Hacker News Reader

Comment by frankzander | Hacker News Reader

Hm here in Germany we do not burn hives. If AFB occurs the hives have to be heat threaded with a torch (plastic ones have to be cleaned with soda lye). The frames have to be burned or cleaned in soda lye. the bee swarm itself get new frames without any foundation so that they have to build combs of their own. This process must be repeated until no spores are found anymore. Back in the days the beekeepers had to burn their hives but this is from the old days.

View on HN

I just read about this on [0].

This method is a little bit more complicated than you describe it. I’m also not sure how easy it is to scale.

You still need to destroy parts of the beehive, let all the bees hunger for a few days and disinfectant the parts of the beehive you want to reuse. I don’t know if all of this is possible with that many beehives mentioned in the post.

[0] https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunstschwarmverfahren

As far as I know this method is done by commercial beekeepers. Well at the end you are have to choose to burn it all and face big investment or to invest work. It's right that the artificial swarm has to "hunger" a bit. At the end you get no honey from the bees and have to invest in new frames and sugar. It's no visit in the candy store if you have AFB but burning everything seem to be a last resort solution which isn't nowadays necessary anymore. The other problem you are facing are the beekeepers around you ... they have to do the same and than there are some black sheep which are not known to the veterinary administration. They can also contribute to a never ending AFB problem.

At the end hygiene (torching unused hives and frames) is the first thing everybody can do to prevent such situation.

I wouldn't trust it. AFB is, well, foul. It's about the most satanic affliction imaginable. Destroying everything with extreme prejudice within a 2 km radius using fire seems right to me. The bees themselves can carry the spores, including the queen.

> Destroying everything with extreme prejudice within a 2 km radius using fire seems right to me.

Not the OP, but in my country, instead of destroying everything, we lockdown everything within a 2km radius and only kill the colonies that actually have the disease. Sometimes it means the entire apiary, sometimes only a few hives. There doesn't seem to be a need to bomb the whole area :-).

That's very nice of you to treat the bees so kindly, but it doesn't mean it's as effective.

I guess there is a question of scale indeed. But when it is about animals, I feel like "efficiency" should not be the only concern.

The second thing is that if it is all about "efficiency", maybe the producer should not complain about the limitations of their "more productive" way. It feels a bit hypocritical to say "we do it this way because it is more profitable, but when we have a loss of productivity that is fundamentally related to the way we operate, then we believe the State should pay for it".

My wife torches the frames and wood boxes too.

You have a wise wife :)

Hi, american here who loves honey but is absolutely scared of bees and small insects. What does AFB mean?

i'v thought about honey making as a hobby once I finish university, but I am unsure if I am allergic to stings....and am not exactly keen to find out.

it's in the article if you read it

> What does AFB mean?

It means "American foulbrood", it is a disease: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_foulbrood

> but I am unsure if I am allergic to stings

One can "become" allergic anytime, after many stings. You generally would not know before you make an allergic reaction, which is why beekeepers have to be "ready" to make one (as in, know how to react properly). I know beekeepers who keep practicing after they become allergic, some stop.

> once I finish university

I realised only after I graduated that my university had a beekeeping association... Are you sure yours doesn't? :-)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com