> As I said in a previous post, I had 400 or so hives 
> irradiated, put fresh bees into the equipment and
> they soon broke down with chalkbrood.

Do you see a connection between the two events?   Maybe you can give some
more detail. Do you think the irradiation was insufficient because the
chalkbrood was so bad afterwards, or if your gear might have been
cross-contaminated in the post-irradiation handling, or something else?  Who
did the irradiation, and if you remember, what was the beam and exposure
time?  Did your gear get combined with someone else's to make up a "full
load"?

We had the stuff irradiated to prevent a chalkbrood outbreak after installing new packages in used equipment. Most of the equipment was less than 4 years old. The irradiation facility was in Massachusetts. They had very strict protocols, every super had to be equalized for honey and combs, weighed, bagged in a heavy plastic bag, boxed in a cardboard carton, palletized and plastic wrapped. I figured it cost about $80 per super, not counting labor. It would cheaper to get rid of them. 

The equipment other than supers and frames, we sterilized with chlorine bleach. As far as what happened, you answered it. The bees probably came with all the pathogens that bees have. There is no such thing as "clean bees" so why go to huge expense to provide "clean comb"? I thought it likely that the chalkbrood came from the environment, as Apergillus species are everywhere. Prof. Calderone thought it came from the bees. Either way, a lot of money spent and not the outcome we wanted. 

PLB

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