Concerns about swarm catching and disease

[Adam]

This week I was asked to help catch a swarm. It was at the bottom of some bamboo which was a bit of a faff with all the bees mixed in the canes, but the colony was hived OK in one of my empty nucs which is on loan for the time being. However the owner knows nothing about bees and was given the colony in a nest box in the winter. The nest box is nailed shut and has never been opened. I am amazed as to the number of bees that came out of it. He informed me that he has been feeding it honey over the winter and into spring. :eek: Alarm bells rang.

My worry is that of foul brood disease being transferred to the colony and my nuc from potentially infected honey. (I read somewhere recently about honey importers being implicated in the spread of disease to local bees robbing from around the processing plant).

My gloves have been binned of course, what should I do about my nuc, clothing, the sheet I used etc. Should I do anything about the bees?

Any suggestions?

[Jon]

Hi Adam
Maybe quarantine it away from your other colonies if possible
What sort of honey was he feeding?
If it was strong enough to swarm it sounds healthy enough.
How much varroa does it have?

[Adam]

Jon,
The colony is hived at the owners site which is a good mile away as the bee flies so at least they are not in my apiary. The honey used, I am sure, would be supermarket stuff.
My worry is that foulbrood takes a while to materialise and be noticable - that's even when you can prize off the front of the bird box!.

I assume the varroa load in the hive will be quite high; It was getting dark when the swarm was collected so I could not see anything on the bees - we finished up in torchlight.

We have no foulbrood near us and I want to keep it that way!
40 or so years ago my Father had to dig a pit and burn his 3 hives due to American FB so maybe I am more conscious of it than some!

[Jon]

We have no foulbrood near us and I want to keep it that way!
40 or so years ago my Father had to dig a pit and burn his 3 hives due to American FB so maybe I am more conscious of it than some!

My father says that my grandfather lost colonies with foulbrood. I think that was before WW2

[Neils]

Definite second year beekeeper alert here, but I've recently encountered a colony with EFB so I'm recounting the advice I was given.

Hive the bees on foundation so they'll draw wax rather than store what they're carrying. (wasn't specifically told this, but as shookswarming is sometimes an option it seems a reasonable suggestion).

Wash your suit, including veil and the sheet, I was advised that normal detergent/temperature is fine for this. Was told it wasn't necessary to do anything with your boots.

Wash/soak any kit (hive tools etc) in soda solution, I went a stage further and took a blow torch to my hive tool and stored it separate to the rest of my kit until I did so.

It does look like you could buy the test kits yourself, but I think I'd be more inclined to ask your SBI to come inspect them once there's enough brood on the go. I have to admit that while I knew something was wrong with the colony, I didn't spot that it was foulbrood, fortunately the SBI was onsite at the time and picked it up immediately.

[beeanne]

I thought (not strongly enough to argue about it though!) that walking through a bach of soda was the Done Thing when leaving an apiary with foul brood. Possibly overkill, but if you're wearing wellies - particularly between one clean apiary and another iffy one then might as well.

[gavin]

I seem to remember spraying boots with disinfectant at your local association apiary last summer Anne, but then we were in initial panic mode and I did think that I was carrying an EFB-infected comb out of the apiary to deliver to the inspectors. (Now regarded as a probable false alarm.) Whatever precautions people take have to be commensurate with the risk. For our apiary visit here a couple of weeks ago I asked people to leave their gloves and hive tools at home, and provided disposable gloves for those who wanted them. If there was EFB in the host apiary (or in theirs) I might have told them to wash their bees suits too when they got home (or before they came). Cleaning bees off suits and trampled items off footwear before leaving might also be wise.