Catherine,  

I am sorry to see this post because I suppose it means that you have had confirmation of the AFB?

Dry ice is what I have seen recommended. 

Dry ice can be hard to find.  It needs leather gloves to be handled safely. Use a cooler to bring it home.

Close the stack up (lower entrance) set the dry ice on the top of the frames surrounded with an empty box. Cover.  Seal the joints between the boxes with duct tape.  Bees will reportedly be pretty hostile, so be suited up.  I might do it at night, when they are all in the hive.  Set it up ahead of time with bee-proof screening stapled across the top box.  Screen the lower entrance in. And proceed as above.

Bees will be dead the next day.  Equipment will be safe to use. Capped brood in the frames will get stinky, if not frozen. Honey would probably be harvestable.

But concern for the future usability of the equipment is not usually important in cases of American Foul Brood because unless you have a way to irradiate it, it's almost impossible to ever consider it sanitized-enough for bees again.  That's why the stacks are often burnt. 

OTOH, euthanizing a colony for European Foul Brood, is probably not necessary.

Nancy Wicker 

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