> I got used equipment, in good shape, inspected and all.

Inspection doesn't prove much except that there are no *visible* signs of AFB in
the equipment.  Scale can hide under honey and pollen and moreover spores can be
on any surface or in any honey.  The inspector should be able to inform you if
the outfit you are purchasing has any history of AFB.  If it has, then there is
a higher likelihood that you will experience AFB if you do not medicate
regularly and properly.

> Then I got AFB in one colony. Burned it.  And treated the
> rest with T-25.

Well, you do not indicate if you treated other than after you had a breakdown.
Assuming you did not, the odds are pretty high that you would see breakdown, due
either to your environment or something in the equipment.  For some reason we
all wish to believe against all odds that our own bee equipment -- whether
purchased or new -- is free of disease.

We know that in North America, at least, that is very very unlikely to be true,
and also not a permanent state, since sources of infection are very likely to
appear unannounced in any neighbourhood.

Beekeepers travel at night and put down loads of bees in hidden spots.
Hobbyists move hives all over the place and keep them where they are not likely
to be seen.  Widows and relatives wind up with bee equipment after a beekeeper
dies -- often after neglecting the bees for a period of time -- and leave it
around or haul it out to some handy spot for storage and don't know to keep it
covered.  Housewives discard unwanted honey in dumpsters.  Trucks break down or
overturn on nearby  roads...

> All colonies got used equipment.  And T-25 had not
> been used in the spring, rather patties.  Maybe a bit
> of powder but hardly any.  And the other colonies were
> all fine.

In my experience, very few beekeepers follow the instructions when making
patties.  Some try to get them consumed quickly by adding honey, others get the
proportions wrong or use too little TM 25.  you can read a lot more at
http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/. Follow the 'Extender Patties' link.

> From what I've said, do you think it came
> from the used equipment, was already in the hives and
> manages to show itself, or got it from my neighbours or
> a feral colony?

No one will ever be able to tell you that.  And it does not really matter.  The
simple facts of life in most of the US and Canada is that AFB is everywhere, and
any beekeeper who does not acknowledge that and proceed on that assumption will
get AFB sooner or later.

Sometimes a beekeeper will have luck on his side for a very long time.  Many
mistake this luck for their being smarter than other beekeepers and maybe even
start to lecture others who are less fortunate.  Maybe he has obtained resistant
bees and does not know it, perhaps, or some other factor will shield him.  BUT,
the longer one keeps bees, the more hives one keeps , and the more places the
bees are kept, the greater the *certainty* becomes that AFB will appear from
somewhere.  The longer he has been lucky the greater his puzzlement when the
inevitable occurs.  It's no mystery.  AFB happens.

> Would appreciate your comments.  And
> do you think I ought to get rid of it all and start
> again, or keep on and hope for the best?

Read the logs and learn to live with AFB. Until the whole continent is cleaned
up, any individual efforts to become cleaner than the environment are like
wearing a clean white suit to work in a coal mine.

The best you can hope to do is to control the disease.  Many of us control AFB
in thousands of hives without seeing any signs of AFB for many years.  BUT, we
KNOW it is there and will break out anytime we lapse our vigilance.

We have a tiger by the tail.

allen
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