Do’s and don’ts of AFB Control

Do:

• Report AFB to the Management Agency within 7 days of finding it
• Inspect your hives for AFB at least twice a year
• Inspect hives before removing bees, honey or equipment
• Inspect all brood frames
• Shake bees off the frames before inspecting them
• Train yourself and your staff in techniques to recognise and eliminate AFB
• Burn infected colonies
• Feed pollen substitutes rather than pollen
• Feed sugar syrup rather than frames of honey
• Use hive and apiary quarantines
• Only use approved sterilisation methods
• Use a thermometer and timer when wax dipping (10 min at 160oC)
• Treat hives to clear up parasitic mite syndrome (PMS) before checking for AFB
• Become an approved beekeeper
• Get suspect AFB samples tested

Don’t:

• Don’t feed drugs to control AFB
• Don’t scorch boxes to sterilize them
• Don’t try to control AFB by removing diseased frames
• Don’t extract honey from infected colonies
• Don’t feed bee-collected pollen to colonies
• Don’t feed extracted honey to bees
• Don’t let hives get robbed out
• Don’t shook swarm
• Don’t let stock knock over beehives
• Don’t use steam chests to sterilise infected equipment
• Don’t distribute the equipment from dead hives between other hives
• Don’t allow colonies to die of varroa or any other cause