Peter Edwards asked " find it interesting that the shook swarm technique was, as far as I know, developed in the US for AFB. Is it still used?" I have used just once, and it was 100% successful...which means little. I went over 20 years without treatment for AFB, and no symptoms or disease. Then I bought some comb, and all hell broke loose. I burned and burned. But I had one yard with no disease until I found a single box with a very light infection on only a few combs. But the infection was so new that the hive was booming with bees. I removed the box with infection, put a new box on that stand with 100% foundation, and shook all the bees into that box. The foragers, of course, returned to that box. 4-6 weeks later the box was full of brood, honey and pollen and was disease free! But I understand that those who have taken a more scientific approach, involving many more hives, have had some infection appear. I still do not treat for AFB, and have not seen it in many years. If I were to see an another infection under the same circumstances I would not hesitate to treat it in the same manner. But with varroa...booming hives are no longer common. Lloyd *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm