Heidi Herrmann's responses to your countryfile discussions -

[mbc]

Is it the artificial selection of the best breeding stock you object to Heidi or simply queen rearing methods? I ask because I don't see organic or biodynamic farmers applying that kind of thinking to any other animal in their care. You won't let any old bull run with the herd. There probably wouldn't even be a herd unless countless generations of farmers had bred from the best, according to the things that were important to them.

There was an old bee farmer in Shropshire (now deceased) who used to just split his best colonies in half in the autumn and let them rear their own queens. The best ones being the ones that produced the most honey. He had some good bees.

There is growing evidence that epigenetics play an important role in colony health, that is the passing on of the genes of all the organisms co existing with the colony, not just the genes of the bees rthemselves, so splitting your best colonies will also propagate all the healthy beneficial microbes essential to colony health.

 

[For want of a better word]

healthy beneficial microbes essential to colony health.........

lots of them in a good healthy cow pat... + Eschiteria ssp...Clostridum bottuli TB and Cholera!

Come on DrS give us the lowdown on the pathogens thrivin in the jolly ol cow poo !

 

[Suzi Q]

There is a little bee that lives in Patagonia, it makes its nest in....horse poo! Trichothurgus bolithophilus

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

There is a little bee that lives in Patagonia, it makes its nest in....horse poo! Trichothurgus bolithophilus

No wonder it lives in Patagonia.


Patagonia. Isn't that the S American country with a large community of welsh descendants?


Dusty

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Phew.. we now move into dimensionality !

​

Hmm - Methinks this thread has already moved into a fifth dimension!

 

[Luminos]

No wonder it lives in Patagonia.


Patagonia. Isn't that the S American country with a large community of welsh descendants?


Dusty

Did you mean Snowdonia?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

No wonder it lives in Patagonia.


Patagonia. Isn't that the S American country with a large community of welsh descendants?


Dusty

More like the Welsh colony that the Argies succeeded in stealing without the UK batting an eyelid. - pity there was no oil there Or that we didn't have a Margaret Thatcher to sort them out.

 

[sunhivebee]

healthy beneficial microbes essential to colony health.........

lots of them in a good healthy cow pat... + Eschiteria ssp...Clostridum bottuli TB and Cholera!

Come on DrS give us the lowdown on the pathogens thrivin in the jolly ol cow poo !

You deserve a medal for your serious and sustained interested in cow poo as you so coyly call it ..... or is it a phobia? Check out aversion therapy when it starts taking over your life .... in the meantime .... long live the sacred cow!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Or that we didn't have a Margaret Thatcher to sort them out.

AArgh I can't believe I typed that - from Dartmouth I can hear rumblings as my grandparents shift in their graves - SWMBO won't speak to me for months (nothing new there)

 

[tonybloke]

healthy beneficial microbes essential to colony health.........

lots of them in a good healthy cow pat... + Eschiteria ssp...Clostridum bottuli TB and Cholera!

Come on DrS give us the lowdown on the pathogens thrivin in the jolly ol cow poo !

better hope your bees don't collect water from any dung heaps!!

 

[For want of a better word]

better hope your bees don't collect water from any dung heaps!!

NO .. they have been selected only to drink pure mineral water from the Buckfast Abbey distillery well deep below the granite of Dartmoor, lovingly bottled by our sacred bretherine and only containing healthy beneficial microbes essential to colony health.
Good ol BA her knew a marketing ploy when he saw one!


what was the op topic?

 

[mbc]

More like the Welsh colony that the Argies succeeded in stealing without the UK batting an eyelid. - pity there was no oil there Or that we didn't have a Margaret Thatcher to sort them out.

?!
I seem to remember a lot of Welsh sympathy for the Argies having the Malvenes back before the Galahad got hit.

 

[PBee]

herein lies the problem ....Mano de dios!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfgYnP99doM&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfgYnP99doM&feature=related[/ame]

 

[PBee]

Then there was the much more serious mano de Back ......

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQlJ8K7XjQc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQlJ8K7XjQc[/ame]

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

?!
I seem to remember a lot of Welsh sympathy for the Argies having the Malvenes back before the Galahad got hit.

I think it was more anxiety - the Welsh guards being deployed when there were actually Welsh speaking Patagonian conscripts on the other side. I don't remember much sympathy - but then I had other things on my mind at the time

 

[Cazza]

Back to the thread...

I didn't watch the programme. I don't much care how others keep their bees as long as they are healthy.

What has been tiresome is the fact that at least 6 non beekeepers have asked me why I am killing my bees by taking their honey.

Thank you Countryfile.

Cazza

 

[Chris Luck]

There is no doubt that some keepers "kill their bees" by taking too much or at the wrong time of year so it's always worth giving non bee keepers a full and balanced answer.

I'm forever having to explain that all our bees aren't dying from a mysterious disease that they have "heard, read or seen about" somewhere.

Chris

 

[tonybloke]

I'm forever having to explain that all our bees aren't dying from a mysterious disease that they have "heard, read or seen about" somewhere.

Chris

same here Chris!!

 

[For want of a better word]

same here Chris!!

CCD due to keeping bees in the way they do not want to be kept !

 

[For want of a better word]

100 posts on this topic
UNBELIEVEABLE




not bad for a mere media exorcise !​