Why AFB is a Dread Disease to Newbees and No Big Deal for Pros

[Allen Dick]

This topic http://honeybeeworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1681 got me thinking.

I mentioned a quick scan for AFB when handling brood.

Here is the point: ABF takes a long time to get to the point where it looks anything like the pictures and combs shown to newbees at meetings.

However those extreme examples create an expectation that they are going to see such devastation that they miss the innocent-looking, but obvious beginnings that are apparent for weeks and months before we see the massive breakdown examples.

AFB starts with a few empty cells and progresses to shotgun brood in heavily challenged AFB resistant hives, since the bees are hauling out the cadavers as fast as they die. That shotgun pattern causes some beekeepers to change queens when a spoonful of magic dust would solve the issue. Ooops!

In susceptible hives, we first see an occasional cell full of gooey chocolate milk. Over time, we see more and more cells until after a few cycles, we may see examples where almost every cell is black, but by then the better part of season and many brood cycles have probably passed.

In the early stages, AFB often spontaneously disappears, never to recur, and a dose or two of antibiotic will assist in that direction, but once we see more than the occasional cell, the situation avalanches into disaster, except where the bees are very resistant.

Like any trait, resistance varies from very susceptible to very resistant, even in the best of bee stocks, although the best stocks will have very few seriously susceptible individuals, and even those will be much less susceptible than the average queen in inferior stock.1

Even with a fully scaled comb, researchers have shown that Tylan properly applied will have lasting results, assuming the colony can exist on combs that will need serious cleaning before they can be used for brood.

I have confirmed this myself in an actual test. Amazing is the only word for it IMO. It takes a strong colony at the right time of year, and the process is not without cost in terms of slower development.

This is one of those "Don't try this at home, kids". things. Just don't.

Anyhow, if beginners could learn to recognize AFB while it is minor, we would not see the repeated tragedies where a beginner comes with an entire box of scaled comb and is taken by surprise when we give it a casual glance from arms length in poor light and say, Oh, oh!"

[Vance G]

I feel the need to repeat for the casual reader the magic dust is tylan or tylosin as opposed to TM which most AFB seems to be resistant to. The Tylan certainly makes the problem go away.