Sick Bees in the House

I made a few calls to various beekeepers to get advice on the best way to handle this problem so early in the winter. As I expected, I got wildly differing advice. This is one of the things I love about beekeepers. They are very into the gearhead part of beekeeping and all have their pet theories that they vehemently promote and defend. I have had beekeepers in the San Francisco club email me privately to tell me to ignore the ridiculous advice of another beekeeper given on the public list serve. It cracks me up. And gives me a lot of info and a fair amount of confusion.

One particularly panicky beekeeper advised me to immediately burn all the hives and bees and equipment or face the guilt of infecting the entire city. "It's gonna be a BAD SCENE, man," he whispered. "A very bad scene."

Another, more laid back and experienced beekeeper told me to just get rid of the infected frames and give them the antibiotics he gave me to use last year. Then burn out the inside of the infected boxes with a propane torch to kill the remaining spores. He was not so into me using his extractor, though, to extract the honey from the infected frames. I can't give it back to the bees or it will spread the spores. I can't extract it in his extractor because it might contaminate his frames.

The most attractive suggestion, just based on the sheer insanity and thoroughness of the process, is called the "German Shake". Basically, you shake all the bees in the sick hive into an empty box and seal it (with plenty of ventilation) and meanwhile throw away all the contaminated frames of larvae and honey. If it is cold, you need to bring the bees into your house in the sealed ventilated box so they don't die of cold. After 24-48 hours you shake the now digestively cleaned out cluster of bees into a new clean hive set-up and let them start over from scratch. The theory behind this method is that you need to isolate the bees for 24-48 hours in an empty clean box with NO honey or pollen or nectar. During this time they will consume the spore contaminated honey in their stomachs. You have broken the cycle of healthy bees feeding contaminated honey to the larvae. When they re-enter the new box you have set up for them they will be free of the spores but very short of eggs and larvae so you have to feed them sugar syrup to imitate the spring nectar flow which will stimulate the queen to begin laying eggs even in fall when she is supposed to be slowing down for winter. Leave it to the Germans to be so cautious and thorough.

Here is what you do:

1. Before you start, obtain a cardboard box and make ventilation holes in it. Tape it up everywhere except the side you are going to need open for the "Big Shake". Or, even better, set up an empty uncontaminated deep box with a screen bottom. Screen off the entrance. Have a very secure lid off to the side. No frames in this box at all.

2. Set up a brand new uninfected deep box with uncontaminated frames of honey on the edges, frames of pollen next and several frames of empty drawn out comb in the middle, just like the bees like it. On top of that place a deep or super (half the size of a deep) full of mostly capped honey with a few of the middle frames empty built out comb.

3. Put an empty deep box and a lid on top of the new hive boxes you have just set up.

4. Set up some empty deeps and supers off to the side that can be completely sealed off. No bees should be able to get into them AT ALL.

5. I would advise doing this at the end of the day or in the early morning when all the bees are in the hive and not out flying in the field. Otherwise you are going to lose your field force. Find the queen and isolate that frame so you make sure she does not get lost in the havoc that is about to ensue.

6. OK. here comes the Big Shake part. Ready?
Take each frame of the infected colony and gently shake the bees into either the cardboard box or the empty deep (no frames at all). You are going to need to close this up after each shake so probably the deep is better than the cardboard box. You want as few bees in the air as possible during this operation. Good luck!

7. Put each newly shaken cleared off frame into the prepared sealed hive boxes off to the side and seal them up each time. Do not let any bees get in there. These frames are all going to be destroyed. Even the ones with nice capped healthy brood may have become infected even tugh you cannot see it yet. For this to work you have to get rid of ALL the spores.

7. Once all the bees are out of the contaminated hive boxes and frames, shake the frame with the queen on it into the box and make sure she stays in there with her workers.

8. Once all the bees are sealed up in their ventilated box you are free to extract any capped honey you may find before you destroy the frames. If you cannot burn the frames, put them in thick plastic garbage bags and tape them up so no bees can get into them to rob the contaminated honey. Do this within a few days or you will be faced with a very stinky and gross project.

9. Take a propane torch and burn out the inside of all the boxes. This should destroy the remaining spores.

10. After 24-48 hours take the sealed and ventilated box of bees and shake them into their new home and feed them with a 1:2 sugar to water syrup to stimulate the queen to get a move on laying eggs. You have just destroyed their entire next generation and the queen needs to get going on making her winter bees. She is now 3 weeks behind. You should also probably feed them antibiotics for three weeks just to be sure but remember you cannot use any of the existing honey for humans if you do this.