Risk
- Residues of any kind of drugs or chemical used in the colony may be transfer into wax.
- Old brood combs contain wax moth and bee excretions, dirt which might cause contamination of the honey.
- Use of pesticides for wax mouth control might contaminate wax and honey.
General Requirements in Addition of bee frames
- General demands on good hygiene.
- Treatments should be documented and kept in records.
Recommendations for the industry
- No veterinary drugs should be used. They are not prescribed in India for honey bees.
- Regular hygiene and health check of brood and honeycombs. Honeycombs should be without impurities and those contained brood are ought to be renewed.
- Optimize storage of combs protected from outside contamination or attack by pests.
- Use wax/comb foundation (CF) sheets that contain no contaminants.
- Control measures for wax moth, nosema spores and other diseases/pests should not contaminate the wax and honey in bee frames.
- Bee box and bee frames of standard design should only be used.
- Locally available seasoned lightweight wood to be used to prepare hives as per specification of BIS.
- Note- Avoid use of unseasoned and heavy wood)
- In an Apiary, over-stocking of colonies should be avoided, either by restricting the number of bee colonies to be between 50-100 or by maintaining a distance of 10 feet and 3 feet to be kept row to row and box to box respectively.
- Brood chamber should not be nailed to the bottom board except for migrating.
- Measures against wax mouth, parasitic mites and nosema should be documented.