Hi Steward...thanx for all the information regarding Bees and their "issues", I am from South Africa and started bee keeping in May 2017, have three active hives and loving it!!
Still here watching your videos (footballs still on :( ) I've heard other beekeepers mention re-Queening when Chalk Brood is present but as you said it's a fungus and I don't understand what the Q has to do with it? please explain in laymans terms, you know I'm a NewBee! lol Many thanks for the excellent educationals - Lisa
Hi Lisa, Go England!!!!! Football's coming home! Some queens are more resilient against chalkbrood than others it seems so requeening can help reduce the impact on the larvae. Stewart
Hello Greetings from the Blue Mountains outside Sydney Australia. I carried out a hive inspection today. In a very strong hive, full of brood I found chalk brood on one frame. I can usually find a queen but worryingly I couldn't this time. I did find a Emergency Queen Cell. No drone cells to mention but I did see a few wandering around on the frames. There are plenty of larvae in excellent patterns. All the humidity we are now experiencing may have contributed to the chalk brood flare up. I have not encountered it in this apiary before. ( new apiary with 6 hives only ) I am not a commercial beekeeper. I live on 34 acres of eucalyptus forest. The fires came close but spared us. I know I must have had a queen at least a week ago. There is plenty of space in the hive ( supered) with queen excluder. Should I painstakingly pick out all the chalk brood larvae? Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. Best wishes Roy
Hello Stuart, I keep bees in mid Wales and have a colony (new in 2018) which has always had a bit of chalk brood and as you suggest in your video above it has got a lot worse recently. I treated the colony with MAQS in April and whereas other colonies are recovering well this one is struggling. and I was thinking I should perhaps take some action. I was wondering why it is usually recommended to re-queen rather than re-house all the bees, including the queen but taking none of the brood. Also, would it work to re-queen if I were to destroy the queen, remove any brood with eggs and introduce new eggs or queen cells from another colony as though I had a queenless colony.
Hi Helen, It seems there is some susceptibility with the genetics of some queens to chalkbrood and that's why there is a recommendation to requeen. That said, I have just captured a swarm from a high chalkbrood colony and set them off on new foundation and so far there's not a sight of chalkbrood. I'll be monitoring them over the coming weeks and months to see if it develops in them. To be sure of removing it I think requeening and replacing comb for fresh foundation is the best way to give them every opportunity to survive. Stewart
Hi Stewart just I want to ask u when I requeen the queen what about the frames got chalkbrood do I need to remove tham or keep tham in hive and when I kill the queen can I put queen sale it just about to come out ?many thanks
Hello stewart again and thank u for answering.I want to know if you requeen with a better queen do you destroy the frames that where infected with ascosphaira apis.
Hi Panagiotis L, Yes if it was a particularly bad infection I would replace the frames, no point in putting a new queen into a colony that may have a high loading of the infection already. Many queens seem to shake it off so no need to replace. Stewart
Thank u for answering.I have caged a queen in her colony so that it wont bee any brood at all and after requeened her with a new one with the same frames inside and it had again thats why i asked thank u very much.
I think in that situation I would be tempted to remove the frames and replace them. You can of course treat them with acetic acid which should kill off the chalkbrood but I think I would go for replacement and melt down the old combs. Stewart
Thanks Stewart, I did inspect one of my cutout hive from a tree in June.It had chalk brood,no queen nor larva,full super of honey and a candy board.Is every part of this hive contaminated ? Thanks
I tend to cut out the wax, boil the frames and scorch the boxes with a flame gun as a matter of good practice but chalkbrood isn't a major problem normally so you could get away with not scorching. I think it just makes sense to be a careful as possible. I wouldn't reuse any of the frames without cleaning though. Stewart
Panagiotis L Hello from Norfolk UK. Great to hear from Greece. I always take the step of Requeening a colony that has severe chalkbrood. Some colonies manage quite well with a small amount but I never produce queens from colonies that have any chalkbrood. Stewart
Hi Jerry, for me I always advise the T-shirt test. If it's ok for you to wander around in a T-shirt then inspecting the bees is ok. I would only open them up below 12-15 degrees C if I had a very specific reason. For beginner beekeepers it's probably better not to open them and wait for warmer weather but there are always reasons to have to inspect so there is no hard and fast rule. Just try to prevent the brood nest from chilling as this can trigger chalkbrood in some colonies. Stewart
