Bee Health Day

[gavin]

Anybody here go to the day at SASA yesterday? Well done to everybody involved - it was well organised and very informative.

[EmsE]

I thought it was a really well planned and thoroughly enjoyed it. The lady showing frames with particular diseases was good at getting you to think of why you were seeing the abnormalities present. Smelling the foulbrood is something I hope never to experience again :p

One question I thought of regarding the foul broods on my drive to Thurso to see my sister (obviously far too much thinking time due to distances involved) was what makes the cappings greasy & why?

[gavin]

That was Margaret Thomas. She's a star. Moved from Essex (where she was a bee farmer) to Aberfeldy a couple of years ago (I'll bet that she thought she was getting away from foulbrood with that move!).

Did Mairi tell you what she thought EFB larvae (with Paenibacillus larvae) smelled like?!

I pity you the long drive up the A9 thinking mostly about greasy cappings. But no, having only thought about it for a minute or two sitting here with my laptop, I've no idea! We were also told that you sometimes get a 'ploop' when opening one, implying that there is a vaccuum which is released when you break the seal. I rather liked the novel use of some kind of caramel confection to show stringy gloopy AFB-like gunk.

[EmsE]

...Did Mairi tell you what she thought EFB larvae (with Paenibacillus larvae) smelled like?!

I pity you the long drive up the A9 thinking mostly about greasy cappings. But no, having only thought about it for a minute or two sitting here with my laptop, I've no idea! We were also told that you sometimes get a 'ploop' when opening one, implying that there is a vaccuum which is released when you break the seal. I rather liked the novel use of some kind of caramel confection to show stringy gloopy AFB-like gunk.

Was it the smell of socks from teenage boys?

Just introducing my sister to the site and she's now off caramel confectionery after reading that. :cool: ha ha- more for me.

Another thing that was fascinating, was standing in an apiary, with an open hive, with thunder rumbling.....and we didn't need to run for cover (from the bees that is).

[gavin]

Ah ... teenage boys, yes. Part that and part old fishboxes. Pittenweem harbour someone said.

The bees were on their best behaviour. Our group was responsible for the third disturbance to the same colony I think, and there was only a little bit of veil-hovering and little aggression despite the atrocious beekeeping weather.

[Neils]

We did something similar a couple of years back and I very much recommend it. I was on a workshop dealing with the general husbandy certificate the other week, fortunately I didn't repeat my experience as per my basic assessment where we found EFB in the hive I was inspecting, but did inspect colonies with a proverbial fine tooth comb which was a very useful experience.

The smell of [serious] foul brood is something to behold. I've never quite known how to describe it other than if you smelt it coming out of your hive(s) you'd know something was wrong. Old fishboxes is a pretty good description I suppose, rotting is the best I came up with. I do love the smell of supers and the brood boxes but the E/AFB frames that were on demonstration were, well, pungent. But only up close. given they were in a closed room on a warm spring day you didn't notice it coming into the room.