Chalk brood

[Neils]

I really must get a photo of this one, almost can't believe that I didn't. Had a frame today of almost 100% chalk brood.

This is an AS split of the colony that was having chalkbrood problems before but seemed to be ok once I put them on a higher stand. In the old comb there is a lot of chalk brood. In a brand new frame of foundation there is a side where almost every cell is chalk brood and then it goes back in the next frame to being ok again.

I'm going to take all the old frames out and replace with foundation anyway and I'm now waiting on a new queen to try and finish the job but I'm very surprised that the frame that is chalk brood is new comb on the first cycle of brood.

The other half of the As also with a new Queen (it swarmed) is booming so I'm thinking that this queen maybe got the susceptibility to it compared to the other and a duff hand in terms of the amount of it still in the old combs.

[The Drone Ranger]

Neils
At the start of the season I had a few that had chalkbrood
I have tried a couple of things

On one I attempted to feed it out with syrup (Eric Mc has succeeded with this)

On a second I closed the entrance put a QX on the floor put hive clean thymol powder in a layer on the floor
Then I put the brood box back on, knowing the mummies would fall out through the excluder on to the hive clean
Finally using a board I provided only a top entrance and fed 1:1

On the third although it was risky I shook all the bees into a clean box on a clean floor and burnt the old combs with brood
I then fed 1:1 to help the comb drawing and stop starvation

The ones where feeding only was tried are still badly affected
The elaborate measures for the second one still has chalk
The one shook(actually brushed with grass) into clean equipment totally clear

All the original queens were good layers and left in place for the experiment

The only successful clean hive and foundation one was requeened yesterday but for grumpiness reasons only
They are on nice wax now

So to anyone my advice would be, it's chancy, but brush gently onto foundation in a clean box floor crownboard lid etc
Chalbrood is fungal and is a pain in the A to get rid of I don't know if Acetic is enough to sterilise combs
For boxes I am using bleach then virkon

[Neils]

I'm going to take out the frames and I've got some chalk brood treatment, BeeVital Chalkbrood, that a friend tried and said was very effective. This hive has two frames of old/infected comb and the one of 100%, the rest of the kit is brand new. So I'm going to take the frames out and replace with sterilised/new frames and try the treatment.

Acetic should work, but these I'm just going to burn. For the sake of a couple of quid, why risk it?

[Adam]

There was some chalkbrood this cold spring - which went as pollen came in - however the spores are still around, me thinks. I have some nucs with chalkbrood now- but not as bad as yours Neils. Your comment about putting them on a stand is interesting as I was considering that myself and the offending nucs are on just 1 house-brick on the grass. Some nucs are perfect but all off the ground. One nuc with chalkbrood had it's queen removed to a vacant mini-nuc and the brood pattern is now good so the queen seems otherwise OK and not a chalkbrood queen. The replacement queen that went into the nuc which had decent brood in it's mini-nuc has not made any difference in the brood pattern.
I am planning (tonight) to do a Bailey frame exchange - put the queen in the top over a queen excluder with a top entrance; close off the bottom entrance. (two 5 frame nucs one above the other). Yesterday I moved the nuc to one side to see a pile of mummies under the ventillation hole so I'll raise it up and move the queen up onto new comb and feed lots. I guess I can remove the mummies from the grass as well to reduce re-infection.
The beebase foulbrood leaflet (printed pages 25 and 26) states that chalkbrood problems can perhaps be helped by Apiguard - thymol.. So I put some ApilifeVar inside yesterday.