AFB is indeed a dreadful disease and the bees have to be killed, and
they, along with the frames and combs have to be burnt in a pit as Will
describes - but the National Bee Unit, the statutory controller for AFB,
allows the hive itself to be sterilised with a blowtorch, not burnt to
ash (http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm?sectionid=26). But it's
the loss of the bees that really hurts...
Gilliane
On 02/08/2018 19:11, Oxnatbees wrote:
Helen, are you in OBKA? They organised a couple of trips to Rowse. After the first one they were appalled at the biosecurity. Things had improved somewhat a year later. You could mail them and ask their opinion of current practises at Rowse, but I agree with Will, the contents of such containers sound really risky.
Re: "sterilisation": When honey is pasteurised it does NOT kill AFB spores, the temperatures to do that would ruin the honey. It just kills yeasts to prolong shelf life once in jars.
Paul
On Thu, 2 Aug 2018, 15:38 Will H, <whanrott@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:whanrott@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
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
