Alternatives to burning

[Maggie]

It is illegal to move/transfer ownership of afb infected material.

crape the wax off the frames wash them and send them up to Auckland to the guy making plastic posts out of recycled plastic. The frames would have to be clean and wrapped in plastic so no spread of disease.

Bee Real - I am confused with your comment and maybe I am not catching on to something here. Where exactly does the person that you replied to state that the frames had AFB? I notice you have reacted to that post with a thumbs down sign.

It's not just AFB hives and equipment that need destroying.

 

[Grant]

It is illegal to move/transfer ownership of afb infected material.

I am fully aware of a local AP requesting infective hives to be wrapped and transported to a local incinerator (on a site that uses it to power the hot water heating system).
I am also aware of that process coming mightly unstuck when an insecure load was lost from the back of a truck in the Halswell area enroute.

 

[Josh]

It’s still burning, but this looks good.

 

[John B]

I feel that sometime fairly soon the burning of plastic components from beehives is going to be challenged in a court of law probably by some poor beekeeper being used as a test case. Beekeepers need to be proactive and sort this problem out before someone sorts it out for them.
I still have some plastic frames but haven't brought any for years and all my new gear is wood and wax but I still use plastic top and internal feeders along with plastic excluders. A total ban of plastics in beehives would be inconvenient for me but I could live with it.
Going to plastic frames was one of the biggest mistakes New Zealand beekeeping industry has ever made. Short-term gain for long-term environmental pain and it does nothing for our clean green image but plastic frames are now a fact of life and we are going to have to work out how to deal with the things.

 

[Mummzie]

clean air legislation in some of the urban areas will make it very hard for town based beekeepers to correctly dispose of an AFB hive. Even harder if they have plastic components.
Some plastics give off toxic smoke. Any idea if the hive plastic is one of them?

 

[Josh]

clean air legislation in some of the urban areas will make it very hard for town based beekeepers to correctly dispose of an AFB hive. Even harder if they have plastic components.
Some plastics give off toxic smoke. Any idea if the hive plastic is one of them?

I know ChCh is tough, but AFB burning is an exemption. Although I’d apply to wrap mine and take it to a mates place out of town, too much hassle within neighbours in town.

 

[yesbut]

Some plastics give off toxic smoke. Any idea if the hive plastic is one of them?

Far as I know no plastic is good when burning. Even your low emission wood burner churns out dioxins.

 

[Mummzie]

but AFB burning is an exemption

are you sure?

 

[Mark Lawrence]

are you sure?

I believe so in Christchurch.
Clean air rules in Christchurch are Environment Canterbury bylaws, but I think the Biosecurity Act trumps them.
When talking to people who have had to burn hives the local fire service seem to allow it once they hear it is AFB (unless total fire ban and then beekeeper must have a discussion with AFB Management Agency about destruction).

 

[John B]

It is generally believed that the bio security act trumps the clean air act but it has never been tested in court and I have heard several opinions on the matter. As for plastic frames the smoke is black, stinky and disgusting and I for one would be unhappy if someone was burning that sort of thing upwind from me.

 

[Josh]

are you sure?

At the local AFB course it was explained that we could burn in town, and we could burn during a fire ban. But they'd rather you found alternatives. And because it might take some time to get a decision, you should wrap the hive in the interim to ensure it's not at risk of being robbed

Also the logistics of burning in town are a problem (how many townies have a drum burner? a hole big enough to bury the remains? etc etc)

 

[Kiwi Bee]

Considering how the politicians are thinking, before plastic beehive components will be banned, they will first ban beehives from cities/towns/vilages.

There is no good solution here for everyone.
Most likely a majority of the beekkeper's community will go for the ban, however the manufacturing "industry" and those who desperately want to make a big profit (to cover big expences) will vote for the plastic.

On the other hand, if destroying infected hive gear becomes costly (mandatory incineration, transport and fees to an energy plant), we will experince few to no afb reports. Virtually we will eradicate afb.

And finally, imagine those who bought the flow hive.

 

[yesbut]

Golly this is an old threat re-vitalised

 

[CHCHPaul]

Golly this is an old threat re-vitalised

But maybe one worth revitalising. I imagine it is super complicated to deal with afb for many keepers.

 

[Gerrit]

It is generally believed that the bio security act trumps the clean air act but it has never been tested in court and I have heard several opinions on the matter. As for plastic frames the smoke is black, stinky and disgusting and I for one would be unhappy if someone was burning that sort of thing upwind from me.

Maybe mobile incinerators, possibly by the Agency (not even sure if it is possible).

 

[AJC]

trouble with landfill is people will scavenge the stuff out and reuse it.
we used to get that with tv's we threw out that where uneconomic to repair. someone would bring it back ibn the next week. we had to resort to smashing them up. plus there is often ferals hanging around, checking out what boxes you throw out and trying to get your home address.
digging out old fames and selling them for a few dollars is easy done.

best thing is probably a high temp incinerator. its only blowing black smoke because its not burning properly.
a custom built incinerator in every area people can take hives to.

Cut the frames in half, no use to anyone then, can't resell them.

 

[tristan]

Cut the frames in half, no use to anyone then, can't resell them.

you still have the issue of exposed gear that bees can find. if i remember right this has actually happened some years back.

the simple thing is the more people stuff about with it, the more things go wrong. chuck it in the fire, job done very quickly with little room for error. then you know its dealt with 100%.
most of the screw ups are because people try to be clever, try to be fancy.

 

[garethfar]

Hi All,

New to beekeeping, but I thought the only legal way to deal with AFB was burning. While there may be some other disease that don't require burning, I would have thought anything contaminated with AFB would only have one solution, so burying it in a landfill, even deep would be a no-no. I've also read somewhere that AFB spores can survive 35 years, and I guess there is always a possibility of some getting out while being transported to a disposal site.
Happy to be corrected

 

[Mark Lawrence]

Hi All,

New to beekeeping, but I thought the only legal way to deal with AFB was burning. While there may be some other disease that don't require burning, I would have thought anything contaminated with AFB would only have one solution, so burying it in a landfill, even deep would be a no-no. I've also read somewhere that AFB spores can survive 35 years, and I guess there is always a possibility of some getting out while being transported to a disposal site.
Happy to be corrected

Welcome to the forum's.
You are correct. Legal requirement is that AFB infected hives must be destroyed by burning in a hole and ashes are buried.

Some beekeepers are allowed to keep hive equipment if they have a paraffin wax dipper and can submerged equipment in paraffin wax at 160 degrees Celsius for at least 10 minutes. Bees, frames, and honey must still be burnt and buried.
Not many beekeepers choose to dip in paraffin wax but if they do it must be in their DECA agreement with the AFB Management Agency.

 

[John B]

When you burn AFB hives you have to do so in a hole so that you can cover it up. This is very important because especially if there is a lot of honey on the hive you will never get a complete burn and you will be left with a lot of infected honey in the hole.Disposing of hives in deep holes at permanent landfill sites should in theory be at least as good if not better than the current system. Whatever method is used you still have to make sure that the infected material is not accessible to bees either before or after the destruction.
I hear on the news that there are about 250,000 less hives in New Zealand than there were two years ago which I guess means that there are about 1 million boxes of frames kicking around they will need to be dealt with. A percentage of this gear will be infected and most of the rest will be of uncertain origins especially in a few years . Using someone else's old gear from the back of a shed is one of the surest ways to pick up disease that I know. I wonder if anybody has any plans for those million boxes.