Page 3 of 6 FirstFirst 12345 ... LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 60

Thread: Chalk brood

  1. #21
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Jurassic Coast.
    Posts
    1,480

    Default

    It's a long time since I had a copy of Cooper's book but if I remember right it was put together posthumously from his notes. No excuse for not noting gaps in the notes of course but to be fair to Cooper himself we'll never know how he would have presented the information he had or whether he might have wished to carry out more intense tests prior to publishing a book himself (possibly during retirement). The thing which sticks in my mind is that his peer, Donald Sims (while not subscribing to Cooper's idea of the 'best' bee), wrote about him in a positive way.

    Interesting conversation none the less.

  2. #22

    Default

    I do think the time is long overdue for someone to write the book that Cooper's book could have been. It seems nuts that there's no comprehensive modern treatise on AMM when there's so much interest in the subject. Someone needs to apply for funding for this - hint hint Jon, Rosie etc

  3. #23
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Jurassic Coast.
    Posts
    1,480

    Default

    Not sure how good it is but I did once come across a reference to a modern German language book devoted to amm. If it lives up to it's hype it may just need translating.

    edit:
    http://www.nordbiene.de/das-buch-die-dunkle-biene.html
    Last edited by prakel; 07-05-2014 at 06:16 PM.

  4. #24

    Default

    Low mite counts on chalkbrood colonies might be the effect of mites being killed along with larva sort of brood culling
    Thymol doesn't have much effect in reversing the problem in my experiments
    Nor arranging for the mummies to fall through a queen excluder on the floor into a layer of hiveclean

    Tried the heavy feeding with sugar syrup as recommended in Scottish Beekeeper
    Bananas (Australian Idea) banana skins anyway (slipped up there)

    The only effective method I have found is to shake all the bees into another box , floor etc. on clean frames new foundation
    Then feed them some ordinary syrup no additive while they get started drawing the wax
    The brood break probably helps as well

    Often it stays gone so it might not always be the queen could be moving supers around etc

    I just burn the affected combs now rather than treating them with acetic or any thing

  5. #25
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Tayside
    Posts
    4,464
    Blog Entries
    41

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    Tried the heavy feeding with sugar syrup as recommended in Scottish Beekeeper
    Ah, the 'Eureka! I've solved it!' article (with no controls or proper scientific approach?

  6. #26
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    North Wales
    Posts
    639

    Default

    I find it's just a temporary spring phenomenon and clears itself as the colony develops. The best way of preventing it recurring next spring is to change to fresh comb. I can't remember ever having to resort to a change of queen although I am sure that some colonies are more susceptible than others. I came close to requeening once but they sorted the problem themselves in the nick of time. They must have heard me making plans to requeen.

    Like DR I destroy all black or infected comb.
    Last edited by Rosie; 08-05-2014 at 09:48 AM. Reason: added a bit

  7. #27
    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Norfolk East Anglia, South Scotland
    Posts
    962

    Default

    A couple of years ago I did an experiment and moved a chalk-brood queen to a clean colony and lo - that colony subsequently developed chalk brood instead of the first one! So that would indicate that the CB follows the queen, although clean comb would do no harm and might well help.

    With regard to old books, Many of them were very subjective and un-scientific so I do have my concerns about them. Some were openly selling particular equipment of the day too. One I recall suggested a particular brand of petrol mixed up with god-knows-what as a cure for brood diseases. And there's the banging of pots and pans when a swarm issues and all that malarkey!

  8. #28
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Jurassic Coast.
    Posts
    1,480

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Adam View Post
    With regard to old books, Many of them were very subjective and un-scientific so I do have my concerns about them. Some were openly selling particular equipment of the day too. One I recall suggested a particular brand of petrol mixed up with god-knows-what as a cure for brood diseases. And there's the banging of pots and pans when a swarm issues and all that malarkey!
    Petrol's still used to cure brood disease in some parts! It was also a constituent of the Frow mix wasn't it?

    I reckon that a lot of the old books actually offer a lot of great value, I'm far from close minded when it comes to modern research but I wouldn't be without the old books either.

  9. #29
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    West Wales, Gorllewin Cymru
    Posts
    709

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Adam View Post
    And there's the banging of pots and pans when a swarm issues and all that malarkey!
    I've seen it work a treat, a swarm dropped from the sky and started clustering on a gorse bush within seconds, magic does happen!

  10. #30
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Belfast, N. Ireland
    Posts
    5,122
    Blog Entries
    94

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Adam View Post
    A couple of years ago I did an experiment and moved a chalk-brood queen to a clean colony and lo - that colony subsequently developed chalk brood instead of the first one! So that would indicate that the CB follows the queen, although clean comb would do no harm and might well help.
    I have seen the same Adam. I am sure there is a large genetic component in it.
    I have moved queens back and forward between apideas and colonies for various reasons and a queen which has chalk brood in a full colony will also show chalk brood in the apidea and vice versa.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •