There will be several different pages to come, on the Natural treatment of Bee disease.
There are several things to keep in mind when dealing with the different problems bees can suffer from:
- Bees, in Nature rely upon other life forms to help stop the spread of, fungi and bacteria in the form of Nosema, Chalkbrood and foulbrood. One example is the Wax mouth that completely devourers honey comb that is not in use by the bees anymore. This then destroys in not too long a time any nests abandoned in the wild. I have also observed slugs in my hives and I know that they eat fungi. I have never seen them eating any honey, but then it’s hard to say what they are doing there. What is important for us to do is to change the comb every few years or so (5 being the max). This then stops any build-up of spores.
- It is important to not spread disease around, so keep the hive tools and gloves clean. Also for obvious reasons do not combine sick colonels.
- One of the biggest threats at the moment to the bees is the Varroa mite, I will write a page soon on how to treat this in a natural way (with great results). The varroa floor is a great help in lessening the effects of the mites, and the infections, that it passes on. The floor stops mites from climbing back up again once they have been knocked of by the bees. There are natural methods for knocking of mites that beekeepers can use.
- There is no disease that can keep up with the egg laying rate of a Queen, as worker bees are born faster than they perish. In order for a Queen to lay well she needs lots of worker bees and she needs to be healthy. This is why only the strongest colonels survive. For this reason we need to go into the winter with a very strong colony, when laying begins again in spring she needs to still have a good population to start the process again.
More will follow soon, with single pages on each disease and natural ways on how to deal with them.
