Bee illnesses facts
By Susana E. Bruno, Agricultural Engineer
The hive productivity, its capacity to support and overcome certain unfavorable conditions, depends on various, related, external and internal factors.
From a sanitary point of view the conditions or causes that favors the development of illnesses could be classified in three groups, where the components of each one of them are more or less related and could be handle, to a certain degree, by the beekeeper.
Among others we can mention:
Factors or causes not manageable
Among these, we find the environment conditions. They affect the colony directly (cold, humidity, excessive heat, rains, winds) causing the cease or decrease of nutrients to the hive due to the cease or decease of the PECOREO. It also causes the bees’ confinement, which contributes to a fast distribution of parasites.
Reducible factors or causes
These will be all those causes that are favorable to the development of illnesses that can be minimize or diminish by the correct application of certain practices.
For example: the shortage of pollen in the hive can be avoided by supplying a substitute at the right moment or by moving to a place wit natural supplies. The competition (due to a high number of hives in one region) can be reduced to an acceptable level by arranging them according to the floral richness. The effects of chemical treatments can be limited and/or avoided by a good organization among beekeepers, agriculturists and chemical appliers.
Manageable factors and causes
The beekeepers and the intensive beekeeping practices are the ones who provoke stress in the hives, which favors the development of some illnesses. Among the numerous favorable causes that depend on the beekeeper we can mentioned:
Lack of prophylaxis (lack of disinfections of the materials, lack of change and/or restoration of the hives).
Great concentration of hives (location, orientation)
Lack of selection or badly managed selections
Handling errors of any type that can provoke behavior changes and lack of balance in the population generating stress.
The competition for a nectar or pollen source among populations is very important. It is responsible for the lack of food and the diffusion of the pathogenic agents; as well as for the reduced production in zones where the number of hives according to the floral richness is surpassed. This is why the organization among the parties involved is so important.
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Toxicity in the pesticides for bees |
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