Clean floors

[Cazza]

Thank you for your replies so far.
I think if the floor is a posh OMF there isn't much need for a change. I have a mix of these, budget OMF's where you use the old solid floor with the OMF on top and bodgit made solid floors with an OMF cut out.

The budget ones can get icky and need cleaning more frequently.
C

 

[JamesB]

And if they are changed to often, won't the bees use energy on propolising everything instead of foraging etc?

Yeah i can see where you are coming from but lets say out of 5 to 10k wing bees - a few hundred are propilising more often, i cant see much of a dramatic effect on forage in the hot months,

except for one of my hives which propolise more than the others do maybe

 

[tonybloke]

and?

they're better off employed gathering nectar!

 

[JamesB]

they're better off employed gathering nectar!

well im happy losing 3 tablespoons of honey

 

[Skyhook]

if you recall i advised my fathers hives before he retired were varroa free, im actually awaiting my lab results

I can only state my own experience- my bees seemed varroa free until I put them on OMF in August. Now hoping I'm in time to have staved off colony collapse and wishing I'd put the new floor in when I got them in June.

 

[Polyanwood]

What is clean???

Just because a floor looks clean... no bits of pollen or wax or dead bee, that doesn't mean it is cleaner. Propolis is a natural fungicide and bactericide. Coating the inside of the box with propolis, as the bees do, therefore is likely to mean that there will be fewer pathogens on a floor that is not scrubbed clean of propolis every month.

Can't see the sense of changing/cleaning the floor every month - won't it do more harm than good?

 

[JamesB]

call it over paranoid, cleaning too much what ever - tbh you can do what you want and if anymore want to have a pop as i clean my floors once a month over what maybe is a 2 to 3 month period - take a ticket and join the que because to be frank im getting a bit fed up with the trolls, flamers etc

 

[victor meldrew]

'Dummy spitters out ' when contradicted come high on my 'Fed up ' list.

John Wilkinson

 

[JamesB]

dont think ive been contradicted, all ive done is advise what i do when someone asked what should they do, my dummy is firmly in place thankyou, i wonder if yours is or is that just your teddy out of your pram,

i think the thread has run its course tbh - nice to see the minority at work again on a thread again.

 

[victor meldrew]

dont think ive been contradicted, all ive done is advise what i do when someone asked what should they do, my dummy is firmly in place thankyou, i wonder if yours is or is that just your teddy out of your pram,

i think the thread has run its course tbh - nice to see the minority at work again on a thread again.

and?

John Wilkinson

 

[Poly Hive]

I contradicted the matter. And am again.

It is a complete waste of the beekeepers time and also extra stress on the bees to change the floor every month. It is not a practice I have ever heard of being done before and don't want to hear of it again.

There are lots of newbies reading this forum and some of us put a lot of effort in to offering to the best of our ability, good advice. Whether anyone actually acts on it of course is up to them. But it is very foolish to repeat mistakes that have already been made, just for the sake of making them.

PH

 

[JamesB]

looking at what you typed i see a contradiction;

you say its a practice you have not heard of being done and dont want to hear again, then you say its foolish to repeat mistakes that have already been made, ponders some.......
So a method you havent done and you have 'no' experience of and you are happy to troll a practice i do with no knowledge,

I thought a forum was to put a few suggestions across ,discuss etc now that what i have tried and always open to new suggestions from other knowledgable people and i have took what has been said on board but absolutely nothing can be gained from continually berating what i do in practice, which i need to add has shown no ill effects what so ever
Only thing i can see gained is your epeen

so i ll thankyou again kind sir for your continued informative remarks

 

[Cazza]

Thank you all for your views and ideas, especially James for sticking your head above the parapet.
On reflection, I will keep my twice a year change as this works for me.

Post closed?
Cazza

 

[Chris Luck]

Interesting how suddenly causing stress to bees gains such importance on here, forget all the other fiddling and interfering that goes on. Certainly in the case of a Dadant with a modern OMF it would take about, ummm, let me think, say maximum 2 minutes, no need to open the hive top, simply unclip the hive - lift from existing floor and place on clean floor.

Do I do it?

No, but I can't see it causing as much disruption as removing frames and pouring chemicals in the hive in mid winter.

It would seem to me once again that certain people on this forum think that they and only they know what is right - well, wrong, they just have an opinion, and AFAIK they don't walk on water.

Chris

 

[Poly Hive]

Never had a floor utterly stuck to a brood body? Takes some power to take it off and if it takes another three or four minutes to do then yes it adds stress.

As for walking on water, no I don't but I am a reasonable swimmer.

My reason for posting on here is to help people look after their charges. I do sometimes wonder why I bother.

PH

 

[victor meldrew]

I wouldn't accuse anyone of being a troll after posting 12 posts on this thread and then suggesting it be stopped when it wasn't your thread in the first place !

Ah! well, being accused of being a troll is better than being accused of being a hot air balloon I suppose

John Wilkinson

 

[Chris Luck]

Never had a floor utterly stuck to a brood body? Takes some power to take it off and if it takes another three or four minutes to do then yes it adds stress.

Even if that was the case the stress would still be no more than all the other "common" and "advised" practises that are carried out on a frequent basis that personally I think are unnecessary, but don't get upset because someone dares to have a different point of view.

Chris, not a fiddler.