Bee Bubble

[nottingham]

holiday schedules tailored around the active season
John Wilkinson

I agree, that there are to many new beeks that ask "what to I do with my bees when I go on holiday in May?"

I still go on holiday in the swarming season but I have a 4 day holiday instead of a 7 or 14 day holiday.

Other problems are that some more experienced beeks when teaching newbie don't like to explain things. I have been told many a time "thats just the way it has always been" I once asked why beeks use OA and I got told that it is a horrid practice but because beeks are set in there way It will never change.

The price of nucs of bees isn't helping either as I would love to be able to start a small business in beekeeping in say 3 or 5 years time but new beeks seem to think that they can make hundreds of pounds on the honey and make a killing on selling bees within the first 2 years of taking up the hobby.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Summer holidays? I've told hubby winter hols are now "de rigueur"

I was at an Intermediate beekeeping course yesterday, tailored for a local small group. Because it was a small group we could stop and ask questions at any time and as a result the discussions got sent off on a tangent now and again but it was obvious that many people don't understand the basics of bee behaviour at all. Our tutor had to explain beespace to most of them and all but one of them hadn't an idea of life cycles.

The village has a heather bearing hill half a mile away and they were all talking about moving their hives up for the heather. I didn't know where to start and didn't want to upset anybody as I am only a second year beekeeper myself so I told them to look in this forum

 

[Erichalfbee]

PS
I got a lift home from the tutor, whois my mentor from the local BKA and she was bemoaning the difficulties faced by new beeks these days. When she first started over 20 years ago she just kept bees and took honey. Now with so many health problems here already and others round the corner she feels that hobby beekeeping is heading for a dead end. Does anybody else agree?

 

[Chris B]

PS
she feels that hobby beekeeping is heading for a dead end. Does anybody else agree?

No I don't think so. Varroa was the biggest thing to hit our bees since the Isle of Wight disease. It had certainly had an impact but it didn't kill beekeeping. Nothing on the horizon is any differernt.

 

[Baggyone]

All that needs to happen is beekeepers need to adapt so that we can keep bees healthy until they can look after themselves against all the different challenges they face.

Insects evolve very, VERY quickly whilst mammals are slow to do so. You only have to look at apistan resistance in varroa to see that.

 

[taff..]

Insects evolve very, VERY quickly whilst mammals are slow to do so. You only have to look at apistan resistance in varroa to see that.

I didn't think Varroa evolved to resist apistan, I was under the impression that a small percentage of mites had a natural resistance to it, and by using it continuously for a number of years the beekeeper naturally selected the resistant mites to live in his hives, and they could breed freely giving us a treatment that is useless.


someone on here did a test last year to see what % of mites were resistant to apistan compared to the same test a number of years ago and found that the % of resistant mites was actually quite low.

I'll see if I can find the post again

 

[Poly Hive]

Getting back to the OP, they are in for a shock if they move bees a half mile for the heather....LOL

PH

 

[taff..]

http://beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6851&highlight=apistan+test

 

[Erichalfbee]

Getting back to the OP, they are in for a shock if they move bees a half mile for the heather....LOL

PH

Exactly!

 

[Queens59]

it's the 2nd and third year beeks that worry me, where do they go?
I'm going to Buckfast in May for a '2nd year and on' course.....I'll let you know what the syllabus is when I get it!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Oh please do.....Our BKA desperately need to run one.

 

[BobH1]

I was under the impression that a small percentage of mites had a natural resistance to it, and by using it continuously for a number of years the beekeeper naturally selected the resistant mites to live in his hives

And I thought this was evolution in action - the selection and survival of the fittest (from the mites point of view)