sent a sample of comb (with
the 4 or 5 uncapped cells) to the Bee Diseaze Lab in Maryland.  It came back
positive for AFB.  Now I m confused.  Does this mean that the whole bunch of
equipment is junk?  There is no indication on the diagnosis sheet which
indicates to me -how many- spores were detected.  In other words I don t know
the extent of infestation.  Don t all hives have some AFB spores?  Is it
possible to send any brood comb from any hive and have it come back negative?
 I am not an experienced beekeeper.  But I ve seen plenty of photos of AFB
scale.  Never did I see any residue in the cells.  I looked particularly
close at those that the wax moths had not (apparently) gotten to yet.  What
should I do?
 
Steve
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