>i'm curious about some of the details wrt to the person you cite who is
burning 35 hives.
>
>what "advice" did he follow?

Greetings
Having recently put in three seasons as a bee inspector in NY State, I have
seen just about every sort of operation there is. Some have never had AFB
and some will never NOT have AFB. I identified over 200 cases and these were
destroyed; I probably inspected at least 10,000 hives during that period.

The chief point I would make is: beekeeping is local. If you are in an area
where there is no AFB, you will not need to worry much about it. If there
are beekeepers around you whose bees are dying of it, it would be foolish to
go bare (no preventative medication). 

If the bees in your region are vigorous and hygienic, maybe you will do OK
but if there are susceptible lines around, you will no doubt have those bees
too (bees interbreed). One rationale for destroying colonies with AFB is to
get rid of susceptible bees.

Back in the 1980s I kept 400+ colonies in San Diego County. In that region,
anyone who didn't use tetracycline was quickly overrun with AFB. And believe
me, there have always been people who think the facts don't apply to them.

pb

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