Feral bees and bait hives

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Politics is always at play with any organisation. I remember talking to a bee inspector about 10 years ago and asked why OAVape was not endorsed by NBU. He said it was because of health risks but admitted it was brilliant and what he used on his own bees
 
Grow your own :),These are still there after 5 years so we catch their swarms every year... but the "tree" is now almost completely obscured by the vegetation and the cinder block under the entrance is now brown with propolis.. Be warned you start with 4 and get one successful. In this garden we got two out of 4 but one was "relocated" as part of the experiment.
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Be warned you start with 4 and get one successful. In this garden we got two out of 4 but one was "relocated" as part of the experiment.
I will always recommend frame hives that can be checked for problems, and in which frames can be rotated out. In the wild colonies usually survive for just 6 or 7 years, then the nest comb cell walls have become too thick to use, and it's time to let wax moth, mice other beasties clear the space ready for another run. It's is at the declining state that the likelihood of disease rises.

The success rate of swarms will depend on lots of things - mostly help to prepare for the first winter. In nature, again, failure rates are high. And how much resistance to varroa you will inherit will be variable according to the presence of treated hives.

I don't plan to lose baited swarms, period. If a virgin fails to mate I give cells or caged queens from my best hives. This is a lesson hard learned: leave things to nature and you will get natural success rates. Helping swarms does remove an important natural health and fitness sieve (though queening doesn't). My hope is that the increase of proven queen stock, and the large number of untreated drones my method makes, pays for any sin.
 
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Where in mid Wales? Genuinely interested
Just outside Llandrindod Wells, five fields away to be precise. Began my beekeeping in, I think, 1983 and kept bees for nine years (that was a couple of miles outside Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire). I was in Langstroths back then and began with a swarm from Ceri Davies (bee-inspector) who took me around some of his apiaries for a time and a nuc from Buckfast Abbey which I’d ordered before I met Ceri. I soon saw the problem of breeding my own queens from Buckfasts (the old leather coloured ones literally signed off by Brother Adam) and, to Ceri’s delight, developed the local strain.

Gave up beekeeping after I suffered swine flu in 1986 that turned my immune system up to 11 and gave me incurable kidney disease.

Spent the years between 1986 and 2000 pissing blood and either in bed or, at best and only occasionally, in a wheelchair. Finally began to see a consultant in 2010 and got promoted to two walking sticks and in 2020 moved to Llandod and tried keeping bees again as could now walk a very little bit.

By the end of that season the bee stings had reset (temporarily) my immune system, giving it bee venom to work on, and now I’m stick and wheelchair free - though by April each winter I’m sliding back again.

Anyway, treatment free? I think so despite feeding thymol in winter syrup, as described on these pages, and for the hives that haven’t had a summer brood break I’m working on every other year (or so) using the Ralph Büchler method of brood manipulation.


Okay, so I’ve only been back at it four years now and I restarted with Buckfasts again because I’d not yet found this forum. Now have some of Ceri’s bees (mbc) as well as two other good strains and have have requeened all Buckfast hives with these strong black bees.

Will the strain of ‘treatment free’ / occasional manipulations prove successful in the long run? Will looking both ways before I cross a road prove successful in the long run? I hope so in both cases but it does satisfy me so far.
 
Just outside Llandrindod Wells, five fields away to be precise. Began my beekeeping in, I think, 1983 and kept bees for nine years (that was a couple of miles outside Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire). I was in Langstroths back then and began with a swarm from Ceri Davies (bee-inspector) who took me around some of his apiaries for a time and a nuc from Buckfast Abbey which I’d ordered before I met Ceri. I soon saw the problem of breeding my own queens from Buckfasts (the old leather coloured ones literally signed off by Brother Adam) and, to Ceri’s delight, developed the local strain.

Gave up beekeeping after I suffered swine flu in 1986 that turned my immune system up to 11 and gave me incurable kidney disease.

Spent the years between 1986 and 2000 pissing blood and either in bed or, at best and only

 
Grow your own :),These are still there after 5 years so we catch their swarms every year... but the "tree" is now almost completely obscured by the vegetation and the cinder block under the entrance is now brown with propolis.. Be warned you start with 4 and get one successful. In this garden we got two out of 4 but one was "relocated" as part of the experiment.
View attachment 37841
What is this…how does it work??
 
What is this…how does it work??
Its 35mm pine with 20mm PIR and 0.6mm Aluminium. The pine is new but reject scaffold boards (no preservative). It has a tunnel entrance sloping upwards underneath a hopper like floor. The combination gives about the same conductance as 150mm wood. The aluminium is there to protect the PIR. They are painted brown and the interior scorched and rubbed with beeswax, to get the bees to run in easily. They really really dont like new pine. Its held together by torx screws so it can be dismantled years later to investigate the comb structures.
 
Really?……..
I tried over 12 swarms... they just wouldnt go in. you had to remove the entrance and create extra "blackness" underneath. The final design they really really rushed in... Even got to see a queen running on top of the other bees to get in the tree. Its very different from dumping most in from the top or having scouts already inside...
 
Hi Mark, I did see your post just before dropping off to sleep last night and woke up remembering almost none of it! Age? Could be. The only downside of the Ralph Buchler approach I can see is you end up with three frames of brood in the freezer from each hive - or you could put them into one colony to emerge and then treat that one colony for Varroa but I’d think they’d be a poor lot with several / many Varroa feasting on pretty much each larvae (especially in the final comb). If anyone happens to keep tropical or pond fish though I’d guess you could say you’re breeding fish food.
Ralph’s other three videos in the series also seemed interesting to me.
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Showing a grooved brood box (centre and both ends) on left side i cut a QX to slot in vertically and a hole in another to allow access up from the entrance. A single empty comb is then placed, with the queen, on the single comb and a complete QX above keeps her there. After that it’s simple to follow the instructions outlined in Ralph’s talk.
 
Hi Mark, I did see your post just before dropping off to sleep last night and woke up remembering almost none of it! Age? Could be. The only downside of the Ralph Buchler approach I can see is you end up with three frames of brood in the freezer from each hive - or you could put them into one colony to emerge and then treat that one colony for Varroa but I’d think they’d be a poor lot with several / many Varroa feasting on pretty much each larvae (especially in the final comb). If anyone happens to keep tropical or pond fish though I’d guess you could say you’re breeding fish food.
Ralph’s other three videos in the series also seemed interesting to me.
View attachment 37852
Showing a grooved brood box (centre and both ends) on left side i cut a QX to slot in vertically and a hole in another to allow access up from the entrance. A single empty comb is then placed, with the queen, on the single comb and a complete QX above keeps her there. After that it’s simple to follow the instructions outlined in Ralph’s talk.
Thanks for that Richard apologies I took down what I wrote but you saw I was asking about Ralph’s method .
I think I’ve seen this somewhere before now come to think of it.
 
No I don’t think so , I’m not sure what I wrote now probably nothing worth reading it was late .
It seemed perfectly fine to me when I read it, though I’ve completely forgotten what it was (apart from mentioning Ralph Buchler) so it wasn’t contentious or crazy - you’re right though, it was late :smilie_bett::) Oh, I did post the photo of how I isolate the queen here once before using the green and yellow QXs. The colours obviously don’t matter, it’s just what I had. It works well though and is very easy to do whilst also keeping the queen in lay and helping to avoid triggering supersedure. The limiting of brood raised is said to increase surplus honey in the hive too.
 
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I tried over 12 swarms... they just wouldnt go in. you had to remove the entrance and create extra "blackness" underneath. The final design they really really rushed in... Even got to see a queen running on top of the other bees to get in the tree. Its very different from dumping most in from the top or having scouts already inside...
That’s odd…. I suspect the vast majority of us use pine frames and indeed many hive bodies are made of pine. In fact in some countries Pine would be the norm for hive construction.
I’ve not seen any reporting issues with bees entering or using boxes or even frames?
 
That’s odd…. I suspect the vast majority of us use pine frames and indeed many hive bodies are made of pine. In fact in some countries Pine would be the norm for hive construction.
I’ve not seen any reporting issues with bees entering or using boxes or even frames?
It is often reported that bees prefer older, used boxes, and that applying beeswax, smearing propolis, putting in used comb, and especially good quality pheromone all improve the attraction for bait hives. New bare pine has none of these attributes, and bees may not recognise a good home even when placed at its entrance.

I dump swarms into boxes rather than run them in - preferably straight off a branch into a nuc - and if I was running them in I'd do it at nightfall, off a sloping sheet.

It may be that not knowing some of these tricks increase failure rates as reported.

A thought: cedar, the traditionally preferred material, while technically pine may have a better odour than other species.
 
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