Dealing with chalkbrood

[Sydney guy]

Hi does everyone get chalkbrood and if so how do you control it?

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[CB]

I had it badly last year, so I fed sugar water and bleach. This year the affected hives are thriving and I have not seen any.

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[Anybrew2]

Sugar water and Bleach whats the recipe

[Sydney guy]

Bleach? Wouldn't that kill the bees?

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[Michael Bush]

The main cause is chilled brood.

https://www.spc.int/lrd/ext/Disease_Manual_Final/chalkbrood.html

The main solution is to either ignore it, and it will go away, or requeen.  You may also want to look into more upward ventilation to lose some moisture which contributes as well or move them into the sun if they aren't in the sun.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespests.htm#chalkbrood

[CB]

Bleach? Wouldn't that kill the bees?

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Bleach content is minimal, 1kg sugar, 1l water, 4ml bleach. I can't say what impact it had, only that in my case it appeared to reduce the chalkbrood. I imagine that the feeding of syrup alone may have given the hives a leg up. I did not feed before and have not fed since.

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[Kathyp]

I had an awful problem with it for a couple of years.  So bad, I lost a couple of hives.  I tried all kinds of things, requeening, ventilating, etc.  but finally found a post somewhere about raising the temp in the hive.  I had been trying to get air flow, but the post said to leave the lid down in the heat and let the temp in the hive get as high as the bees will let it get.

Did it.  don't know if that was the cure, but I have not had chalk brood again in years.  so...if all else fails....

[Honeycomb king]

Micheal bush until this season I would have agreed with you 100%, but this year chalk has been very prolific and very persistent in south eastern australia.
In the past I would have said that chalk is a result of bad beekeeping decisions or poor conditions ( which results in to poor decisions as lack of choices. )
It's quite bewildering when it turns up in hives on great nectar flows with high protein pollen,  situated in full sun with temperature upto 40?c. I could theorize for pages as to the reason, we are working on a cure that is an all natural product. It s just hard to confirm results as it can just fade away too. I'll get back to this post soon. Good luck with it out there.

[Sydney guy]

Its funny this week i was very worried about the chalkbrood and today on inspection there wasnt many at all. The bees over the past week have cleaned the hive so well. This is a pic at the front of the hive during the week.

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[PhilK]

I've seen a few recently but it's because I moved a few brood frames I'm cycling out up into the super and I think they got chilled. Mostly drones I think