Diseases such as American foulbrood, Nosema and chalkbrood do not usually leap across an apiary through the air — they travel on the beekeeper's own hands and tools. A hive tool dipped straight from a sick colony into a healthy one, frames swapped between boxes, or hives packed too close together for drifting foragers and robbing bees to stray, are the real transmission routes. This model turns those routes into a visible 3D network so you can see how spacing, hygiene and quarantine change the outcome.
American foulbrood spores can remain viable in old comb and equipment for over 40 years, which is why national bee-health authorities in the UK require scorching or destroying equipment from confirmed AFB colonies rather than reusing it — no amount of ordinary cleaning is considered sufficient.
A 3D apiary of nine hives where an outbreak spreads across shared equipment, foraging drift and short distances between colonies — and where spacing, sanitation and quarantine determine whether it burns out or sweeps the yard.
Each simulated day, infected hives can expose healthy neighbours; the probability rises as hive spacing tightens and falls as sanitation intensity rises. Exposed hives incubate before turning visibly infected, and quarantine severs a hive's onward transmission the moment it turns red.
Adjust hive spacing, sanitation level and the number of seed infections, then toggle shared equipment and quarantine to see how fast — or whether — contamination motes travel between hive stands. Watch the colony status counters and reset to try a different protocol.
American foulbrood spores can stay viable in comb and woodware for over 40 years, which is why confirmed AFB equipment in the UK is destroyed by scorching or burning rather than merely disinfected.