Heather move pics uploaded

[oliver90owner]

Rumour? Fact : there were 26 colonies destroyed and more found the following month.

FACT: NONE WERE AFB

Fact: not all colonies with EFB are destroyed.

Fact: Facts are one thing ; gossiping rumour is another.

 

[Into the lions den]

ITLD
Transparency - yes, if only - some day.
QUOTE]

Well its the approach I take, and, as might be backed up on here and features in a Scot. Gov. report, I believe in letting others see what is about, just in case they (as was the case with *US* 3 years or so back) have never seen it 'in the flesh'.

The only thing I am ashamed of in the EFB outbreak is not knowing what it was sooner. There were a few reasons for that but one of them was lack of experience, so it can be a factor that gets the biggest of us. Its also one of the easiest factors to rectify if people were willing, with inspectorate guidance and participation, to host a 'show and tell' event.

The event at my quarantine site last year, organised by Gavin mainly with the backing of Steve Sunderland and our authorities, had an outstanding attendance and most went away with a new attitude and the knowledge to recognise it themselves.

As for the other case, I remember that it was actually being promulgated in a way that was inaccurate (wrong foulbrood for a start) and inflamatory.............and could have lead to some sort of witch hunt. All a bit unsavoury.

Maybe time for a new thread on the Foulbroods and information relating thereto topic?

 

[Beezer]

The word was "Unconfirmed"

As in 'suspected' 'heads up' etc with clarification on 'confirmed' information,

And it did lead to a witch hunt of the original poster.

Yes, extremely unsavoury.

Itld:
"Alerting others in the area when you find it helps them get an early handle on what might be going on in their own hives, and ultimately thus generates a more healthy environment for yourself."

So what was wrong with the post that did?

 

[ebee]

ITLD
Very interesting pics. Colonies seem to vary in size, (supers seem to be brood box size) do you take all colonies for their winter feed? When do you do varroa treatment?
Very smart equipment too, must take some doing.

 

[Into the lions den]

ITLD
Very interesting pics. Colonies seem to vary in size, (supers seem to be brood box size) do you take all colonies for their winter feed? When do you do varroa treatment?
Very smart equipment too, must take some doing.

The size varies because a number of them are actually mid season splits and may or may not be reunited back to the parent colony at the heather (very much depends of the performance of the queens). The small ones actually come on quite strong by the end of August, and by next week there will be very few singles remaining, and those promorted ones should give half a box to a box of ling by then. Many have already brought in enough to be wall to wall and have had the second box added.

We take evertything to the heather, not so much for the winter feed, but because the colonies taken to the heather and getting a flow at the heather seem to overwinter more concistently than those left struggling a bit in the agricultural areas. We actually remove 3 to 5 (sometimes more) of honey from the bottom boxes at the end of the heather and replace them with foundation, return the hives to the lowlands, give them their winter feed, and get lovely drone free comb drawn at that time. Thus even a small one can give you 5 to 10Kg of honey even if it never gets out of the first box. Makes taking them viable.

In our polystyrene unit you are correct, all boxes are the same size and all interchangeable. It is a standard Langstroth deep box. The equipment in that unit is all fairly new and may look less smart once it is 15 yrs old. Our local Scottish based poly unit has boxes now 13 yrs old, and to be honest they are not greatly worse looking than when new, just the paint a bit faded.

Primary varroa treatment is oxalic in mid winter...........with supplementary methods up our sleeve if needed. Cannot say just what as it changes from season to season. Currently have a significant stock of thymol and the stuff needed to make up the patties. We rotate the secondary treatments to avoid resistance issues.

It has been a quiet year for varroa all round, not a huge amount of it about for some reason. Worse in those English based bees than the Scottish ones, but then they had a far longer breeding season and there may have been some brood rearing going on at oxalic time.