Apiary Hygiene

Apiary hygiene is the set of cleaning and working rules applied to tools, gloves, combs, colonies and the extracting area to prevent disease agents being carried between colonies and apiaries. It is the cheapest and most often skipped part of disease management, because a large share of infections is carried not by bees but by the beekeeper. Hygiene is not about buying equipment; it is about building habits.

How does the beekeeper spread disease?

Bees spread disease too: through drifting, robbing and swarms. But the things in the beekeeper's hands carry it much faster and further:

• Hive tools and gloves used on one hive after another,
• Combs, honey and brood frames moved between colonies,
• Colonies, swarms, queens, combs and honey from unknown sources,
• Combs, extracting waste and the hives of dead colonies left exposed in the apiary.

Each of these routes can be closed with a simple habit.

The hive tool: the biggest risk

The hive tool (hive lever) is the most common route of infection from colony to colony. Spores of the agent of American foulbrood survive in the honey and propolis residue on the tool's surface and are carried to the next hive. These spores remain viable for decades; wiping with alcohol does not kill them.

Methods that work:

1. Scrape: First scrape off propolis, wax and honey residue; no method is fully effective on an uncleaned surface.
2. Flame it: Thoroughly scorching the cleaned tool in a blowtorch or gas flame is the most reliable field method.
3. Wash in soda solution: A hot washing soda solution dissolves propolis and honey residue; keeping a bucket of soda solution in the apiary and dipping your tool and gloves between hives is a practical habit.

Having more than one hive tool in the apiary, so that one soaks in the solution while you work with a clean one, speeds things up. Even in an apiary that looks healthy, cleaning between each hive, or at least each group of hives, is a good habit; for a hive suspected of disease the rule is absolute.

Gloves and clothing

Leather gloves cannot be washed properly; over time they accumulate propolis, honey and spores. Disposable nitrile gloves or washable gloves are more hygienic. Gloves should be changed when they get dirty and especially after a suspect colony; this markedly reduces transmission between colonies.

Bee suits and jackets should be washed regularly. Propolis and honey on them both carry disease and build up smells that irritate bees. Use clean clothing and clean tools when visiting different apiaries.

Comb management and replacement

• Don't move combs between colonies at random: If you must, make sure the source colony is healthy and its brood shows no signs of foulbrood.
• Replace old comb regularly: Old, darkened brood comb accumulates spores, treatment residues and larval cocoons. Removing some of the brood combs every year and replacing them with foundation is common practice.
• Don't leave removed combs exposed: They attract robbing and wax moth and spread the agents they contain around the apiary.
• Protect stored combs: Keep them somewhere bee- and rodent-proof and check them regularly for wax moth.

Cleaning the floor and the hive

Dead bees, wax debris and the remains of diseased larvae that build up on the floor both feed wax moth and keep disease agents in the hive. Scrape the floor clean in spring and whenever necessary. If a mesh floor is used, empty the tray beneath it regularly. Unused hive bodies are scraped, cleaned and thoroughly dried before being reused.

Dead colonies and suspected disease

When a colony is found collapsed or dead, the hive must be closed immediately. A hive left open is robbed out and whatever agent it contains spreads through the whole apiary and even to neighbouring apiaries. Until the cause of death is known, its combs and honey must not be given to another colony.

Plan the order of inspections with hygiene in mind too: open the strong, healthy colonies first and the suspect or weak colonies last.

Bringing in new colonies, swarms and queens

A colony coming from outside should, where possible, be kept for a while at a separate site or in a corner of the apiary before it joins the rest. During this quarantine, check the brood, look for signs of disease and assess the varroa level.

• Buying colonies, combs and honey from unknown sources is the riskiest thing you can do.
• Captured swarms should be kept apart until they have raised their first brood, and that brood should be checked.
• When introducing a purchased queen, remove the attendant bees from the cage if possible.
• Never feed bees honey of unknown origin: supermarket or imported honey may carry American foulbrood spores.

Extracting and storage area

• Follow food hygiene rules: clean surfaces, washed hands, a room closed to bees and pests.
• The honey extractor, uncapping tray and containers must be made of food-grade material and washed with hot water and dried after each use.
• Don't leave extracting waste and cappings exposed in the apiary.
• If you intend to reuse wax from old combs as foundation, keep combs from diseased hives separate; melting wax at home does not kill spores.

Records: the invisible part of hygiene

Where did each colony come from and where did it go, which comb was moved to which hive, which queen came from which source? When a problem arises, these records let you trace its origin and deal only with the hives involved; without records, the whole apiary becomes suspect.