Why would you unite diseased bees with healthy ones?
IMO you run a great risk of losing both.
IMO you run a great risk of losing both.
My understanding is that CBPV is genetically predisposed, some official advise is to re-queen the colony which I have done, I have had the odd bee with it in the old queens line in the past but never like this. Yes I could have just left them to nature, its the choice you make as a beekeeper.huntsman. wrote:Why would you unite diseased bees with healthy ones?
IMO you run a great risk of losing both.
There was method to my madness, she was 17 month old queen and i really think she was on the way out and not just having a brood brake. She had been very prolific (not my preferred type), laying up many frames end- end and top to bottom over the past two seasons. She laid up 14 frames no issue this summer and I would have kept her going as long as. I don't think the number of bees was the issue, more like she and they had been weakened by the MAQS treatment which i doubt I will use again. There was plenty of bees left and I'm confident that had I left her they would all be dead by xmas.Chrisbarlow wrote: ↑08 Oct 2020, 17:45I saw a talk by giles budge earlier this year on cbpv. he commented about breeding from survivor stock to increase disease resilience. So instead of killing queenie,maybe better bulked her up with bees to see if she'd survive. However, what is done is done.