Oh ....

[gavin]

Yes, I was keen to find out what was happening in that one so - despite the cool afternoon (about 13C) - I shook the bees into the box from all the frames with brood. It was packed with bees and they were none too pleased.

Beekeepers really should have an inspection specifically to look for brood disease and this is the ideal time to do it as EFB is more likely to be showing itself. Take out a couple of non-brood frames, clear a space, and give the frame a sharp tug while held in the space.

Look for AFB (and also EFB) under cappings that are a little different. Darker, ruckled, perforated? Knock the capping off. Look for EFB (and also AFB!) in open brood, even small larvae can be affected. Twisted or melted down larvae indicate EFB.

[Neils]

Just had a thought. The pictures show frames with no bees and only a few cells that the larvae look strange. How many beekeepers actually shake off their bees and examine the brood.

I do. Primarily I tend to do this as part of my swarm control (or is it management? the bit before you think they're likely to be swarming) but otherwise I do a shake of approximately 1/3rd of the brood frames maybe once per month. I don't like "needlessly" shaking bees off frames, but I think taking a good look at the brood on several frames in a colony is worth doing relatively frequently.

I know it's a subtle distinction but I look for brood/bees that are unusual when I inspect, if I see something on a frame then it definitely gets cleared of bees so I can get a better look. When I first started out I looked for everything being "Bright, White and Curled up tight". Problem with that is you're expecting to see it so that's what you tend to spot. If you're actively looking for everything that isn't that, I found that much easier to see [potential] problems as the normal brood fades into the background, so to speak.

[Karin]

I got a repeat EFB alert today. I hope that done't mean two poor souls in the area now have it.

I am looking at all the open brood in the colonies extra carefully, shaking about a third of the frames to look for the tell tale melted looking larva.

Not seen anything noteworthy yet, save I have a few colonies with bald brood.

[Neils]

Fingers crossed. We were lucky in Bristol last year, there were pockets of it all around but it never quite seemed to hit us in the city. Probably just as well in terms of bee population this is pretty densely packed so I'd imagine it'd have a field day if it took hold.

[Dan]

Not good. EFB can develop late in sealed cells, as in the ones you see that have been reopened. In the last picture, the lower dodgy larva looks as if it's developing the yellowed snout of a classic chalkbrood mummy, but the larva above it is concerning.