I have a link to a video we made 2.5 yrs. ago. A beehive that died out with SHB traps 12 months earlier. This is what we found. The residue from wax moth. My reference to plastic has nothing to do with the Flow Hive. I cleaned it all up, scorched it & it’s in use today with a strong working colony.
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Burn the lot! Not worth the hassle and potential disease etc.
To save one badly diseased hive and risk all your other hives is just not worth it
There’s probably little risk to other bees provided the hive was cleaned up properly. What’s more disturbing is the routine use of oxytetracycline (an antibiotic) for foul brood. Here in UK we have a destruction policy. I wonder how they monitor residues in honey?
Yes Dee I often wonder about that as well
Dee this is Wilma. Jeff did not say he used antibiotics. He said the farmer did. I am against this practice, and so is Jeff. The farmer got this idea from another commercial bee keeper, who was a friend of his in another area. The farmer wanted to save his bees. He had fifteen hives, and went down to three, which he managed to save with the antibiotics. He then contacted Jeff, and asked him to help him. Since Jeff took over the management of his hives, he has now got thirteen healthy hives, and is so happy with the increase in the pollination, and production he is getting in his orchard.
Wilma. Nowhere did I suggest Jeff used antibiotics. What I said was that their use is routine. Would you agree?If not then I am misinformed and apologise.
Healthy Bees - Protecting and improving the health of honey bees in England and Wales March 2009
This is for UK Beeks and anyone who worries about Small Hive Beetle (SHB)
Beekeepers are responsible for the health and welfare of their bees, and in the first instance, for the management of pests and diseases.
This duty of care includes: Recognising pests and diseases and through knowing their legal obligations, reporting any suspicion of notifiable pests or disease to their local Bee Inspector or the NBU (National Bee Unit);
Maintaining good husbandry and health practices to prevent and control the spread of pests and diseases;
Ensuring that their skills and competence levels are appropriate and up to date;
Signing up to BeeBase;
Complying with legislation on controlling pests and diseases, including standstill notices and import requirements;
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bee-health "
A copy of the ‘Beekeeping Essentials’ leaflet published by the Healthy Bees Plan can be found at NBU http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm?sectionid=42
Information about Wax Moth, Varroa, AFB, EFB, etc this is the listing;
I encourage any bee keeper who wants good bee keeping practices to read these pages
Unless I am missing something, no one really recommends buring a hive for wax moths and small hive beetles do they? Why wouldn’t this hive be reusable?
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In the UK SHB is a notifiable disease - any Bee keeper here from the UK needs to understand their obligations - this is how we stop the spread of disease over here.
What has been advocated in the video goes against the law here in UK so it was my duty to mention it
If you get wax moths you have to burn your hives in the UK? That seems extreme…
Small Hive Beetle and AFB - inspectors will come out free and do an inspection if you ask or if you just want your bees checking - which is what I will do when I get some Nucs for sale. Also they can make arrangements and turn up just to do an inspection - you let them in or rearrange as required - refusal is not an option.
If she/he says burn - you burn
Hi Dee. Wilma here. Jeff did say that you did not mention that he was using antibiotics after I posted the message, and in reading it again I realise this, and I am really sorry for what I said. I was trying to let every one know that Jeff did not agree with this practice. I have a real thing about antibiotics. I was a practicing registered nurse until I retired on the 8th. of this month. Antibiotic abuse is a problem world wide in humans as well as animals, but they do have there place. I think people are becoming more aware of antibiotic abuse. With AFB we have a choice in Australia to sterilise or to burn. Once again please except my apology.
@Valli, Let’s just hope nobody gets told to burn their Flow Hives. The trick is to be just as good as the inspector at spotting SHB & AFB & keep it out of our hives.
If hygienic practices and good bee husbandry are used and practiced, then AFB will be less likely to spread.
Which is why it is all bee keepers duty to not only protect their own bees but using good husbandry will not wantonly spread the diseases in the first place
Controlling bee pests and disease
Report suspect bee diseases or pests
If you are a beekeeper in England and Wales, and you find signs of a notifiable bee disease or pest in your colony, you must contact the NBU and request an inspection of your bees.
Failure to do this is an offence under the Bee Diseases and Pest Control Order 2006 with fines set on a case-by-case basis.
Elsewhere in the UK, you must contact the local office of the relevant government department.
The two notifiable bee pests are:
Small hive beetle
Tropilaelaps mite
The two notifiable bee diseases are:
American foulbrood
European foulbrood
If one of these pests or diseases is found in your apiary, the NBU will serve a notice requiring that the hive is treated or destroyed. The inspector will provide you with more information about what you need to do.
Just thought I’d share this FAQ from our website - not sure how it will affect everyone personally in relation to disease and pest management. But it’s at least one good thing about the Flow Frames - that they can be sterilised, and potentially not burned, etc. (depending on local regulations, etc.) Which inevitably could save a bit of money down the track.
http://www.honeyflow.com/faqs/flow-frame-sterilisation-irradiation-disease-control/p/145
Flow frame sterilisation / irradiation / disease control
In: Frequently Asked Questions Viewed: 4,226 times
Heat treatment: Flow frames can handle hot water up to 70˚c
Chemical treatment: The plastics chosen have good chemical resistance. We will be testing various chemicals to evaluate this soon.
Irradiation: We have tested the Flow frame parts with multiple doses of 15kgy Gamma rays. We load tested the irradiated parts and tested them to destruction. The results were: 1 dose had little effect. 2 doses had minimal effect. 3 doses and the plastic was significantly more brittle. We will be testing further to see if this causes any failures but at this stage we can say the Flow frames can handle being sterilised with 15kgy gamma twice.
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Lots of people are not registered on Beebase. It’s not mandatory to do so. Many older beekeepers here (the lucky ones that kept bees before varroa) are not. I should imagine in the cities where beekeeping is more of a “cool” thing to do and is local BKA driven the percentage is higher.
I myself abandoned the BBKA pretty quickly, their arcane committee structure, reliance on sponsorship from the Crop Protection Agency (owned by the Big Pharma who make neonicotinoids), refusal to do anything but sit on the fence over pesticides and old fashioned methods are anathema to me.
@DextersShed, I think you’ll find that bee Inspectors have powers to enter any premises at any
time to inspect colonies, especially if pests or disease are thought to be present. I myself have reported a local beekeeper who kept his hives in a disgraceful state.
@Valli There are AFB hotspots in this country around honey processing plants (all the famous ones)
Bees forage on waste which has not been cleaned of honey and we all know where a lot of that non EU honey comes from. It’s the single main reason not to feed your bees with any honey but your own.
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there is a list published yearly of where the disease spots are and numbers - thank goodness my area is quite low.
They have the powers similar to customs - I know a beek who earlier this year had a visit. She was experimenting with Drone Comb and he made her take them out - said it was “a Varroa factory in the making”. If you remember a way back we looked at Varroa in some drone comb at my meetings. The inspector turned up when her husband answered and he had to let them in or reschedule