Who's to say the brood which was placed with the swarm does not contain any
diseases? When I have honey setting on my shelf for my personal use, it is
because it came from the a healthy hive, because I keep my hives as healthy
as I can.  Does the honey become contaminated after it is sealed and set on
a shelf? If so the same honey left on your bees can also become contaminated
after beeing capped and eaten during winter. So the bees eat this and pass
the disease on into new larval food in the spring, which is in the frame of
brood you just added into the swarm to get them to stay put. I know that
using honey, combs, or brood from another colony may be a risk to spread
disease to another, especially if you are a beehaver and not a beekeeper. A
beekeeper will know when his bees are diseased and will take measures to
erradicate the problem.  If you are a beehaver, who's to say the swarm is
not already diseased before capture? What if you discover the hive you kept
honey from for personal use is diseased shortly after extraction, and the
other hives? Are you going to refund the money to everyone who purchased
your disease infested honey which they purchased before you realized you had
a problem? Would I go and purchase honey from a beehaver to coat my
equipment with? NO! Because he is not a beekeeper. A beekeeper will stay
ahead of his bees to ensure that any problems are solved before a crisis
occurs. I happen to have only two people who "have" bees within flying
distance of mine. The closest one is eight miles away. They are both elderly
and cannot quite take care of thier own hives as they once were able. The
closest one has two colonies and the other has three. I help them both and
inspect thier hives thouroughly, as I do my own. Chances are is that I will
detect a problem in thier hives and alleviate it before it becomes a problem
for mine. How great it would bee if we lived in a world where we did not
have to worry about diseases in our hives. But unfortunatly we do have to
worry. That is why we buy medicines for our hives, as preventatives against
and treatments for disease. A beehaver does not know any better and I would
not recomend adding supers of honey to weak splits, or transferance of honey
in any way to them. Actually I would not even recomend a beehaver to own any
bees unless they desire to become a full fledged beekeeper. I don't use
gloves during inspections, and I sterilize my hive tool with my smoker
between hives to help pervent the spread of any disease. By the way, don't
use antibacterial hand cleanser on your hands before inspecting a hive
without gloves unless you feel the urge to get stung alot. You can use brood
which may be ridden with a freshly started disease or parasite which is
undectable at the time in which you it add to a swarm, and I'll use honey
from a hive which I can watch for disease after the honey is removed. At
least the honey does not have any mites in it . Using terrapro patties
throughout the year, except during the honey flow, I have never experienced
any AFB, or my hives would've went up in smoke. With using either method,
there is a chance of contamination of some sort. It is up to us to keep our
hives as healthy as possible, and healthy hives makes comb and healthy
honey.
I

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