? for cutout guys. Do you quarentine cutouts ?

[Maryland Beekeeper]

Hi all,
  I am thinking that by continually bringing in cutouts, most of which were infested, I am making life tough on the healthy colonies, not to mention the risk of disease.  Do you keep a separate yard for cutouts to get them cleaned up before introduction to apiary ?
Cheers,
Drew

[sawdstmakr]

No. So far most of the cutouts are better equipped to handle the local problems than the bees that I originally bought. Most of them are old hives with genes to handle the mites and beetles. I will see how they survive this winter to know for sure. Only my late season swarms are weak right now and I plan on adding a few frames on capped honey to help them through the winter. My OB hive is the weakest hive due to a problem with the bees dieing in the tube and blocking it up. Lost half of the bees last month before I figured out the problem and fixed it. They have very few mites and handle the beetles quite well. Their genes came from a feral hive and they are very hygienic, they do a lot of grooming as well as cleaning out infected cells early.
Jim

[iddee]

No, but I do watch a new hive closely, and have burned a couple when AFB was found.