# Sticky  Sacbrood --- Common but not well recognized.



## crofter

Here is a link to a good primer on it. It is often brushed off as "often goes away by itself" If it does, it is sure taking its time.









What is Sacbrood and how do I treat it?


Sacbrood virus (SBV), or Morator aetatulas, is an infectious virus affecting honeybee larvae in many areas of the world. Larvae die off before fully transforming into pupae, leaving a distinct sac-like appearance in the affected brood. The infection typically presents in the colony growth phase...




www.honeyflow.com





I think this disease is often the cause when a colony just does not seem to do well. Spotty laying pattern. How many times have we seen this mentioned yet there is not a lot of discussion of Sacbrood. Educate yourself before it comes to a theater near you!

In areas with marginal forage and cool weather it can cause colonies to just tread water and not build. With lavish forage an otherwise health colony can often outrun it but best productivity is compromised. It sure makes swarm control a non issue. That is the good news. 

It seems that depopulating the hive and shutting up tight for 5 weeks causes the virus to die, unlike EFB and AFB. I will be pretty nervous about repopulating them. Not this year anyways. I dont know if it disappears overwinter in areas with total brood break for a couple of months. I had just one colony that appeared really slow getting going this spring. Should have canned it before it spread.

There are not the impressive signs of quivvering and flightless bees. Bees that emerge but are infected do not make good nurse bees and graduate early to foraging but die prematurely in the field. For some reason they tend to be poor pollen gatherers. Result is poorly fed brood with very sparse milk supply in cells. Some areas of comb are shunned by the queen; perhaps no nurse bees to clean and polish the cells.

Workers are more affected than drone brood. Drones abound! It is more debilitating in Apis Ceranae bees of Asia. 50 different virus variants and presently no treatment. It seems to be on the rise.


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## clyderoad

Had a hive in a yard with a group of 20 colonies positive for sac brood virus this spring. Already had the "brick up" from a previous inspection when the state inspector came by (May 21) to inspect the yard as part of the yearly early season inspection routine. First question from him was why was the brick up on that one? haha
Hadn't yet cleaned out any old comb or dequeened yet as is my normal procedure so we decided to inspect it last for the sake of general knowledge. Some evidence still visible but not nearly the visual a few weeks before when I first detected it, as the bees seemed to be working through it on a flow and moderated temps.
Extended warm fall then a cold, wet late spring was hard on the bees as well as being headed by a queen from a susceptible line that showed elevated virus levels back in 2019 from tests done at BVS lab. The test then, in early May '19, showed the SBV levels at the 'elevated level' for all samples tested. A case of sac brood in the spring here and there since 2019 but nothing to worry about until I looked back at my journals and found every tough spring seemed to cause trouble in this line of bees with the exception of 1 other colony from another line.
Pinched the queen that week of the inspection and think she was the last of that line of queens but I'll have to confirm over the off season.(yellow bees don't do well here it seems) Cleared the hive of all "old comb" and food stores and retired the old brood box they were in as it had deteriorated to the point of having to duct tape a card board box around one corner to keep the weather out over the winter.
The colony will make a modest honey crop and looks to be clean going forward.
Something to be said for strong hives in spring, solid equipment, newer comb, good feed and a good line of bees it seems.
Good topic crofter, good cite too.
Regards, clyde


edit: spelling


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## crofter

One thing about it that I found so confusing is that the queens are laying so well. Six or more frames of brood in a deep that should have it busting with bees in a few weeks. Just recently I am not seeing many cells showing the pointed head larvae poking out perforated cappings and not more than 10 -15% open cells in most of the capped brood area. (There was more a month ago; things are on the mend) No accumulation of corpses and no crawlers. No mites in pulled drone brood and zero on the one hive with a sticky board but I do have extended release OA on them. Yet population is slow to grow. A few of the least affected have close to two medium supers near capping but some are marking time on a single about half capped. Some are not yet supered and might not need it.

For reference our flow only got going about June 20th. Hindsight I should have been trying to assess how long workers are living after they emerge. The general lack of milk around larvae in cells makes me buy into the possibility of the early graduation of nurse bees, and foragers having a short life span.
I dont remember seeing the mass orientation events but more of a steady daily milling around the hives. Memory and objectivity goes for a crap when your puzzler is sore! I have had one successful supercedure and several queens produced and laying well due to Snelgrove separation.

Spring was slow but I did not feed because I had oodles of left over stores. I think liquid feed might have been more stimulating.

I just read about 50% losses overwinter in Prince Edward Island. Many such areas dont seem to have a concensus on causes. The area in SE Ontario where my son is saw some 90% loss areas and by fellows with 10 or more years experience. Makes me wonder if some of it is more than just common mite mismanagement.

How do you get over a virus disease. Can Bumbles and wasps be carriers? They both seem scarce. Anyways things are improving and I still have a month and a half season left. Glad I dont depend on bee revenue to pay the rent!

Thanks for relating your experiences with this.


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## Gino45

My thought, as I've stated before, is that various viruses lie dormant in the hive probably at all times. When a hive is weakened by varroa, these diseases such as sac brood, chalk brood, parasitic mite syndrome, and even EFB will suddenly be impacting the hive.
I know some won't like my including EFB, but that's the way I see it. Prior to mites, these viruses had little impact in my apiaries. Somehow I think AFB is different. I haven't seen it for many years, but in the past I have and there is no confusion (unlike stated in the article) because there is no mistaking the AFB odor once you know it.


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## crofter

I am sure that another incident of EFB would not get very far before discovered in one of my hives now that I am familiar and watchful for it. Now four or five years later I am blind sided by Sacbrood. Chalkbrood I have not had the pleasure yet of anything but a hint. There are 30 some viruses bee related for which there is no cure. How many different parasites? How many different bacterial infections? How many maladies similar to the nosemas? Mites, Bears, skunks and mice I have a pretty fair handle on! Yep beekeeping for dummies!

Any suggestions for suitable punishment for anyone who promotes Lazy Beekeeping?


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## AHudd

XXXXX


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## AHudd

Make them clean plastic foundation that was infested with wax moth larvae.

Alex


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## crofter

I dont think there is any question that the Varroas feeding methods and general weakening of colonies opens the door to a whole host of other opportunistic maladies. New variants of old diseases can confuse responses as well. Despite a lot easier access to information about them, I dont think beekeeping is getting simpler.


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## rdimanin

I have just completed a study examining whether a 2% reishi mushroom extract in1:1 sugar water lowered viral loads in 6 frame nucs. Preliminary data seems to show that the solution impressively lowered sacbrood in each colony that received the extract. I am awaiting the results from the 2 week & 3 week samples to see if the anti-sacbrood effect continued during that period. I'm doing this project for my Cornell Master Beek certification & would like to test a 2% chaga mushroom extract solution next year (as a combination of reishi & chaga) to see if the antiviral range could be extended to other HB viruses as well. This could be used as a pre-winter cleansing of HB viruses that should increase overwintering success across the board.


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## crofter

Make sure to do parallel control feedings with just plain sugar water. I have noticed that feeding does have _some_ effect but not controlled enough to be definitive. Pollen gathering _seemed _to be down. I was grasping at straws at the time so take that in mind.


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## rdimanin

crofter said:


> Make sure to do parallel control feedings with just plain sugar water. I have noticed that feeding does have _some_ effect but not controlled enough to be definitive. Pollen gathering _seemed _to be down. I was grasping at straws at the time so take that in mind.


I had proper control colonies that were fed only 1:1 sugar water. Will let you know the results.


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## ursa_minor

rdimanin said:


> I'm doing this project for my Cornell Master Beek certification & would like to test a 2% chaga mushroom extract solution next year (as a combination of reishi & chaga) to see if the antiviral range could be extended to other HB viruses as well. This could be used as a pre-winter cleansing of HB viruses that should increase overwintering success across the board.


The chaga mushroom interests me, we have a quarter section stand of mostly birch on which the chaga grows.


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## crofter

This link is to a Research gate collage of informative articles on Sacbrood. 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230141922_Effects_of_sacbrood_virus_on_adult_honey-bees 

Most quick beeforum searches give a very shallow level of info and infer that it usually goes away by itself. Not so! What it often does is become an ongoing source of sub par performance of colonies. Requeening may be partial answer if the replacement queen does indeed possess resistance genetics. The Gotland bees were mentioned but I did not dig into that. That is too deep and long term for me to engage. 

The angle of it interfering with the thermo regulation of otherwise asymptomatic bees could easily be a sleeper factor in poor wintering in colder climes. Some of our beliefs and methods may be kicking the wrong dog.

I think the above link deserves a Sticky status but probably deserves a better introduction than mine.


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## squarepeg

many thanks for starting the thread frank. i agree, it's a topic worthy of in depth discussion. i'll confess ignorance about it but plan to do some homework and see what i can learn.

what i recall being mentioned in the past is that requeening has been used for remediation.

i wonder what it is about requeening that would help? a brood break? genetics having better resistance against the sacbrood virus?


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## crofter

squarepeg said:


> in his thread bushpilot mentions moisture may be a problem, which makes sense since we are talking about a fungus, and that ventillation might help.
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> Chalkbrood or ?
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> Hi there, I need some advice from the masters! I have a hive that is battling chalkbrood an don't know what to do;-( From the beginning of the season, I've noticed the disease and tried to take the necessary steps to help fight it, but I believe it's gotten worse as the season as progresses. I...
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> do you have upper vents on your hives frank?


Chalkbrood is fungal so hive positioning and ventilation can be a key issue.

Sacbrood is viral and ventilation does not seem to be a controlling factor.

I use mostly wide open entrances but no upper venting.


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## squarepeg

my apologies frank, this thread is about sacbrood and not chalkbrood.

will also do some homework on sacbrood.


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## Fivej

Very informative. Thanks for the free education! Have any good pics? Can someone good with posting pics post pic of sacbrood and EFB side by side? Unfortunately, the article did not have any. J


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## squarepeg

really good thread. frank, I am going to sticky it and combine the one you recently started with this one.


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## crofter

Fivej said:


> Very informative. Thanks for the free education! Have any good pics? Can someone good with posting pics post pic of sacbrood and EFB side by side? Unfortunately, the article did not have any. J


Thanks;
I was a considerable way into this problem before I started to home in on what might be the cause. Unlike EFB, AFB, Varro collapse, etc, there is not a lot of dramatic photo material. Time lapse photos of areas of comb would show what was happening to eggs ( being consumed?) or cannibalized at some precapping stage of larval development. Premature graduation of nurse bees and short life spans as foragers seems (I dont say that with great conviction) my best guess about the mechanics of the drag on population growth. At early stages some uncapped cells show the yellowed stretched out larvae in cells with small pointy heads sticking up. They could be grabbed with tweezers and pulled out showing the sac like larger butt ends. My son took a few pics with his cell phone but they were not dramatic. 

I would not wish this on anyone but I do hope that someone will do a more detailed workup. I have the feeling that it is behind quite a few cases where people kept losing bees and quit. Varro is tops for sure but I think not the only one. With a good flow now my colonies seem nearly back to normal activity but dont know how they will handle winter preps. I see one colony starting to kick out the overload of drones

The damaging symptoms on the bees are probably the behavioral modifications rather than visible. It is easy to search up posts with peoples journeys of identifying and dealing with many of the other common ailments. Not so much for sacbrood yet it is considered to be quite widespread.


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## rdimanin

crofter said:


> When you see very little pollen and naked larvae with sparse amounts of *bee milk* in the cells this is one of the clues that sac brood virus is perhaps in the picture. It interferes with bees regulation of pollen harvesting or inclination to consume it for the essential protein to make bee milk and royal jelly.
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> It is essentially starvation but indirectly and not due to lack of availability in the field.


Just conducted a study with 2% reishi mushroom extract in 1:1 sugar water & sacbrood. I found that the 2% solution eliminated the sacbrood virus from the colonies after 2 days of feeding & the anti-viral effect lasted 3 weeks.


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