PREVENTING DISEASE IN HIVES

Like all living beings, bees are threatened by diseases! The old adage “prevention is better than cure” applies perfectly to the bee, because treatments for diseases, when they exist, are far from being completely effective or harmless for the bee and its environment.

Here are the 10 essential measures to prevent health risks:

1. Before installing an apiary, ensure honey resources (in sedentary beekeeping)
   
   
2. Comply with regulatory measures governing the establishment, declaration and movement of apiaries
   
   
3. Choose locations sheltered from prevailing winds and well exposed to the sun to avoid humidity, which is harmful to bees.
   
   
4. Carry out colony visits when necessary, to monitor the condition of provisions and the quality of the brood. Large, homogeneous brood: everything is fine, the queen is good; brood low in quantity: old queen, to be changed; brood with holes, in mosaic, sign of a pathology against which we must react!
   
   
5. Clean and disinfect the hive trays at the end of winter
   
   
6. Renewing approximately three out of ten frames each year is an excellent hygiene measure.
   
   
7. Ensure the quality of the habitat : hives in good condition, well protected from bad weather by paints or correct treatments, so that the walls are not soaked in humidity.
   To combat this humidity, it is recommended to tilt the hives on a slight slope towards the front to allow the evacuation of condensation water during the winter and so that rain does not accumulate on the tray.
   It is also good to insulate the hives from the ground by placing them on supports

8. Clean and disinfect operating equipment before use. For wood, the flame of the blowtorch is sovereign
   
   
9. Correctly practice acaricide treatments against varroasis, which is an unavoidable disease. Varroa, by weakening colonies, promotes the development of other diseases.
   
   
10. Take advantage of winter rest to perfect your skills by attending training meetings or reading specialized magazines or books.

Excerpt from Le trait é rustica de l ' apiculture (the beekeepers' bible !)