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Author Topic: Spotty brood pattern  (Read 977 times)

Offline Troutdog

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Spotty brood pattern
« on: June 14, 2019, 09:02:28 am »
Moist rainy weather and lots of washed out flows has my hives in a bit of stress.
I see 2 things that concern me. Something we call jersey snot brood similar to efb a bacterial wet brood larvae killer and high nosema counts.
Both go away in a good flow.
I am treating with nosevit.
While inspecting brood frames I noticed in a newly laid egg field of workers about 35% of the eggs are missing no particular pattern. Obviously explaining the spotty pattern. Maybe upwards of 3-5 cells of snot brood per frame.
I know bees with remove eggs if resources are low which doesn't seem to apply as they have nectar honey and pollen atm.
Assessing this I wonder
1. Are the queens laying drones and workers removing? ... not likely.
2. Are eggs Infected thus removed. Is Q infected
Requeen?
3. Are the cells Infected or have a residue that makes eggs bad.

If nosevit does not drop nosema numbers significantly.....
Shook swarm colonies to new foundation.  Inoculate combs and return to colonies. Requeen?

Keep in mind this is affecting 3 of 8 aviaries and roughly 60 colonies......... lot of work.
Additional info.
Spore counts were 9; 16 and 24 M in the 3 yards.
Snot brood is minimal but lurking in background.
Mites were zero to one in yard test composite of 35%
Per yard.
Just started nosevit treatments this week so it will be at least a full cycle before we can test again.
Hives are in good form and spirit, occasional hive extra mellow which makes me think possible more infected than others.
Nothing unusual no dead bees in front, no apparent virus chronic or dwv or other signs. Definitely no afb tested  and visual.

Doesn't seem to be hive killer yet but that will change soon as dirth hits.
Would like to hear if anyone else has seen this type of condition and what they did to fix it.
Thanks
Tom


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Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Spotty brood pattern
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2019, 01:08:58 pm »
Tom,
I have been having the same problem this year. My inspector diagnosed it as snot brood. I noticed it in my observation hive first  and kept seeing that brood were not developing to the point of being capped. The queen keeps laying new eggs but very sporadic capped brood. I requeened that hive and added bees. Still not building up fast but I have more capped brood. My inspector recommended a 70 to 30 apple cider vinegar to one to one sugar water sprayed on top of the brood frames. Seems to help but but still not getting full boxes of bees. I suspect it came from an Apiary that I bought last year. I have been steam melting the old wax/frames and spraying the new ones with chlorine water to kill any bacteria.
Jim Altmiller
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline Oldbeavo

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Re: Spotty brood pattern
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2019, 07:39:58 pm »
Having no experience with snot brood, only EFB which tends to be worse as nutrition falls off.
Does snot brood respond to Oxytetracycline? It is useful for treating individual EFB hives that don't respond to better nutrition.