Recent content by charlievictorbravo

I must admit to pretty much ignoring radiation as a significant form of heat loss on account of the relatively low temperatures. I leave monitoring boards in place over winter to a) monitor what's happening inside the hive, and, b) to try to prevent wind eddies under the hive sucking out warm...

For those who wonder what and who we are talking about, this piece explains his research. At the top, it states that he is (in September 2019) a PhD candidate. Anybody know if he got his doctorate? CVB

An interesting article that leans heavily on the work of Derek Mitchell, formerly of this parish, who was driven away by numpties who attacked his science with hearsay and prejudice - seems to be a recurring theme on the internet, doesn't it? The article was dated OCTOBER 21, 2016 so not this...

What's illegal, Phil - the equipment itself or the fact that it's not one of the manufacturer's specified delivery method for the only UK-approved OA miticide? CVB

If we assume a sublimated dose of, say, 2.25g of OA-based treatment and make sensible assumptions about how much of that might end up in the supers and again make sensible assumptions about how much weight of honey might be contaminated by the OA in the supers, you'll almost certainly find that...

He made a lot of very practical videos too. I still have a couple of plywood nucs, made in accordance with one of his videos, from six or seven years ago. CVB

I don't have the background to understand most of that paper but for me, the takeaways were: In insects, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which are synthesized in the fat body and then secreted into the hemolymph, are effector molecules against pathogenic microorganisms (Lourenço et al. 2018)...

The best video I've seen concerning the use of QMP is here - If fact Guelph University (Ontario, Canada) has a lot of interesting videos. CVB

I agree - an excellent discussion between informed people. The big takeaways for me were: multiple OA sublimation treatments were not harmful to bees it is ok to use OA sublimation with honey supers in place (which I proved to myself some years ago with some simple GCSE-level mathematics)...

This is a pretty fundamental question and one that I have pondered for a couple of years. The best that I could come up with was that the acid crystals burned the soft footpads and/or the mouth parts of the mite and they let go of their host. However, I had an electronic conversation with Dr Sam...

With its mixture of petals, it's proving attractive to bees. CVB

The BIBBA hive record sheet is pretty good and to go with it there is an apiary summary sheet that you can use to compare colonies this year and also compare with last year. I downloaded the file that allowed me to modify the sheet so I have added a column to the apiary summary sheet that gives...

Not only bravo but how sensible of Tim to ask those questions, before he embarks on the venture, on a forum where he will get a several answers or at least several variations on a theme. If his vineyard will have a shop or visitors' centre, how great it would be to sell his own honey - Farmer...

Google has photos of Sedum (Stonecrop) but they have five petals in all of the examples - my plant has six petals. Does this exclude sedum as a possible identity? CVB

Walking the dog today, I came across this plant near the Tamar. It was growing in a wild situation but it could have escaped from a garden above the cliff. Anybody recognise it? CVB