Mason Harris asks about whether the bees can be saved from a hive
containing Foulbrood.  I presume Mason that you are talking about American
Foulbrood.  The answer is yes.
 
Carefully shake the bees from a comb by using a rapid up and down movement
holding the ends of the frame top bar between your bent first finger and
the base of your thumb.  The frame must be held vertical to reduce the
chance of shaking nectar into your new hive.  Nectar may contain spores.
 
I was told by Dr. Rothenbueler that 99.5 percent of the AFB spores are
found in the residue of AFB in combs.  One book I read said that it takes
the presence of 50,000 spores in a hive to cause a brood nest to show
symptoms of AFB.  It would follow that if you remove any comb containing
AFB residues, scrape all burr comb from the frames and hive body, and also
scrape propolis from the hive as you would when thoroughly cleaning
equipment for reuse, you are unlikely to experience AFB again unless you
have a case of reinfection.  To be even safer, I feed Terramycin and sugar
syrup to the colony from which the disease reservoir has been removed.  I
gorge the bees, on a day with an ambient temperature at 60 F. or above, by
pouring the syrup over the bees with the aim of getting all the bees wet
with syrup.  Don't drown the bees just get them wet.  I repeat the process
a second time as soon as the bees clean up the syrup.
 
James C. Bach
Yakima WA
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