colonies in sheltered sites

[fincaazul]

solid floors

If you want to kill your bees then use a solid floor.

What a load of utter crap,biggest honey farm in the country uses nothing but solid floors,as do many other commercial beekeepers i know,guess what....they are not in buisness to kill all there bee's.

Biggest honey farm in UK? is not out to promote health of Bees but to make money. How often is varroa monitoring/ control done? How often are all colonies inspected by BDI? As in USA bees are a 'commodity' and regarded as 'Disposable' Solid floors probably used as they were already there and cost of OMF was avoided. I do not begrudge anyone making a living but sometimes when it is at the expense of living creatures it upsets me. Bullfighting in Spain is now largely banned. Let's give bees a chance 'tho it may already be too late.

 

[fincaazul]

solid floors

If you want to kill your bees then use a solid floor.

What a load of utter crap,biggest honey farm in the country uses nothing but solid floors,as do many other commercial beekeepers i know,guess what....they are not in buisness to kill all there bee's.

Biggest honey farm in UK? is not out to promote health of Bees but to make money. How often is varroa monitoring/ control done? How often are all colonies inspected by BDI? As in USA bees are a 'commodity' and regarded as 'Disposable' Solid floors probably used as they were already there and cost of OMF was avoided. I do not begrudge anyone making a living but sometimes when it is at the expense of living creatures it upsets me. Bullfighting in Spain is now largely banned. Let's give bees a chance 'tho it may already be too late.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Let's give bees a chance 'tho it may already be too late.

I think it's most likely to late.....what da you think about the whole affair Finc.

 

[Mike a]

If you want to kill your bees then use a solid floor.

That is laughable, they have been around for thousands of years compared with OMF.

Originally Posted by JamesB
I use solid floors atm and im varroa free

That is one hell of a boast and very unlikely indeed, imho your method of checking for varroa is either not effective or you have solved one of the biggest problems with bee keeping.

Any one else want to make me laugh tonight with an outrageous statement.?

 

[fincaazul]

There are many non chemical ways of dealing with bee parasites, trouble is they need us to spend time to administer them, and it takes some dedication to do this. The pests that have come from Asia, by us importing them, need innovative methods of control which may not yet have been found. Suggest banning of Queen imports from Hawaii to avoid import of small hive beetle, common in their colonies. Would inform my MP but by time anything was done it would already be too late. I think that all bee imports should be stopped NOW and we may have the chance of getting a relatively disease free population of bees in in the UK. This would naturally impact on the many companies who regularly rely on their income from importing bees (and any disease they carry) . We have enough problems with keeping healthy bees now without facing more fro importation of bees from far and wide. There are enough knowledgeable amateurs to provide all the bees we need. PS saw a kilo bag of onions in Lidl at 38pence, from New Zealand, don't we grow onions anymore?

 

[fincaazul]

That is laughable, they have been around for thousands of years compared with OMF.



That is one hell of a boast and very unlikely indeed, imho your method of checking for varroa is either not effective or you have solved one of the biggest problems with bee keeping.

Any one else want to make me laugh tonight with an outrageous statement.?

Wher are the Dinosaurs now? they were around for millions of years?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Sounds like everything is well and truly buggered up then Finc.

 

[tonybloke]

Wher are the Dinosaurs now? they were around for millions of years?

saw these the other week, seem to be doing OK?


http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=2174&stc=1&d=1280555730

 

[Hivemaker.]

Suggest banning of Queen imports from Hawaii to avoid import of small hive beetle, common in their colonies.

Don't know about common.......they have only just got small hive beetle.
Do you also suggest the complete ban on the imports of all fruit,veg,plants and anything else from countrys that have shb,as it is much more likely to arrive here this way than on a queen bee....
PS did you check that kilo bag of onions in Lidl.....could of been one hinding in there.

 

[Mike a]

Wher are the Dinosaurs now? they were around for millions of years?

Their longevity may have some thing to do with the fact we (humans) weren't around to interfere with things at the time. If only Bayer had been around then...

Unless you prefer to believe the Hollywood time line of events in the 60's when the film One Million Years B.C. co-starring Rachel Welch was probably thought to be an accurate documenty by some.

 

[oliver90owner]

A bit of 'rough and crude' history.

Dinosaurs only went extinct 'cos the Planet got hit by a large lump of rock (pretty well the accepted scenario). So not really any fault of the dinos, just hard luck and an abrupt climate change! The dinosaurs developed after the Permian Extinction (when it is estimated that 95% of life was exterminated) a couple hundred million years ago, so they were around for about 140 million years.

Some say we, as a species, have been on the planet for about 30 thousand years. OK, other estimates are 50- and 80 thousand years, but that is not long, compared to the dinos! Most agree our ancestors only came down out of the trees about 4 million years ago.

64 million years on, and it could happen again, only it won't be the dinosaurs that become extinct. Thing is, we now have enough technical know-how to see one coming from a long way off. Whether we yet have the know-how to avoid avoid a potential collision, I know not. Smaller 'hits' have been recorded over the past few millenia.

Regards, RAB

 

[fincaazul]

That is laughable, they have been around for thousands of years compared with OMF.



That is one hell of a boast and very unlikely indeed, imho your method of checking for varroa is either not effective or you have solved one of the biggest problems with bee keeping.

Any one else want to make me laugh tonight with an outrageous statement.?

OMF wasn't necessary before we started messing with them. Imports and hybridisation has given us bees from areas that have a different climate and different cycle of development, often unsuited to the British climate. There are a few pockets of AMM left and some hardy individuals who are producing AI queens from them but unless they can be mated in areas where there are only AMM drones then all the effort is in vain. Carniolan Queens have little place in Britain. In 1902 acarine wiped out 92% OF bees in Britain and this is when Imports began, a sad day.

 

[Hivemaker.]

In 1902 acarine wiped out 92% OF bees in Britain and this is when Imports began, a sad day.

Sorry finc.....importing bee's started long before then....so not all colonys died on solid floors before varroa arrived then.

 

[fincaazul]

A bit of 'rough and crude' history.

Dinosaurs only went extinct 'cos the Planet got hit by a large lump of rock (pretty well the accepted scenario). So not really any fault of the dinos, just hard luck and an abrupt climate change! The dinosaurs developed after the Permian Extinction (when it is estimated that 95% of life was exterminated) a couple hundred million years ago, so they were around for about 140 million years.

Some say we, as a species, have been on the planet for about 30 thousand years. OK, other estimates are 50- and 80 thousand years, but that is not long, compared to the dinos! Most agree our ancestors only came down out of the trees about 4 million years ago.

64 million years on, and it could happen again, only it won't be the dinosaurs that become extinct. Thing is, we now have enough technical know-how to see one coming from a long way off. Whether we yet have the know-how to avoid avoid a potential collision, I know not. Smaller 'hits' have been recorded over the past few millenia.

Regards, RAB

but the bees haven't been around for 64 million years. We are dealing wit today's problems

 

[Mcleod2860]

Biggest problem with Birmingham apiary site is that hives are invaded by large slugs which eat stored pollen in comb.

I don't know if this would affect the bee s but you could do what I do on my veg plot and fill a small container with guinness the slugs go straight for it and end dead flouting in it

 

[fincaazul]

In 1902 acarine wiped out 92% OF bees in Britain and this is when Imports began, a sad day.

Sorry finc.....importing bee's started long before then....so not all colonys died on solid floors before varroa arrived then.

point I was making was that 92% of bees had to be imported after this disaster.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Why did you not just say so then Finc....instead of saying thats when they began.....easier to understand if you say what you mean.

 

[beebreeder]

OMF wasn't necessary before we started messing with them. Imports and hybridisation has given us bees from areas that have a different climate and different cycle of development, often unsuited to the British climate. There are a few pockets of AMM left and some hardy individuals who are producing AI queens from them but unless they can be mated in areas where there are only AMM drones then all the effort is in vain. Carniolan Queens have little place in Britain. In 1902 acarine wiped out 92% OF bees in Britain and this is when Imports began, a sad day.
Finc
If AMM was so succesfull in the uk why did 92% get killed by acarine? and there is no bee farmer in the country able to produce sufficient queens to meet the existing demand let alone next years demand with the huge rise in beekeepers, reality is without imports there would be less bees around and a lot of new beekeepers would not have colonies this season. I rear my own queens but the majority just buy and from wherever available at the right price

 

[fincaazul]

Beekeeping today is beset with problems which did not exist when I started in 1974. I would collect 3-4 swarms a week and often made a hasty exit when called on to collect a swarm which I had no room for. Disease was practically non-existant and an imported Queen was an exotic novelty. I had connections with Dr. Eva Crane, Ted Hooper, Anthony Rawlings and many other eminent beekeepers. Time has moved on and so has the craft. We need to work together to ensure the continuation of healthy bee colonies, and petty sniping at honestly given comment on the forum does not encourage this. Do we want to to encourage the craft or use the forum to snipe at other members ?

 

[tonybloke]

Do we want to to encourage the craft or use the forum to snipe at other members ?

Both!!