Juanse, if a colony exhibits good hygienic behavior, AFB may be suppressed
during a good pollen and nectar flow, otherwise, it generally builds up
over the season.  So the best time to look for it is likely just before
adding honey supers, in order to avoid contaminating those boxes of comb,
as well as your honey crop.  AFB can build up in a strong colony during the
flow, with no exterior sign of infection, other than the often distinct
odor that a good nose can detect from the exhaust air from the entrance.
But don't count on the odor.

In my operation, we have a zero tolerance policy of even a single cell of
AFB.  When I've run experiments to see whether it would clear up if given
time, it never did.  We burn without question, and no longer consider AFB
to be a problem.

>Interesting. I was under the impression that a flow often rids the hive of
> [an EFB] infection.
>
 That certainly used to be the case, but not so much any more--EFB appears
to have changed, and no longer necessarily goes away when conditions
improve.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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