Hi all ! Hi Conrad ! you wrote ... > As far as a beehive being more sterile than an operating room-- > any beekeeper who has had experience with brood diseases such as > chalkbrood, foulbrood, nosema, etc will tell you that it just > ain't so-- the antibiotic properties of propolis, wax and honey > are what make the place livable at all ;-). You're right : these *few* diseases (and I don't know what is *etc*?) are resistant to the propolis and bees antibiotics but there are *few*! We cannot say this for other animals and for the man ! But these diseases are generally the fact of the beekeeper management or the lack of vitality after some inbred selection (carnica=nosema?). It is amazing to note that 2 of these resistant diseases are excluded one by the second : it is actually demonstrated that the chalkbrood disease inhibit the development of the foulbrood : the colonies sensible to chalkbrood don't get the foulbrood while a punctual infection. In Belgium, foulbrood is rare with our european brown bee : it is sensible to chalkbrood. The only last few infections to foulbrood were find to some Buckfast bees : resistant to chalkbrood ! Cheers. Jean-Marie <[log in to unmask]>