Beekeeping in Siberia

[Scutellator]

Scutellator, they are great pictures , thanks for posting them.

i did notice that the inside photo of the bee shed on the right hand side shows some form of straw on the top of the wall, does this mean that the shed is straw insulated?
or are they just standard corrigated tin sheds with one layer of metal to protect the bees and do you wait to use the snow as insulation?

I guess the shed is used just for wind protection and to faciliate more constant temerature avoiding sharp drops in temerature and as far I can see from the pictures there is no insulation of any kind.

Here in Bulgaria the snow could not be used as insulation ( exeptin the mountains), because the snow hardly remain for more than 20 days for the whole winter period. I am avoiding anything that involves too much work - my hives remain as they are from September till March. They don’t need any kind of insulation as long as the apiary is in a site protected from the winds. Actually, the more severe the winter is, the more rapid is the spring development.


The Moscow is in top 3 of the most expensive cities for living in the world.
In contrast, there are still villages in Russia without electricity, I am told.

What is Russia's native bee?
I take it they can't import Italians/carnies into that climate.

I am not sure that there is still native bee in Russia.
In the Soviet Union times there were huge crossbreeding projects, financed by the government. Many crosses were tested – including Italian, Carnica, the Finnish bee, the Ukrainian bee, five breeds of Caucasica, Primorsky , bees from central Russia and from the far east. After the tests the whole country was separated in districts, where the most suitable crosses for the district were widely propagated, including the parts where they get the original stocks (no need to mention how stupid it was, because after few years they couldn’t find pure stocks to repeat the cross)

There was also another cross-breeding project, exactly opposite to the Starline/Midnite program by the US. They were trying to make new races of bees by crossing two or more races and after generations of inbreeding they hoped that the parent races will become completely mixed and will achieve homogeneous state. The theory is very captivating and actually works in the animal word, but it fail in practice because they missed one serious detail – the bee is not an individual.


Merry Cristmas
Donnie

 

[MuswellMetro]

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Amur river area Russia
http://www.ampravda.ru/2009/10/14/023499.html

translated

http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...ww.ampravda.ru/2009/10/14/023499.html&act=url

 

[richardbees]

Fascinating pics Scutlellator and finman, thanks for posting them.

Huge frames that must weigh a ton when full -

 

[Dishmop]

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WOW. The last straw pictures are fine!

http://web.utanet.at/huttinge/projekte/nepal/book_off/trainbook.htm#strawhive

 

[mesinik]

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WOW. The last straw pictures are fine!

Some people used quite similar hives in Estonia about 80 years ago. Somebody had a remake some 20 years ago, but these are probably lost.

 

[mesinik]

It was a Russian who told me the price of honey, but the price was the retail price in shops, not wholesale. He also said beekeeping in some areas of Russia is rapidly expanding. The company I know in Finland are doing a lot of business with Russia. Money does not seem to be an issue. Some Russians have a lot of it. The hotel I stayed at in Crete this year for full of Russians, many of a simliar age - 30 to 40 with stunning looking wives.

As far as I know Russians, for them the price depends... some kind of honey might be very expensive, while some other kind quite cheap.

 

[mesinik]

fasinating finman, i never realised bees could go so cold and survive without heating or some form of help

Having been a beemaster in former SU, I can tell: cold wether is not that horrible for bees. If they have correct ventilation (but this one is a pretty fine art) and high frames with a lot of food, they are ok.

 

[Ocko]

Omsk Oblast

How is the criminality in Siberia? Can you have your hives in the forest and leave them alone or after a week you don't find them anymore?

Can you just place your hives somewhere into the Taiga or do you need permission?


The reason I asked is, that my wife and me want to move to Omsk Oblast and I want to become a professional beekeeper

 

[Goran]

Maybe to ask this on russian forum?

About permission, maybe You'll need first permission of local bears

 

[Finman]

Can you just place your hives somewhere into the Taiga or do you need permission?

I suppose that you cannot, because there are not much roads there.

I looked goog earth. Omsk area has plenty of fields. To north there strange figures in nature. Seems like swamps


-

 

[richardbees]

FM
I was speaking with my Canadian friend again yesterday and discussed some of the extreme over-wintering topics you've covered.
We wondered if you have Bears or Raccoons in Finland...or any other wildlife?
richard

 

[Finman]

FM
I
We wondered if you have Bears or Raccoons in Finland...or any other wildlife?
richard

Some bears are specialized to break yards. 2011 there were 55 cases. One bear can destroy in short time 30 hives when it learns how to do it. We protect yards with electrict fences.