# AFB SMELL



## Guest (Apr 6, 2004)

It may smell VERY much like that to some.

By the time humans can smell something
upon opening the hive, one has a very
advanced case of one or more brood 
diseases.

Any smell that is "bad" in an otherwise "alive" hive should be
cause for concern. The odor of
a (healthy) hive is one of the joys
of beekeeping.


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

I ask for two reasons, one I don't know, I have heard others say they know what it smells like and when you learn you will not forget it. I thought someone here could describe it.

And two, last weekend after moving an abandond hive home I was giving it a good inspection, reversing and looking at brood, finding queen, and swapping out bad equipment. Every now and again I would get a wiff of something dead, it may have come from the pasture, I don't know for sure. The colony I was inspecting was in extremely healthy shape, even more robust than mine at this time of year, but I admit that I was not looking for AFB, and I have never had it.


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

I'll agree that by the time you have that bad AFB smell, you would be looking at an advanced stage. Other telltale signs would be obvious and hard to miss. I heard that it smells like an old farm "glue pot", but I'm not sure what that is anyways. I do know that winter killed, non-AFB hives, can stink really bad after several months of just sitting around.


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## Oxankle (Jan 8, 2004)

Bullseye:

If you had AFB bad enough to stink you could hardly have missed the signs of it in the comb. The brood would have been decomposed into what looks like rotten pus, and those far enough along would be dried scabs in the cells. (You did look at all the comb, did you not?)

Probably something in the pasture but I'd keep my eye on that hive for a bit. AFB is nasty stuff. 
Ox


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## db_land (Aug 29, 2003)

Bullseye,
I've smelled AFB before: to me it smells like a really bad case of athlete's foot and dirty socks.


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

>(You did look at all the comb, did you not?)


Seven big beautiful slabs of brood without hardly any misses. Lots of stores, massive amounts of bees. So many bees I could hardly see under them. I was really fixated on the amount of brood, awsom. By what I saw I never even considered that there could be something bad going on in there.

I didn't even think about looking for AFB until later when I got home and was reading here about AFB. My brother in law has been trapping a lot of ***** lately (12) and I have come across them all over the place. The bastard probably drug one over by my hives just to be the 4$$hole he is.

>to me it smells like a really bad case of athlete's foot and dirty socks. 

And I thought that was just goldenrod honey....

No, what I smelled was putrified, dead, and rotting animal. I really hope I never smell AFB for real, but a scratch and sniff would be a good learning tool.










Thanks for the input guys.


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

Bullseye Bill, Yeah right! Like you don't scratch and sniff everyday as it is already.


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## Robert Brenchley (Apr 23, 2000)

Golden rod smells like rotting vegetation. AFB smells of decaying larvae. I've been lucky so far and never smelt it in the flesh, though the biggest outbreak ever recorded in the UK was only a few miles away. If you smell rotting flesh round a hive you're right to check carefully.

------------------
Regards,

Robert Brenchley

[email protected]
Birmingham UK


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## BeeBear (Jan 20, 2004)

When I attended the Minnesota beekeeping class in early April, the MN bee inspector brought in some AFB-infected frames so that we could learn how to identify AFB both by site and smell. He also brought in a blacklight because the residue in the cells glows under blacklight and helps one identify it. Once you know what you're looking for because you've seen it under black light, you can see it using normal light.

I thought that was beyond the call of duty and a very helpful thing to do. By the way, there were no bees or active equipment in the class, so don't fret about this being a method of AFB spreading.

Yes, I agree that the odor is something that, once you've smelled it, you're not likely to forget. Like all odors, it's hard to describe. I'm not going to even try, except to say that the disease is well named.


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

>Like you don't scratch and sniff everyday as it is already.


Nope, the psychotic lying ***** absconded eighteen months ago. Two more weeks until D-day in court, woo-hoo!


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

>If you smell rotting flesh round a hive you're right to check carefully.

**** , it's only going to be 45 to 50 this weekend. I don't want to pull all the brood frames out when it's that cold. I guess I will have to wait another week to give that hive a REAL thural (ugh) inspection. Perhaps I could just pop the lid and stick my nose in and see if the stink is still in there without chillin' the brood. That would give me a little piece of mind for the next week.

Thanks Robert


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## Robert Brenchley (Apr 23, 2000)

Ideally you want to catch it in the early stages before it reaches that point. Or even better, select for hygienic bees which can deal with it.


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## SilverFox (Apr 25, 2003)

If your a Vetern, or some one whose worked around courpses that have been 'out to long' AFB smell worse than any decaying bodies I've had the displeasure of coming accross. And belive me once you smell it you will never forget it.









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'WHEN WE CLOSE OUR EYES WE ALL LOOK THE SAME' GWPW 03


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## Scot Mc Pherson (Oct 12, 2001)

Then you haven't been around too many corpses that have been out too long. AFB doesn't smell quite as foul, but it does smell foul.

A healthy hive can have an off odor, sometimes the pollen gathered can give of a rather potent yet nuetral vegetable smell. You'll know what I mean if you have ever made pollen patties or melted down comb that still had a good bit of pollen in it. That's the smell I mean.

Foul Brood smells foul though, not vegetable like. It smell more like scrambled eggs left in the kitchen sink overnight, but a with a little more zest.


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

I have disinterred probably over 100 bodies and they ranged from a month dead to 20 years. I had a taste in the back of my throat that would leave for days. If foulbrood is anything worse than that, I'm glad because I have not smelled anything that bad.

They had an old frame at a class years ago, and I remember the entire room did smell from that frame. I wish the smell "imprint" would still be with me. I forget what it smells like and wish I could identify it on memory.


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

>Foul Brood smells foul though, not vegetable like. It smell more like scrambled eggs left in the kitchen sink overnight, but a with a little more zest.

Thank you!
Now I can relate to that.
I wish someone would come out with a scratch-n-sniff sample, could be a money maker...


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## SilverFox (Apr 25, 2003)

I was responding based upon my own experences. Had a 2x2" bit of foul brood on a frame, I scraped it and for 50' I could smell it w/no wind. It was worse than the Kill Box in Kawaiti.

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'WHEN WE CLOSE OUR EYES WE ALL LOOK THE SAME' GWPW 03


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## rskenny (Jun 8, 2014)

hate to dig up a old thread but i am worried my hive may have afb it smells like sweat tabaco ant thought's
like


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## BadBeeKeeper (Jan 24, 2015)

rskenny said:


> it smells like sweat tabaco ant thought's


Ummmmm, what?


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## twgun1 (Jun 26, 2015)

I lost a hive to AFB but there was NO bad smell...ever. Look for spotty brood pattern, chewed irregular holes in cappings, sunken cappings and ropey deal brown gunk under those cappings.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Don't get too worried just on the basis of what the hive smells like, they can smell bad for several reasons other than AFB. 

However I am an AFB inspector and have sometimes smelled the AFB before even opening the hive and kind of knew what I would find, opened it, and sure enough, AFB.

But I suspect that the characteristic AFB odour may be caused by symbiotic bacteria rather than the AFB. Because sometimes there is a distinctive odour, but sometimes there is not.


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