DisconbobulatedI have seen this said before. I don't doubt it, but upset how?
DisconbobulatedI have seen this said before. I don't doubt it, but upset how?
Even if that were the case sterile drones at the end of the season isn’t really a problem?
Points for use of the word.Disconbobulated
But you don’t treat with Formic early in the season.Sure, but it's early season that is being mooted. And possible lingering effects rather than simply affecting the brood that were present at the time? (Thinking of comb absorbing toxins, that kind of thing) Just throwing ideas around here.
Unnecessary stressI have seen this said before. I don't doubt it, but upset how?
The suggestion was to use FA instead of the early-season drone culling advocated in the David Evans article. I think it's a bad one though.But you don’t treat with Formic early in the season.
Mmmmm…. I think there’s some adding human feelings/perceptions to bees going on. I put frames of drone comb into my hives in the hope of producing lots for my queen rearing. At times when I’ve removed these a friends chickens go mad for the odd 1 during the season! Or the queen is replaced and I’ve not noticed. There has certainly been no I’ll effect's on any colony. No colony will be drone free during the season however much drone culling you practice, there’s just better/easier ways of mite control.Disconbobulated
As with most things beekeeping its so multifactorial and nuanced its difficult to describe, I thought disconbobulated was a fair summary of the increased nervousness and agitation and general lack of bounce I believe I detected when compared to controlsMmmmm…. I think there’s some adding human feelings/perceptions to bees going on. I put frames of drone comb into my hives in the hope of producing lots for my queen rearing. At times when I’ve removed these a friends chickens go mad for the odd 1 during the season! Or the queen is replaced and I’ve not noticed. There has certainly been no I’ll effect's on any colony. No colony will be drone free during the season however much drone culling you practice, there’s just better/easier ways of mite control.
I read somewhere that varroa sought out drone brood with a 7 times increased frequency attracted by volatiles resulting from different food fed to drone larvae as opposed to worker larvae and drone culling plus an open mesh floor ( I know this again is not accepted as anything particularly useful in varroa control) results in a 50 % mite count reduction …. Can’t remember where and can’t remember it saying how much drone culling was needed and I don’t know if thd 7x increased rate of jumping into drone cells before capping had a significant effect on overall count but …. Does anyone know the source( I’m away or would look it up) and if it had scientific basis?
I miss the days of fatshark (and a few others) posting on the forums.David Evans (theapiarist.org) posted some interesting thoughts on drone culling a while back. If I recall correctly he's in favour, but only if it's done very early in the season.
I feel "seen"Part the problem with drone culling is if people put a frame in the average beek at some point or another will miss the magic window due to work….weather…life…beer and just end up breeding the bloody things…Again it’s wasteful limited in practical effects and there’s better options for varroa control.
Since I didn't ask permission, I will not quote him directly.
However, the upshot was that he absolutely doesn't like drone-culling through the season, suspects that doing it once very early might have some use, but this too is rendered useless anyway by an ordinary treatment program (apivar, oxalic etc) which is the approach he actually takes.
That's interesting. I don't recall any of his later articles saying that he feels it's not useful if you're treating in the late summer and middle of winter, but there are a couple of years worth of articles since then so I may have missed it.
James
I use foundationless frames and do not treat - I see that often there is a proportion of drone brood that has been expelled. So left to their own devices the bees practice "drone culling" but in a much more targetted way.
i like this guy and him funny too
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