Timestamp: Early Summer, 513 AV
Continued from: Bee Willing
As they rode in the wagon from The Sanctuary to the orchards surrounding Riverfall, Collin began is lecture for the day with the topic on hand – what Kavala had come to find wisdom from him about. “Honeybees, Kavala, like every other living thing, get attacked by disease, parasites and pests. You absolutely can’t keep bees and be naive to these diseases and pests and what they mean to your colonies. You must be able to make quick and accurate diagnosis on the problem and know what you need to do to keep the illness from spreading from colony to colony and how you can keep your entire apiary alive. Without the bees and I mean bees in good health, Riverfall will starve. All the fruit and nut trees we see around the city won’t get pollinated and neither will the wine. Its all interconnected, so we must take care of the bees, Kavala. Always.” Collin said, looking serious as he stared at the Konti.
“How do they all get the same diseases and pests? Do they get them from gathering in the same places or is there more too it?” Kavala asked, wondering what the vector for disease spread was. Collin nodded, took a moment to steer the team of horses around a potlhole in the road, and answered.
“Namely disease gets spread because bees can be lazy creatures. A hive gets weak and the rest of the hives will come in and start robbing it. So one bee walks, eats, drinks, etc from where diseased bees have been. I don’t think they get it from the flowers they pollinate. I think they get it from the hives they rob which aren’t doing so well.” He said, and Kavala nodded, having witnessed that bee behavior first hand.
“If only they knew how dangerous it was to rob weak hives. One day there will be a Konti with a Konti gift to bespeak bees and then we’ll drag her around to all the hives and make sure the queens know and pass the knowledge on to their children.” Kavala said, only half joking. Sometimes women of her race came in handy.
“Kavala, that’s another reason why it is very unwise to use equipment that has been used before. I brought you all new stuff when I sold you the core hives from before. Today I brought you all new stuff too. I would never give you used hives, because you don’t know what you are getting yourself into doing that. And while I have hundreds no thousands of hives, I have lots of diseases to show you. I’ve set some aside. But today we’re going to burn our gloves and be very careful when we get done here so you bring nothing back to your home and to your own bees after you’ve seen some of these things first hand.” Collin said, wincing as they rolled passed a particularly nasty bunch of holes in the mud road. One of these days the Kuvay’Nas would have to fix the road. That was all there was too it.
But Kavala had more questions, and didn’t let the bumpy ride bother her overly much. They should have brought riding horses, but she knew the wagon was necessary. Tied to the back of the wagon, so she could get home without Collin having to make a return trip, was a sturdy gelding wearing a yvas. Kavala was no fool and did not want to suffer another jarring ride back.
When they started passing orchards, Collin started paying attention to where they were. In a wide spot in the road, he pulled the wagon off the road, parked it in the grass along side, and helped Kavala down off the buckboard. They grabbed their veils and the cheap pair of throw-away gloves and set off inot the trees. Together they walked into the pistachio trees and came in short order upon a set of white hives marked with red X.
“The X means these hives must be destroyed. They have something called Foulbrood.” Collin said. “It kills young larva and immature bees just after the cells have been capped. So it happens in the cells as the bees are developing. At first glance, it looks like a scattering of open cells and many many dark cappings that are sunken and perforated. Lets have a look.” He said, and uncapped the hive and pulled out a frame after relieving it of its inner and outer cover. The frame he held up had obvious brown cells throughout. The capped young were sunken and the smell coming off the frame was horrible. Kavala wrinkled her nose.
“Is that smell indicative too? I see how the dead larvae and pupae have turned light brown, then dark over here, and then look… they appear to be rotting to a scale at the bottom of the cell. Gods are those dead bees with their tongues sticking up?” Kavala asked, peering in closer. Collin nodded.
“Yes they are. And once a hive gets this, there’s nothing you can do for it. If you kill all the adult bees and even scrape the hive down to bare wax, whatever that causes the disease is still there and any new bees you get in this space will get this same disease within one or two years.” He said. “All we can do is burn the equipment and start with new. And.. if you are still unsure, then check this out.” Collin bent down and picked up a twig form the ground. It was a long thin thing and one that had less of a tip than the width of a bee cell. He poked the cup with the stick and drew back, pulling the stick with him. A dead decaying larva came back with him, stringing out one or two inches on the stick before the mess broke off and splattered on the frame. “Foulbrood is one of the only diseases where that shows. The smell, the stringing of the guts, and the overall appearance of the hive is the same always. These bees will all die. As soon as this current generation of forger is gone, there will not be enough developed and hatching to save the colony. Burn it, burn the whole thing.” Collin said, looking sad. And with that they were headed back to the wagon and onto the next diseased hive.
Continued from: Bee Willing
As they rode in the wagon from The Sanctuary to the orchards surrounding Riverfall, Collin began is lecture for the day with the topic on hand – what Kavala had come to find wisdom from him about. “Honeybees, Kavala, like every other living thing, get attacked by disease, parasites and pests. You absolutely can’t keep bees and be naive to these diseases and pests and what they mean to your colonies. You must be able to make quick and accurate diagnosis on the problem and know what you need to do to keep the illness from spreading from colony to colony and how you can keep your entire apiary alive. Without the bees and I mean bees in good health, Riverfall will starve. All the fruit and nut trees we see around the city won’t get pollinated and neither will the wine. Its all interconnected, so we must take care of the bees, Kavala. Always.” Collin said, looking serious as he stared at the Konti.
“How do they all get the same diseases and pests? Do they get them from gathering in the same places or is there more too it?” Kavala asked, wondering what the vector for disease spread was. Collin nodded, took a moment to steer the team of horses around a potlhole in the road, and answered.
“Namely disease gets spread because bees can be lazy creatures. A hive gets weak and the rest of the hives will come in and start robbing it. So one bee walks, eats, drinks, etc from where diseased bees have been. I don’t think they get it from the flowers they pollinate. I think they get it from the hives they rob which aren’t doing so well.” He said, and Kavala nodded, having witnessed that bee behavior first hand.
“If only they knew how dangerous it was to rob weak hives. One day there will be a Konti with a Konti gift to bespeak bees and then we’ll drag her around to all the hives and make sure the queens know and pass the knowledge on to their children.” Kavala said, only half joking. Sometimes women of her race came in handy.
“Kavala, that’s another reason why it is very unwise to use equipment that has been used before. I brought you all new stuff when I sold you the core hives from before. Today I brought you all new stuff too. I would never give you used hives, because you don’t know what you are getting yourself into doing that. And while I have hundreds no thousands of hives, I have lots of diseases to show you. I’ve set some aside. But today we’re going to burn our gloves and be very careful when we get done here so you bring nothing back to your home and to your own bees after you’ve seen some of these things first hand.” Collin said, wincing as they rolled passed a particularly nasty bunch of holes in the mud road. One of these days the Kuvay’Nas would have to fix the road. That was all there was too it.
But Kavala had more questions, and didn’t let the bumpy ride bother her overly much. They should have brought riding horses, but she knew the wagon was necessary. Tied to the back of the wagon, so she could get home without Collin having to make a return trip, was a sturdy gelding wearing a yvas. Kavala was no fool and did not want to suffer another jarring ride back.
When they started passing orchards, Collin started paying attention to where they were. In a wide spot in the road, he pulled the wagon off the road, parked it in the grass along side, and helped Kavala down off the buckboard. They grabbed their veils and the cheap pair of throw-away gloves and set off inot the trees. Together they walked into the pistachio trees and came in short order upon a set of white hives marked with red X.
“The X means these hives must be destroyed. They have something called Foulbrood.” Collin said. “It kills young larva and immature bees just after the cells have been capped. So it happens in the cells as the bees are developing. At first glance, it looks like a scattering of open cells and many many dark cappings that are sunken and perforated. Lets have a look.” He said, and uncapped the hive and pulled out a frame after relieving it of its inner and outer cover. The frame he held up had obvious brown cells throughout. The capped young were sunken and the smell coming off the frame was horrible. Kavala wrinkled her nose.
“Is that smell indicative too? I see how the dead larvae and pupae have turned light brown, then dark over here, and then look… they appear to be rotting to a scale at the bottom of the cell. Gods are those dead bees with their tongues sticking up?” Kavala asked, peering in closer. Collin nodded.
“Yes they are. And once a hive gets this, there’s nothing you can do for it. If you kill all the adult bees and even scrape the hive down to bare wax, whatever that causes the disease is still there and any new bees you get in this space will get this same disease within one or two years.” He said. “All we can do is burn the equipment and start with new. And.. if you are still unsure, then check this out.” Collin bent down and picked up a twig form the ground. It was a long thin thing and one that had less of a tip than the width of a bee cell. He poked the cup with the stick and drew back, pulling the stick with him. A dead decaying larva came back with him, stringing out one or two inches on the stick before the mess broke off and splattered on the frame. “Foulbrood is one of the only diseases where that shows. The smell, the stringing of the guts, and the overall appearance of the hive is the same always. These bees will all die. As soon as this current generation of forger is gone, there will not be enough developed and hatching to save the colony. Burn it, burn the whole thing.” Collin said, looking sad. And with that they were headed back to the wagon and onto the next diseased hive.
