hive failure observations
Charlie Kroeger
They were a small swarm to begin with.
They worked on and built up only one side of the 10 frame brood chamber
They were truculent in attitude
They appeared to be well enough a week ago.
Most of the population was dead on the floor of the hive
When I noticed a lack of activity yesterday when they should have been busy,
I had a look: their active frames containing brood cells had dried pale
skeletal remnants of fully developed bees whose heads had come off when the
other bees tried to remove them from the cell.
Everything had a sort of dry dry crumbly aspect
There were no mites or beetles I could find in the hive floor detritus.
Do not suggest that it was American foul brood unless you think it was
'European' foul brood. I know AFB well and this was not it. I've never seen EFB.
If this was some virus I've never seen it before.
Read the above carefully before giving your opinion, it's important.
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Thanks,
CK