Search results

One of the things Randy Oliver emphasizes is that mite roll tests are necessary for informed breeding decisions. In years past, I would have disagreed, but after seeing first hand the results, I now believe that progress in breeding for varroa resistance is glacially slow without testing for...

When BWeaver decided to develop varroa resistant bees, they set aside 1000 colonies that were not treated. IIRC, about 50 survived. They rebuilt raising queens from those 50 and had heavy losses again. They rebuilt again and raised queens from the best of the remaining hives. Today their...

With something as well documented as flower preference, I'm surprised several of you have not yet posted a link to supporting research. Finman, in this area, it is common for bees to have 3 to 4 different nectar sources available at a given time during the spring flow. If there is only one...

Most likely Pluto and Daffy. Not sure who is which. It is very well documented that different races and strains of bees select different flowers to preferentially collect nectar from. There was an attempt in the U.S. about 60 years ago to breed an "alfalfa" bee that would preferentially...

To my knowledge, all wax as produced by honey bees is white. It turns yellow from carotenoids in pollen. Some races of bees mix wax with propolis to cap honey resulting in gray tinted cappings. Some bees tear off parts of brood combs to make cappings for honey resulting in brown tinted...

The number of geographic races will likely increase with time as there are a few more regions they inhabit where the bees have not been characterized. I often refer to black bees as mellifera just because it is their correct name. However, black bees should have been divided into several...

Baldwin county is in extreme south Alabama near Mobile. I am 350 miles (about 560 km) north from there. I also happen to have kept bees in Baldwin county back in 1980. It is a nice warm climate with rare cold weather in winter. North Alabama is a bit colder. We have ice storms and the...

Yes, German Black which was very common here until varroa hit about 1990.

Yes Finman, it showed my bees were primarily Italian with a generous dose of Mellifera genetics. The exception was one colony that was a descendant of a BWeaver queen that carried some African genes. The samples were taken in 2019 when I still had a few colonies of the BWeaver genetics. I...

Everything we do with bees is ultimately for the benefit of the beekeeper. Bees are perfectly happy in just about any suitable cavity and will build combs that are perfect for them. When humans get involved, the bees wind up in odd size cavities, some larger and some smaller than the bees...

High losses in the U.S. are mostly among hobbyist beekeepers who tend to purchase commercial stock that is then not treated for varroa and dies over winter. There have been some huge losses among commercial beekeepers such as Adee who lost @30,000 colonies one winter about 5 or 6 years ago...

Then to you I truly apologize. I did not intend to insult you. As for JBM, he and I have an ongoing discourse based on mutual disdain. ITLD brought some perspective to this discussion. He posted some of the real drawbacks of using narrow frames. Here is something I wrote nearly 25 years ago...

Have you tried any other frame spacing than 38mm? If so, what are the reasons for using 38mm? How long from the start of spring buildup until your spring flow starts? As with JBM, if you have not tried any other spacing than standard 38mm Dadant or 35mm Langstroth, do you feel you have...

So much wisdom and so many epiphanies in this thread that I'm going to have a glass of prune juice with a twist of lime. They say it will cure what ails you. If a hive is contaminated with a brood disease like AFB/EFB, I'm either going to burn the hive or scrape and char the inside to...

Easy to call it balderdash, but have you done the legwork to find out? Tell us about the time you kept bees on 32mm frames or for that matter on 38mm frames? Have you never rolled a queen when removing frames that have protruding drone cells?

This question was researched back in the 1950's. Smaller cells do in fact result in smaller drones. However, the critical component is NOT cell length. It is cell diameter. There is also a huge genetic component with some races and breeds producing smaller drones regardless if they are...

There are lots of interesting comments in this thread. I would definitely requeen any colonies as hot as Dee Lusby's. Solomon Parker lost all his bees on at least one occasion and had problems with winter loss just about every year. All the signs were that his bees were on a cycle of spring...

If you want to start an argument between two beekeepers, just say "I winter my bees by.....".

I'll comment first about the video re hygienic behavior. IMO, there is a lot of speculation in the video that is not fully proven. However, IMO, hygienic behavior by itself is not a good way to control varroa. I stipulate that a certain amount of hygienic behavior is desirable because it...

Lusby's were definitely Africanized. You can easily confirm Africanized bees wherever they show up. Their behavior is unmistakable. They don't do a very good job of surviving in areas with reasonably cold winters. As I stated earlier, the last queen I had with Africanized ancestry died out...