Greasy Bees

[Wandering Man]

We moved a really hot hive out of our back yard onto a friend's property on Thursday.

During the move, I noticed some really strange looking bees in the hive.  Friday morning, I was clearing the debris out of the bed of my truck and came across some of those bees.  The term Greasy Bees came to mind, so I thought I'd do a search to find out if these bees matched, and they did.

Looks like the hive is victim to Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus.

Notice the lack of hair:



Two of the bees have their wings opened wide out, which is supposed to be one of the characteristics of the virus.



I've already planned to requeen this hive in two weeks, assuming it is still alive then.  From what I've read, the bees pretty much just take care of the disease themselves.  One recommendation is to transfer a frame of brood from an uninfected hive to help them, but I'm not sure if I really want to do that, because of the distance I'd need to travel with the frame, or how much it will help this hive.

This hive was just treated for the past two weeks with Formic Pro.  I spotted the queen 3 days before the hive turned really hot.  It was already a little testy, but not out right aggressive.  No queen cells or queen cups were spotted during the move.

Hopefully I didn't kill her putting the hive back together.

[neillsayers]

Thanks for posting this, WM. I recall reading about this but I don't recall the treatment. Please keep us informed on the outcome for this colony.

[Wandering Man]

Thanks for posting this, WM. I recall reading about this but I don't recall the treatment. Please keep us informed on the outcome for this colony.

The only treatment I've found is replace the comb and requeen.

So, I may be forced into pulling out the comb and putting in fresh foundation.  There were quite a few frames of brood, and I'm hesitant to rob the other hives to save this one.  So maybe foundation is the way to go.  I think I have one frame of pulled comb I can give them, but the rest would be foundation.

That'll set the bees back quite a bit, but I think they've already been set back.

[Bakersdozen]

Thanks for posting this, WM.  It's a good educational moment.

[Wandering Man]

Now I’m thinking I should pull one or two frames of brood from each of the other hives and give it to this one when I add a new queen.

Would removing 2 frames and shaking some bees into the box be similar to doing a split for swarm prevention?

Could I put the bees from the two donor hives into the same nuc for transport, and then add all to the sick hive without causing a war?

[tedh]

Either action, pulling frames of brood for a nuc or pulling frames to add to a weaker hive, will give the same result, less congestion in the hive and so help reduce the urge to swarm.  Depending on how strong the hive is you may want to pull more than two frames of brood.  Ted