# Chalk brood questions



## Axtmann (Dec 29, 2002)

Chalk brood is the only bee disease that can infect humans when inhaling the spores, inflammation of the lung, pneumonia.

Chalk brood fungus can spread very easy when moving frames, beekeeper can bring spores in other hives with gloves, clothes or hive tools.
No treatment available, bring hive to a dry and sunny place and re queen.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

winevines said:


> Can chalkbrood spread within the apiary if you do not move frames around?
> If it clears up within a few weeks, would you still requeen?
> any other advice on dealing with chalkbrood?
> 
> Thanks


I dealt with Chalk for years, before raising my own stock. Still see some, but not much. It doesn't seem to spread through the apiary, but be isolated to a few colonies.

I think two different traits are at work when bees don't have a Chalkbrood problem.

Hygienic behavior, and resistance. Hygienic bees will clean up Chalkbrood, while resistant bees will never contract it.

If your bees have a bad case of Chalkbrood, they've already told you they have a fault. I would requeen them even if the symptoms cleared up for a time.


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## Terry G (Feb 6, 2005)

I found that honey bee health cleared up my chalk brood problem. This is not proven, but since I started using honey bee healthy I definatly saw a major decine in the number of chalk brood infested hives


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## fatscher (Apr 18, 2008)

*Hives with Chalkbrood (propolis is black!!!)*

(Winevines and I are experiencing chalkbrood, together, in a jointly managed hive)

Propolis is black, like tar.

I assume this is mold??? Boy this stuff is discouraging!


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## Robert Brenchley (Apr 23, 2000)

You have a recently made up nuc with lots of chalk. Could it be that the bees had more brood than they could handle? I once made a split, and gave it too much brood. It had a whole frame of capped brood which never hatched. Every cell had a chalk mummy under the capping; I've never seen the like. See how much you find when the colony has established itself.


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## winevines (Apr 7, 2007)

Robert Brenchley said:


> You have a recently made up nuc with lots of chalk. Could it be that the bees had more brood than they could handle? I once made a split, and gave it too much brood. It had a whole frame of capped brood which never hatched. Every cell had a chalk mummy under the capping; .


Very interesting. That is exactly to be what appeared to have happened. We actually bought 10 of these nucs, and 4 had this problem. 
It cleared up quickly (within 3 weeks). 
The nuc seller also thought it was from the brood getting chilled as he could find no chalk brood in his own apiary where the nucs were made from. 
It has been cool and wet here this Spring.


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