Hi Helen,
I would be very cautious about letting the bees anywhere near these containers.
My fear would be AFB (American
Foulbrood)<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_foulbrood#Disease_spread>.
An AFB infection is via spores in honey. These spores are ingested by the bees
which then transmit the disease to immature brood. The brood die, releasing
more spores. The spores may be viable for up to 40 years. The treatment is to
dig a hole and burn the hive with all your bees in it to ash.
These containers may contain sterilised honey but I wouldn't bet on it. I don't
know how to remove spores from them if they are contaminated.
This all looks very risky from a bee-keeper perspective. May I ask that if your
allotment holders do use them then please insist that, at the very least, they
wash them out into the drains (rather than onto vegetation). Sorry to be
hard-line about it, but AFB sounds very nasty.
Will
On 02/08/18 12:25, Helen Nunn wrote:
Hi
Our allotments have ordered (and just received) four huge cubic metre honey
containers from Rowse, to use as rainwater catchment butts. They have remnants
of honey in them from places like New Zealand and who-knows-where-else. For the
moment I have put the lids on to avoid wasps and bees finding it.
My question is will this imported honey have adverse effects on my bees, if
they are allowed to finish cleaning the insides? The same thing happened a
couple of years ago, and the tanks were left open before I found out. It
doesn't seem to have affected the bees but who knows?
Any ideas please?
Helen
