Biosecurity kit

[gavin]

Having recently been looking at EFB-infected and not-EFB-infected colonies I have a basic biosecurity kit in the back of the car. It might be of interest to some to see what is involved.

1. Basin (£1, Tesco)
2. Small plastic brush (not in picture, 50p, Tesco)
3. Two hive tools of your preferred design (quite few quid, Thornes)
4. 1kg pack of soda crystals (aka Washing Soda, 90p, Tesco)
5. Solution (1 kg soda, small skoosh washing-up liquid, 5l water, old screen wash container)
6. Box 100 latex gloves (£9 and a bit, B&Q). Marigolds a possibility instead.
7. One black bin bag for the bee suit after a visit to live infection.



Procedure.

New gloves between apiaries, or between colonies if there is active infection.

One hive tool in the washing soda while the other is used. Some use a blowtorch instead.

Not all the crystals dissolve in 5l so you can top it up with more water until it does.

Scrub the bellows of the smoker and the hive tools at the end of the session.

Seal the bee suit in a black bag to remind you to stick it in the washing machine.

When we met up last week I made people put disposable overshoes on too. That is going a bit far unless you have a large group of people visiting an infected site.

hope that helps - feel free to criticise (even Steve's boss if you are reading!)

Gavin

[Neils]

Paging Meg! Seriously, I've seen the back of her car

By and large no problem with that at all. I prefer three hive tools an two uncapping forks myself but apparently I'm overcautious.

We at least use the same brand of washing soda (nothing to do with it coming from a pound shop I'm sure!)

Marigolds are expensive, but you could wash them in the soda in between inspections and dispose after each apiary rather than each hive with the latex gloves.

I also tend to have two suits. Between my own sites I'm not that bothered, but I do cycle them once a week so there always tends to be one clean in the car and the other on the washing line.

[gavin]

Yeah, I have two suits too, but I don't rigorously cycle them. As of now, my experience with real as opposed to pretend EFB is very occasional.

You pay £1 for the soda? It is cheaper in Tesco!!

[Neils]

I dunno, I guessed, it's taken a year for the water to go crunchy and brown and us to run out of soda so I guess I should buy some more. This is Bristol, we burn Tescos for warmth while we fight the police. It might cost more in the local shopbut that's the way we like it

[gavin]

LOL!! Ages since I've seen League of Gentlemen. Funnily enough I spent much of the evening sitting in a room discussing local things, including local shops. Mostly local climate change adaptation though.

[Karin]

How much does a DIY EFB testing kit cost and where would you get it from?

I leave the smoker at the apiary, so as not to risk spread between apiaries, but I like the idea of scrubbing hte belows. Hadn't thought of that.

[Neils]

I believe you can get lateral flow devices from vita (same people who make apiguard) but I'm not sure If the main suppliers stock them nor what they cost.

I think if someone didn't have one in their kit and had any suspicion that they had FB their first call should be to their local inspector.

[Neils]

[edit] know the conversation is in the context of putting together kit and maintaining hygiene but still a point worth making I feel

Tapatalk playing silly buggers and I can't edit the post.

[Jimbo]

Gavin,

Not many club card points then if you were making up a kit. If we save up enough points we could trade them in for a PO ferry ticket to visit Jon's bee breeding set up (You get 4 times the value on PO and Eurostar etc)

[gavin]

Good idea Jimbo! Nellie will be stuffed - he's burnt them all down apparently. Perhaps I should get a replacement Club Card then (stolen during a trip to India!) and perhaps use it to get to Gormanston next year.

Ahh ... there was a Tapatalk plug-in update which your dilatory administrator studiously ignored. Maybe soon.

Karin, Thornes sell the EFB test kit at £6.62 a throw. The previous SBA Diseases Convener (ahem), after discussions with the President, recommended to the members that if they had suspicions of EFB they should call the inspectors. Two reasons:

- it is a notifiable disease and if you have suspicions that is the law
- the test kits have been failing in the wrong hands, giving negatives when they were in fact positive. The worst kind of mistake.

That last factor contributed to the late discovery of the outbreak. At least one of the commercial beekeepers affected had used test kits, obtained a negative, and continued under the assumption that the outbreak was PMS (see other thread!) rather than EFB. The age of the larva sampled is crucial, and this was *not* explained in the instructions.