> > What was interesting was that the most prolific hive was the first to 
show AFB this year. (Bob will comment, I am sure).

> Not sure why the most prolific was the first. Weaker hives usually display 
> the AFB but the strong hives rob the weak. I have never seen AFB patterns.

Well, assuming these bees were all hygienic to various degrees, I am 
thinking the more hygienic ones were burdened by pulling more brood and the 
ones which showed some AFB were less picky about what brood they kept.  I 
don't know that there was much, if any robbing.

This observation was not the result of particularly careful investigation or 
necessarily representative.  The hive I am remembering was a monster that 
was ready to swarm early and one that I split multiple times subsequently. 
The hive only showed a few cells before I decided it was time to use the 
treatment option.

People say that using OTC or tylosin merely mask AFB.  I'm thinking that 
hygienic bees do the same if there is a background level of spores in the 
hive or environment.

BTW, Beaverlodge is working on three aspects of AFB management by bees: HYG, 
nurse bee spore filtering and larval resistance to infection.   Steve Pernal 
gave a great presentation at the ABC meeting this week.  They are 
investigating effectiveness, heritability, interrelation, and markers for 
the traits. 

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