Possible AFB

[pawel_knychas]

This particular hive was a pretty strong hive with 9 capped brood bars and 5 capped honey bars around early to mid April.
During my last inspection I did not see or smell anything wrong. They looked good and ready to go into winter.
I checked it this week to find no traffic coming in or out.
Obviously did an emergency inspection to find pretty much an empty hive.
No dead bees on the bottom. Queen is still there with a handful of worker bees.
9 combs of capped brood dead and mouldy.
Honey intact, a few hive beetles which I killed.
Just not sure what happened here.
I am thinking that maybe the queen died and they had to raise an emergency one but it was too late for her to mate. Or they swarmed and left pretty much an empty hive. Mind you there were no queen cups or cells present during my last inspection.
Maybe they sensed that the hive was infected and left.
I haven?t done the matchstick test. Silly me.
There was no bad smell when I opened the hive.
Can brood that was left alone unattended develop AFB?
See some photos attached








Thank you


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[van from Arkansas]

Pawel, your from Australia, yes?  I have not witnessed AFB with my own eyes.  However, I believe sunken cell caps, and rope test are utilized in the field for conformation, as well as smell.  I see a few sunken cell caps but no smell?

1.  I would notify the bee inspector.
2.  AFB is caused by a spore forming bacteria, highly contagious.  Seal the hive until accurate determination is made.  Isolate the tool and gloves used on this hive.
3.  I just can?t determine from the pics is hive is positive?

Sorry about the hive.

[Robo]

To me it sounds like the brood was just abandoned and died.   In the few instances I have seen AFB the hive still tried to clean out the dead brood as best they could.   It looks like yours has actually developed mold which I have never seen with AFB.   You definitely have a mystery to try and solve of where all the bees went, but from what I see I would not jump to AFB without a rope test to start.   I find it interesting that the queen is still there.   

Keep us posted.

[iddee]

All the pics show brood. Not a bite of food. It looks like they may have absconded from starvation.

[Oldbeavo]

Van's advice is good.
Do a match/ rope test.
Contact your local DPI bee inspector.
You can do a smear on a slide with a cover slip (which you can get from your local vet for a small charge) and send it to Gribbles Vet Lab in Clayton Victoria, or if you have a Vet Lab in NSW that does AFB testing. If you can get A Dpi inspector easy enough he will take a slide.

Bees that starve out usually are all gone including the queen in my experience.
EFB , European Foul Brood can also run a hive down but both have a smell in the hive.
Regardless still get it looked at by a Bee Inspector.

[Garigal]

Van's advice is good.
Do a match/ rope test.
Contact your local DPI bee inspector.
You can do a smear on a slide with a cover slip (which you can get from your local vet for a small charge) and send it to Gribbles Vet Lab in Clayton Victoria, or if you have a Vet Lab in NSW that does AFB testing. If you can get A Dpi inspector easy enough he will take a slide.

Bees that starve out usually are all gone including the queen in my experience.
EFB , European Foul Brood can also run a hive down but both have a smell in the hive.
Regardless still get it looked at by a Bee Inspector.

Great advice, luckily here in NSW we can get free testing from our DPI, this link will help:

https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/animals-and-livestock/bees/pests-diseases/afb-awareness-month

Just treat it as a case of AFB until you can prove otherwise; I had to deal with it several years ago, horrible process, at least you didn't have to pour a jug of petrol on your bees to kill them. I don't think I'll ever forget the odour, like tangy rotting meat.