When I said "this last could mean" I was referring to the fact the bees are
dark & shiny. (I then edited my post before sending it and added a point)
Paul
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On 4 March 2018 9:04 PM, Paul Honigmann <paul.honigmann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What strikes me aboutthis picture is:
- Not many bees (could imply queen failure)
- Stores just a few cells away - NOT a few combs away - I doubt it is
isolation starvation
- Shiny black bees
- The honey cells are not white capped, they are dark (no air gap behind wax
capping) implying this strain of bees has few Amm traits / genes, implying
(this is a bit of a logic stretch - I'm concatenating assumptions into a
chain) the natural colouration of these bees would tend to be Italian / much
yellower.
This last could mean Chronic Paralysis Virus. There's also Acute Paralysis
Virus of which, [Wikipedia
says](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diseases_of_the_honey_bee#Acute_bee_paralysis_virus)
"Apparently, this virus plays a role in cases of sudden collapse of honey
bee colonies infested with the parasitic mite [Varroa
destructor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_destructor)."
Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus, which is described in more detail in BeeBase:
http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm?pageid=275&video=03
The reason this comes to mind is that someone in south Oxfordshire mentioned
recently, they lost 3 colonies to ABPV. So maybe it's in our area. But it's
Chronic BPV which the references say gives shiny black bees.
Did you save any corpses in a freezer? You can always ask a bee inspector,
our regional one is Jonathan Palmer, Jonathan.Palmer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx . I
don't know if he's as accepting of our no-treatment approach as his
predecessor Phil Spillane.
If it is a virus, best not feed remaining honey to other hives. Might be wise
to burn the comb, too.
Anyone here got experience with CBPV or ABPV?
Paul
