# &%@%^& CHALKBROOD



## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

I paid $195 for a nuc last Fall, picked it up Friday a week ago and as soon as the bees were warm enough to work (I gave them a new hive, a feeder full of sugar syrup and enough frames to fill out the hive) they started pulling chalkbrood.

I have been keeping bees since I was a young teen, except for a few years when my work did not permit it. This is the first time I have ever had chalkbrood, and now I will probably never be rid of it.

If the weather warms up they will probably be OK, but I'll not get anything out of them this year. Chalkbrood and mites, something to deal with. At least it is not foulbrood; I don't suppose is is necessary to burn anything.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

I just learned something. 

https://beeaware.org.au/archive-pest/chalkbrood/


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I got to smile when the new be shows up at a club meeting and expresses how easy it is to keep a couple colonies of honey bees.
You know right as soon as they open their mouth they just got their first packages or nucs.

Bee keeping even a couple of hives in the back yard is not easy. Only a bee haver would think so.

Clean up the mummys, maybe if you have a lot of infected frames remove them and clean the wax out soak the frames in a 4:1 ratio of bleach and water for a couple days. Rince off and allow to dry reapply foundation and put back in the hive or save for the next emegerncy.

Al


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

Al: Temps are going up here and literature says that a strong hive can clean up the mess. I cannot pull the frames because to do so would destroy the nuc. I'll feed them heavily, give them a chance to draw new comb. Since every bee now carries the spores this hive either lives or dies.

I am just PO"d that a seller would ship a nuc with chalkbrood but I've never kept bees this far N. so it may be a common problem. I suppose I will have to find the local BK club and see what the situation is here. I was in my 50's before I saw the first case of foulbrood, and 70's when I first lost hives to a neighboring farmer's pesticides. Here I am at 88 learning about chalkbrood.

We cannot turn back time, but the days when I could go into the woods and come back with a swarm of bees were good ones. LOL, in those days I could hear them, too. I usually found them by walking along the river bank and listening for the hum. I found one colony of black bees working from a hole about two feet off the ground in a hollow Pecan tree. So far as I know they may still be there.

Edit to add: Fortunately I had the foresight to buy a bottom board with a beetle trap. My friend in OK swears that they caused him more aggravation than the mites. I looked into that trap, sans oil, just under there, today and found a beetle. Oil goes in as soon as I can catch the wife looking the other way. I'll buy her some more oil lat\er. I have no idea what is going on today----I never saw beetles in my hives before and here I am with chalk brood, small hive beetles and more than likely, mites. At least there is plenty of feed and forage and warm weather is coming.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

Well; here is the rest of the story. Weather has finally leveled off warm, the bees are in a hive with feeder and there was no reason that I could not pull them frame by frame and see what I had. 

So, I opened the hive, removed a frame, not a cell occupied. All hatched out, no brood.
Frame after frame, empty except for the nectar gathered and sugar syrup I supplied. A queenless hive with chaklbrood and hive beetles. At least they cleaned up the chalkbrood---only a few mummies in the beetle tray, but not an egg or larvae to be seen. Not even a laying worker so far. It appears that I have been taken for $200 bucks and I'll have a mess to clean up as well unless I can find a frame of brood and eggs, or a queen, quickly People In bought them from told me that they had no more queens but that they would "see what they could do" and call me. 

Let that be a lesson to you;


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Before I started raiseing my own queens I bought from a company in Georgia but for the life of me I can not remember their name.

How ever a google search got me here.
https://www.ncqueenbee.com

Lots of listings for queen sellers but most did not supply a phone number like the above.
In your case I would ask for over night shipping too.

Al


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

Al; I got in touch with the local beekeepers group and found a lady who had a small swarm in a hive. I bought five frames and the queen from her, put them in a box over the queenless bunch with a sheet of newsprint between. In a day or two the crisis will be history. Expensive, but better than the mess i'd have otherwise. 

At least now they have time to fill the hive with fall honey and come out strong next spring. I'll continue to feed them so long as they are making comb.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Glad you have got the bees back on the right track.

I got a call at this 6:00 AM morning to get a swarm, she realy wants them gone said they arrived yesterday afternoon and still there this morning. Well DA.

Al


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## Macrocarpus (Jan 30, 2018)

Treated my new hive with Hopguard and found that there were more mites than I expected, but the hive seems OK. I traveled to Mo to buy supers and some fencing, found that they had no comb and said they could not get any. Ordered mine from Pierco in Californina, due in Friday, Spent an extra $30 or so and got more mdse and free shipping. Waxed plasric frames were to cost about $60, shipping near thirty, so I ordered $126 worth of goods and got FREE shipping. I now need to make an inner cover or two. I cannot get over the incredible difference betwee what I last paid for supers, etc and today's costs.


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