Swarms and pests,diseases

[VolunteerK9]

I'll have to admit I am way jealous of all the swarms that people on here have been posting about, but Jahjude brought up something I havent even thought about.  Wouldnt the risk of bringing in someone elses problems to your apiary through swarms be potentially catastrophic?  How do you prevent or minimize the risks of spreading disease through your home colonies?

[Jahjude]

Only thing i can thk of right now is having a separate location for keeping hives taken from cut-outs or foreign swarms until they've been confirmed as being ok/clean,then they may be transferred to official apiary...Otherwise it'd be real risky.
Any other suggestions??

[Finski]

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The basic system is that when you have bees, you should learn to identifye diseases when they appear.

Swarms are normally rid off diseases. They carry of course mites (tracheal + varroa) but you can clean them with thymol and formic acid.

If the sick hive is in the corner of the yeard, it does not protect other hives in the yard.


But this is the first time when I see an advice that "dont take swarms because they have diseases".

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[Kathyp]

i always figured that if the hive was strong enough to swarm, it probably was minimal risk.

[VolunteerK9]

i always figured that if the hive was strong enough to swarm, it probably was minimal risk.

makes sense to me. a strong healthy hive will swarm. a weakend one from disease translates in to low population numbers, etc. so less likely to swarm

[Jahjude]

Totally agree,minimum risk maybe right but isn't there still a risks involved??Remember SHB may fly with a colony not to mention mites which attach themselves to bees....My point is if the option is there to keep new cut-outs at a separate location(not in same beeyard),that'd be best until they've strengthened and confirmed to be "pest-free''