>>When bees hold honey, they produce more wax.

When a swarm hangs from a branch it holds honey but I don't believe it produces much wax.  I have not seen a lot of wax scales even under swarm that were low to the ground.  I did come across a swarm once that had been in place for 2 weeks and they'd started at comb building. But this swarm had lost its queen and was not going anywhere.

>>This wax being produced by afb honey still has some measure of afb embedded in it.

I did not know wax glands pass some/any foulbrood spores. It's hard to imagine it possible but I can't say it does not happen.  I think there would be more spores in the hair on the bees' bodies.

>>...bees do move honey around.

This is very true.  However, I don't believe bees hold the honey for 45 minutes or longer when they move the honey around.  I'd think they'd want to accomplish the task asap.  I think they deposit the honey in a new cell or pass it off to another bee to deposit in a cell within minutes in which case the proventriculus may not filter out enough foulbrood spores to make a significant difference.  I do believe moving honey around does remove a lot of spores although it may not be enough to stop/prevent clinical episodes since one infected larvae will release millions or billions more spores.

That's why I think TM gives the bees the time they need to reduce the spore counts to a level low enough that will not lead to clinical symptoms.  This is provided, of course, that the bees are strong enough relative to the starting spore counts.  I agree with Bob Harrison - a swarm placed in a foulbrood deadout will not clean it out on its own.  It will not be able to get ahead of the spore numbers.

Waldemar

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