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Iowa Honey Producers Association |
The Buzz Newsletter March 2006 |
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(continued from Page 8) Many beekeepers in Minnesota winter their colonies in three standard brood chambers. Our finding is that it is possible to have too much honey in stores as the colonies enter winter. A beekeeper friend of mine in Minnesota has wintered numerous colonies in a single brood chamber. That requires some colony management plus feeding practices with which I am not acquainted. If you would attempt such a practice then you should contact Dennis Lind, of Rochester, MN for details. To sum it all up as to preparedness, if you did not get all colonies fully prepared for winter then maybe you have too many colonies. As a professor at Iowa State once said, “you are not keeping bees to the best of your ability”. As of about 15 years ago the Iowa Inspection Service turned their attention to mites and overlooked the possibilities of incidence of American Foul Brood that just might be waiting to be spread. That is just what has happened and the amount of disease among bees is on the rise. Over the 40 years that I was with the Iowa Department of Agriculture, I found it amazing that so many beekeepers throughout the country did not recognize the various stages of AFB, and there are different stages of the disease. At that time less than 10% of the beekeepers could detect American Foul Brood and European Foul Brood. There has been too little instruction and attention paid to bee disease among beginning beekeepers and long time beekeepers as well. To be successful in beekeeping knowing bee diseases is a necessity. There are some slides available that show the diseases very well and everyone should make use of them. Some stages of American Foul Brood are quite difficult to detect. When it gets to the stage where the pupae has dried to a scale (which lays on the bottom side of the cell) it is difficult to see. When AFB develops into that stage it has generally weakened the colony to the point where other colonies have robbed the honey so all colonies in the area will likely be infected. To prevent such a tragedy all beekeepers should inspect their colonies for disease two or three times in the Spring before the surplus honey supers are added and certainly before, or, as the surplus honey is removed. This little extra work could save the spread of disease and great losses. For many years the control for the disease was burning of all the equipment. Then, along came the use of Terramysin. It worked well. I have worked with other beekeepers in eradicating the disease and eliminated it in a few colonies of my own. In 1960, out of 25 colonies within one of our apiaries we found five colonies with the first stages of Foul Brood. Terramycin was just becoming into being so we gave it a try. After four treatments that Spring there was no more sign of the disease. Those colonies were inspected five times during the summer but no signs of the AFB was found present. So for two years following that, the colonies were not treated, but the disease never returned. Following that we treated all colonies, spring and fall with a proper treatment of Terramycin and the following more than 35 years we had not one cell of American Foul Brood among our 250 to 300 colonies. Later Dr. Bill Wilson prescribed the Extender Patty with TM, which many used, we found in some cases the bees didn’t clean out the disease, but built up an immunity to TM. If two sheets of foundation are palced in every brood chamber every Spring it would keep the combs in better shape to control all disease and even the mites. Give it a try. At least it helps to eliminate Nosema disease. I am celebrating my 80th year among the honeybees! Submitted by Glenn Stanley
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