Estimating colony from foragers

[Finman]

Everyone can nurse their bees as they like. Many does not take beekeeping seriously. It is enough that thy have couple of hives on their home yard and they have "healthy" hives. They think too, that the more you extract honey from hives, the more sick the bees are.

The most important thing in beekeeping is excluder, even if you do not extract the super.
.

 

[Poly Hive]

On that one Hivemaker I really don't know. I do think though that what the Americans were doing makes Murray's distances insignificant and as he monitors yields as closely as he does it was having an adverse effect that would be an operational changer pdq.

I do know and some won't like this comment but the Amm I had stressed with migration. That I learnt the hard and expensive way.

PH

 

[SDM]

Is that what you think? Really?
Perhaps, it could be that he has other things, more pressing to take care of...like moving bees to their Spring forage.

Its what i think of a lot of beekeepers, i thought id deleted the part of Pete's post that referenced itld,, becausr he's exactly who i was thinking of when i said experience isnt necessary when you know who's experiences to take seriously.

 

[Hivemaker.]

On that one Hivemaker I really don't know. I do think though that what the Americans were doing makes Murray's distances insignificant and as he monitors yields as closely as he does it was having an adverse effect that would be an operational changer pdq.

Pete,yes, forgot the Americans, although there are other things, in this instance I was thinking more about syrup feeding and your recent comments about it at this time of year, being a bad plan, while many beefarmers with large numbers of hives have been doing just that.

Thick syrup gives them a load of work which at this time is going to wear out the old codgers faster than need be so that's a bad plan.

 

[B+.]

Its what i think of a lot of beekeepers, i thought id deleted the part of Pete's post that referenced itld,, becausr he's exactly who i was thinking of when i said experience isnt necessary when you know who's experiences to take seriously.

I think I might have picked up the wrong end of the stick. I apologise if that's the case.
IMHO, ITLD is someone to listen to. He is not just a "box shifter" but someone who genuinely cares for his bees. If you follow his twitter feed, you will very quickly get a sense of how big his operation is but also how he knows what is going on in each part of it.

 

[Poly Hive]

Yes indeed. I read him up as often as I remember to do so.

PH

 

[SDM]

Same here, issues of scale differences aside, Murray gets to be pretty much the last word on UK beekeeping issues imo.

 

[Finman]

.
One thing to this subject. I am not going to estimate my colonies according to floor rubbish. I have inspected the combs, and that I will do later on.

 

[SDM]

My bad, Finman usually gets the last word

 

[birdsandbees]

My bad, Finman usually gets the last word

 

[Finman]

My bad, Finman usually gets the last word

Thanks!

 

[Murox]

..................................
The thing I don't like about association's is why is there such a following of bbka and I'm a new committe member , the other members might be wanting to get rid of me sooner rather than later, we had our first meeting the other night , and I had to ask certain questions , I'm thinking I've been nominated to make up the numbers ......................

Perhaps they see BBKA as an umbrella organisation whose “rules” cannot be questioned.
You probably have very traditional beekeepers to whom contemporary practices are 'foreign', represent changes and challenges that they are not able to, or choose not to, countenance and so remain unreceptive to new ideas or arguments. Stereotypically their beekeeping aspirations/achievements may well be some wooden hives (maybe poly by now) with local bees in them at the bottom of the garden.
Your farming background probably makes you a realist, a pragmatist and openminded. Your job then is to ask questions; not in order to belittle/humiliate them, or to frustrate or frighten them into silence , but questions which will lead them towards “enlightenment”. Good luck.