Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Feed your colonies with sugar syrup, fresh, uncontaminated pollen or
supplements.
Maintain strong hives by regular re-queening.
Some hives are more susceptible to chalkbrood than others. Most of this variation is
due to differences in the bees' ability to uncap and remove diseased brood. By selecting
queens with hygienic traits, outbreaks of this and other diseases can be reduced.
There are two other, principal brood ailments: chilled brood and bald brood. Neither is
very serious, and the first can be prevented by good hive management.
Chilled brood
Chilled brood is caused by chilling. Brood of all ages die because of a depletion in
the number of bees looking after them. This could be caused by pesticide poisoning,
insufficient bees in a hive that has been split after carrying out an artificial swarm or any
other reason. Always be careful, therefore, when splitting hives or making up nucs that
the brood have enough bees to look after them.
Bald brood
Bald Brood is so called because it occurs when the cell cappings are removed while the
larvae are still inside. This is not a disease but is the result of greater wax-moth larvae
chewing through brood cappings in a straight line. It is also the result of a genetic trait
in some strains of bee, where small patches of brood are left uncapped.
If the problem is due to wax moth, the bees remove the silk tunnels and leave the
larvae bare - for some reason they fail to re-cap the cells. The cappings are not always
completely removed, and so there may be a slightly raised ridge at the edge.
If the problem is due to the genetic trait, you will see small patches of bald brood rather
than straight lines.
