Hi Stuart. We had CBPV in one of our hives last year. We first noticed this in July with exactly the same symptoms as you have shown and described in today's video. In September, we had multiple bee deaths outside the hive and called in our local bee inspector. He took some samples for the Newcastle research and noted that he had never seen the shaking so bad. It had been a very strong hive, 5 box hive (Rose method). He did acknowledge that there was no recognised treatment however he did suggest the following: we removed the hive from its stand and replaced with a new, clean, full box of capped honey from a healthy hive and on top of this, a box of foundation (everything was new, crown board, lid, floor, stand etc. We located the queen and placed her in the new hive and shook all of the bees 10 feet away from the hive onto a sheet with a ramp up to the new hive entrance. Eventually, all the healthy bees walked into the hive and were convinced they had swarmed and so went into overdrive and drew out the top box within the week, helped by a 1:1 sugar syrup. Obviously all the weaker bees did not make it back to the new hive, however we also feel that by making them think they swarmed perhaps galvanised them and fought off the disease. We shook the bees and made them walk on the 9th September. We do have a late honey flow here so this would have helped. The hive was unfortunately near to another hive. This also developed the virus but slightly later and so when it came to the later stages of the disease, it was mid September and the weather was not conducive to perform the 'walk'. We then had a direct comparison of the two hives throughout winter. Both hives we treated for varroa in January with Apibioxal. The death rate in the second hive was significant whereas the 'walked' hive was robust. Coming into this Spring, our 'walked' hive made a massive come back, this is with the original queen too. Our second hive just got through the winter however we lost the queen in April. We are keeping a careful watch on our hives this year and so far there has been no sign of the virus in any of the hives. Another option that was suggested was take the original hive up to 100 metres away and shake them on the ground. Therefore only the strongest flying bees would make it back to the hive. However due to being so late in the season, we took the 'walk' option instead. We don't regard this as a cure all, but it seemed to work very successfully in our case.

Removed a feral colony from a friend's garage that had this virus. I re queened it and kept them isolated and fed and the numbers of "walking dead" started dwindling until the hive became fully healthy and grew into a second deep brood box. One of my strongest hives now.

Hi Stewart, we had a hive back in September with CBPV, it was spotted when we had a Bee inspector visit us, we were given two options, destroy the hive or relocate and place in isolation, we decided to relocate and the Bees improved dramatically, building up in numbers, unfortunately the hive died out in February after the cold snaps of weather, I must add that once isolated a few weeks later the number of dead Bees dramatically reduced

Thank you for all your interesting videos. So generous with your time and knowledge. 🙂👍🏽🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

This video has become true to our lives these days

Hi Stewart I am very sorry to hear of your problem. I think your right moving it to an isolation apiary would be a good idea. Then moving the hive every 3 days may be a good idea Getting ridd of the elder bees so reduce infection by older bees. I am suggesting this as a last resort. There may be a better methods. I would leave a dummy hive in place of the hive thats been moved and be prepared to feed. Hope you get a solution soon Regards John Owen

Hi Stuart very informative video thank you so much I’ve seen this before and had no idea I’ll know next time to look for the bald black bees.

Thank you, Stewart, this is such a valuable video and what an absolutely terrible virus we need to be aware of.

In the days before I identified this infection in one of my hives, I noticed a lot of what I took to be somewhat frantic looking grooming behavior on the landing board.

Hi Stuart. As always your videos are of great help. We spotted last year CBPV in a single hive that was fortunately separated from our main apiary. It was an incredibly busy and productive hive. We increased the brood size with a super and fed well, which took us into the winter. In the spring the hive was still alive and had no signs of CBPV, so we thought the problem was resolved. About a month ago we noticed queen cells had been produced and on careful inspection we thought we saw a few bees looking like they had CBPV. We left alone and within a week we saw that CBPV was back in earnest with many dead bees. The re-queening didn't work. The hive is now very small and sad. As CBPV is so devastating we have decided to lose the hive. The question is, what do we do with the brood, supers, boxes stand and frames? It would appear that freezing will not work. Will flaming? if you have any ideas on the reuse of kit, we would love to hear from you. Many thanks.

Just a suggestion for thought, relocate the hive and isolate ,after the hive has reoriented do the laying worker method of shacking the bees off all of the frames at a good distance from the hive( after U cage the queen) and study the results. I know that this theory doesn't work for that problem, but like I said just something to think about .Thanks for your videos.

I've learned a little about this and would like to share what I know here. It's the fecal matter that infects, and when other healthy bees attempt to get rid of it and clean the hive they are reinfected. So what I have heard will turn this around is get a brand new hive and set it in the same, or close, location. Cage the queen, and get rid of the entire old hive. The place a blanket far out away from the new hive and shake all the old bees. The non-infected will walk in, leaving all the infected behind. This give them a new hive, and new start, and has worked in where I learned about it.

Hi, Sorry to come back so late, but I just watched your video and I would like to know what happened to your colony. Thanks in advance

Hi Stuart, I am one of those new beekeepers that started with one hive I caught a swarm at the beginning of May and noticed a few of these black greasy looking bees while catching this swarm. When setting up my hive I started with a queen separator between the base and bottom brood box I noticed after a few days that I had drones trying to enter the hive. Here is my crazy Siri I think it is the drones spreading viruses and mites. Curious to see if anyone else has tried this. They hive a still doing well. I have noticed a consistent number of black greasy bees. So far so good my bees are still growing strong. I say build an immunity to said virus. If they fail let it be nature. If nature does it’s thing and evolves then great.

The queen is on the side of the frame facing the camera at 13:07, has a yellow spot on her back.

@ 5:36 in the video it looks like other house bees know of the diseased bee and they are trying to get a hold of her to expel her from the colony.

Bees don't get sick so easily because of the bee pollen and protein powder honey. Nectar

I think I had this in a couple of hives. I live in Mississippi, USA. Do you know any contacts in USA for this virus?

Hi Stuart Do you have an idea why I have dead baby bees under my hive in the last few days (April 15th) I would be glad of any information you can give me, thanks. Pam

Can you treat them with tea tree old & lemon grass in a sugar syrup. I used a ratio of 1 to 1 and 6 tea tree, and 4 lemon grass. Give it a try. No have in trying. It's done my weak hive wonders.

I have only just come across this CBPV myself and have some questions to prompt a discussion. If the varroa mite is the vector in the transmission of the DWVirus by sequentially sucking the young bees blood and transmitting it that way, is the varroa also the vector for CBPVirus and not just physical proximity (overcrowding). If overcrowding was the vector why do not all the bees catch it? Why does the queen not get it? What is different about her apart from the varroa not being tolerated on her? Why do some colonies survive and others do not? If there is anyone with any views or facts I would be pleased to hear them.

I believe this virus is transmitted by varroa mites - was this colony treated/monitored for mite levels?

Being pedantic here - they can't be showing the signs and symptoms, the symptoms are what the patient tells you, for example "I have an upset stomach", the signs are those you see yourself by examining the patient.

Can the virus be trasmitted if you put honey supers on another colony?

Paul stamets in America did research with Washington state University on viruses in bees being treated with mycelium it also doubled the forager bees life exoectancy. Check him out on you tube. He loves bees and mushrooms treating many things. I'm new to beekeeping but I'm growing mushrooms for the bees and will supplement their sugar syrup too.

Can it be passed on via drones from this colony mating with virgin queens?

Have you ever dealt with foul brood?

They are also not infected by Corona virus

I would quit using the Apistan for mites, and use oxalic acid. I think It make healthy bees weak and susceptible. Just my thoughts

do they wash board too?

So the things could be vacci

Make some Home made honey bee heathy (makes bees stays heathy) get no problems

Would requeening help?

Destroy it isolate the others