This describes the types of diseases you can get in bee hives here in NZ - and your legal obligations when you become a bee keeper

1. Week Seven –
Legal obligations &
Disease in Hives
Dara K. Dimitrov
dkd4@waikato.ac.nz

2. Varroa Mite
 Infestation causes
 Decreased brood
 Deformed bees
 Hive becomes weak very quickly

3. Varroa Mite
 Spreads quickly
 Travels with swarms
 Migrating drones
 Movement with infested equipment

4. You HAVE to treat for Varroa Mite
 On-going inspection of the hives for Varroa mite
 Treatment for Varroa mite – twice a year
 In the spring
 In the autumn
 Placing strips into the hives (2 strips per brood box)
 Alternate between different chemical strips so that the mite
does not become resistant to the chemicals

5. Varroa Mite – Chemical Strips
 Apistan
 Apivar
 Bayvarol
 You remove the honey supers – and place the strips into
the hives
 They stay there for a minimum of 4 weeks – usually 6
weeks
 You need to check to see if the strips worked

7. American Foul Brood
 Caused by a spore forming bacteria called Paenibacillus
larvae
 It is present in almost all hives where honey bees are
found
 AFB was found in NZ 1877 – 38 years after honey bees
were introduced to NZ

8. American Foulbrood
 The hive often dies off within the season
 It is strictly monitored in NZ –
 It is illegal to treat with antibiotics or drugs in beehives
in New Zealand
 Shook swarming is illegal in NZ

9. Diagnosis of AFB
 Smell – similar to dead fish smell (hence the name) but
should not be relied upon to diagnosis AFB
 Brood ropiness test – larvae and the pupae has a classic
ropiness when you use a match stick – slightly stir the
tissue – and then slowly remove the stick – classic
ropiness

10. AFB - diagnosis
 The brood pattern
 The brood itself
 The pupae
 The colour of the brood
 The cappings of the brood

12. Bee Keepers Must
 Treat your hives for mite regularly before checking for
AFB
 Don’t feed frames of honey between hives
 Inspect your hive regularly
 All the brood frames (shake off the bees so that you can
see the brood properly)
 Train yourself and your people who work with you to
recognise AFB
 Use Apiary quarantines

13. The Management Agency
National AFB Pest Management
Strategy
 If you find AFB in your hive – You MUST REPORT TO THE
MANAGEMENT AGENCY WITHIN 7 DAYS
 Destroy the hive and the wood ware
 Don’t let the hive get robbed out
 Don’t extract the honey from the infected colony
 Get suspect AFB samples tested
 AFB Recognition and Destruction Course
 DECA holder – an approved beekeeper

14. AFB – Don’ts
 Don’t feed drugs to the bees
 Don’t try to treat AFB by removing infected frames
 Don’t use the infected wood ware in other hives – you
will just spread the disease
 Be very careful about buying second hand wood ware off
auctions sites

15. Legal Aspect of AFB
 Disease Elimination Conformity Agreements (DECA)
which provides bee keepers with plans to deal with AFB
 Certificates of inspections (done by a DECA person)
 Audits are carried out by the Agency to ensure
compliance
 Free testing of samples for AFB
 http://afb.org.nz/