It is undeniable that there are two notifiable diseases these days that are a risk to our colonies health.
Much is made of them and people bang on about the need to be ultra careful and they go to great lengths to sterilise everything they can. I am not decrying this attitude but it is one that has been such a theme in particularly English beekeeping circles that one standing off to one side can wonder about.
I worked it out, quite possible wrongly that the number of diseased hives compared to the number kept gave an infection rate of less than one percent per year. AFB ran for 2012 at 0.37% Better odds than having a motoring accident I think. From the BeeBase chart there were approx 550 colonies destroyed from a national stock of I believe some 400,000.
When thinking of taking up beekeeping one might be dismayed at the *stuff* talked about disease but the risk is in most areas of the country are rather less than many may think. Yes it has to be understood and recognisable but not worried over to quite the degree it is.
PH
