Author Topic: Chalkbrood??  (Read 1647 times)

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Offline Les

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Chalkbrood??
« on: May 26, 2017, 11:38:49 pm »
After doing my research, my preliminary diagnosis is Chalk brood. Am I correct?
These bees came from a swarm that had recently taken up residence in a faux post. 
They had started building comb but there was no eggs, larva or brood.  I removed a frame of eggs, larva and brood from another hive with hopes of them raising a queen. Also fed them 1:1 syrup since they had no stores.  Queen cells were built and opened.   Two weeks later and after searching thru the hive one more time, still no queen.  During the course of my search, found these larva and the warning bells went off!  There
are only six or so larva like this.  Should I remove and destroy the entire foundation or just pull out and dispose of the larva?




Offline Perry

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Re: Chalkbrood??
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2017, 06:07:16 am »
Sure looks like chalkbrood to me.
There is no treatment for chalkbrood. Usually I just try and improve ventilation, give the hive a boost and when all else fails (only happened once) I've requeened. It is a spring time phenoma, phenome, phenomi.............................phenomenon, and almost always clears up as the colony gets stronger.
If there are only a few cells I wouldn't worry too much. I've taken frames from hives that had it, popped them into a strong hive and the next day the strong hive has cleaned out all the mummies and things are good.

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Offline tecumseh

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Re: Chalkbrood??
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2017, 07:21:30 am »
I would suggest the only real treatment is genetic which basically means exchanging the queen for some kind that is resistant to chalkbrood.  I see a lot of pollinator bees (ie queens) coming out of Florida that are loaded down with chalkbrood. Once they get here the problem at least seem to minimize itself although a good number of queens always need to be traded out.