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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