CPBV Euthanasia

 I'm waiting for all the bees to come home, so I can kill a sick hive.

It's been a wet,cold Spring here, unlike the rest of the country, which is apparently burning hot. In the last few months, there have hardly been days to inspect- too cold, or raining. Plus, I can't always get days away from work- lots of folks want their drawings, and I am glued to a computer. 

Which means, right now, I don't really know what is going on in any of my hives, and today I see that blackberry, despite the rain, is actually blooming- past the "king flower"stage, and moving in what should be- if the sun ever appears again- a flow. I suppose, given the tipsy-topsy world we live in, there's a possibility that that never happens- that the rain continues, and the harvest is meager. I've never seen that- but  I have never seen it so late. It's past the middle of June- and not a drop of BB nectar has been gathered. Some years we'd been done by now.

The euthanizing I am doing tonight is due to Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus. It's a horrific disease, and an enemy way underestimated in the literature ("replace queen", "don't worry, they'll survive", "it doesn't spread", etc). I can say definitively, none of that is true any longer. It most certainly will take a hive out, it most certainly does spread from hive to hive, and there is nothing one can do to stop it. Replacing a queen to stop it would be cruel-and a waste of a queen-  it doesn't even begin to work. Why would it?

To kill a hive- close off the entries and pour rubbing alcohol down into it. Close it up quick. They all die. 

I've written about the disease before, as I've seen it 3x , though its been a few years. They say it is due to crowded conditions, and I don't doubt that is true in part- or at least, they have to be packed in there for it to spread like it does. But crowded conditions don't cause it, in fact, no one knows what causes it. Does Varroa make it worse, as it makes DWV worse? I wouldn't doubt it, but what I have experience with it is a far cry from what one reads in the old books and net- as if there is a chance for survival.  There isn't.

Here is a typical CBPV bee. Like an alien race. It's trying to get back in the hive, back home. It's rejected and attacked-and packed full of viruses. So-when healthy bees attack it, well...they get sick too, I'd expect. Like biting a Zombie, or a rabid dog.

Bees below are attacking other bees- which don't look like they have CBPV to the human eye- but most certainly do, or are questionable: 

Bees attacking black bees. The black bees are striking- entirely hairless, shiny, and entirely black. Not sure why that is- a lack of pigment would be white? But they stick their butts up into the air in defense, and can't do much else:

So- my take-away from past experience and trying a lot of different methods to save them (including quarantining) - is to destroy the hive ASAP. The hive I have now is strong in bees, but  is in cruel mayhem- bees fighting each other, constant chaos, and these horrible infested packed-with-a- viral-load black, shiny, bald bees trying to get back in. Zom-bee apocalypse, exactly that. 

(An hour later). The deed is done. The hive turned out to be way stronger and full of bees than I thought. I poured a full pint plus of 70% rubbing alcohol into it, in the dark, and wrapped it up tight. Some bees still out and about- hopefully will die with the cold night coming in. [postscript-they don't, they are on the landing board the next day, many hundreds].

It sucks. 

Below, top of hive, and bees I am about to kill. I see no sick bees here- but these are the bees that rose to this frame when I opened the top. Sick bees don't do that. All of the bees die. It's really awful.

In front of the hive- a day after scraping all the dead bees away- a new pile of dead and half dead bees, many writhing, or wandering about, sick.

My hives keep getting knocked down- its about the worst year ever.  I could see a scenario where I have zero, or just a few, going into winter. Such a far cry from what I've been working so hard to keep afloat.