Bad advice over the internet could kill of your bees!

2d (edited) • Bad advice over the internet

This morning I saw a post in a beekeeping group on Facebook where a beekeeper had found a wild honey bee colony living in a tree. He asked other beekeepers in the group whether it would be possible to freeze the honey and then feed it to his other colonies. He received several replies saying yes, and some even claimed it would be a good idea. One man even stated that wild colonies are probably just as healthy as anybody’s hives.

These statements could hardly be more wrong or more dangerous.

We have no reliable way of knowing the health status of wild colonies. It is extremely difficult to know which viruses or bacteria may be present in a colony living in the wild. Two of the most serious examples are American foulbrood and European foulbrood. American foulbrood is caused by a spore forming bacterium, similar in that sense to anthrax. Because of this, the spores can survive for a very long time in materials such as honey and can easily infect other colonies when that honey is fed to them.

It is also important to understand that strong colonies can appear healthy because they have the strength to remove diseased brood and dead bees. This can give the impression of a healthy colony, but make no mistake, such colonies will eventually collapse.

In large parts of Europe there are strict biosecurity regulations regarding these bee diseases. In Sweden, all colonies infected with American foulbrood are destroyed by burning, together with all material that has been in contact with them. Contact tracing is carried out and sampling is performed at apiaries within a radius of one mile (10 km) , approximately 6.21 miles, and a restriction zone is established. This zone is only lifted once the area has been declared free from disease. Within the zone, honey may not be moved ouside the zone unless it is bottled directly into consumer packaging, and it is forbidden to move bees or sell queens from the area.

Norway has even stricter legislation, where similar rules also apply to European foulbrood.

Feeding unknown honey to your bees is not just risky. It is irresponsible and can have devastating consequences far beyond your own apiary.

Did you know about the risks of transmitting diseases through honey?

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