Isolation starvation avoidance

[Finman]

In my first winter, under advice, i used a crown board with a hole at each end and left a block of fondant over each hole. May have helped, may not have but I didnt lose any of my then three colonies. All three came through the winter.

It does not help at all. It only makes the hive more cold and difficult to bees move.

It is basic knowledge of wintering. Not piling problem onto problem.

Go to basics!! Wintering in Britain is not a new idea.

Finland

Tricks are many said aunt when she sweeped table with cat

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[BeeJayBee]

Why not treat at the same time as culling the sealed brood? I suppose the bees are not clustered after pulling the frames? Would the whole frame be removed with any sealed brood? or just the brood cut out?

Because the bees will remove the dead brood and leave empty cells, the mites will have nowhere to hide?

 

[Skyhook]

Tricks are many said aunt when she sweeped table with cat
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The sayings of Finman no. 37




I'm hoping someone will buy me the book for Christmas.


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[alldigging]

The sayings of Finman no. 37




I'm hoping someone will buy me the book for Christmas.


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Isn't it called '50 shades of Finman"?

 

[pargyle]

Isn't it called '50 shades of Finman"?

I think the chinese got to it before ...

The combined confusions of Confucious !

 

[Cazza]

That just about sums the debate up for me. Never been an issue for me so I'm going to keep on trucking without worrying about it.
Cazza

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

I never saw an answer to Suzi Q's question. In culling capped brood, is the whole frame, including any stores, sacrificed?

 

[itma]

I never saw an answer to Suzi Q's question. In culling capped brood, is the whole frame, including any stores, sacrificed?

No, at Brighton they were just using an uncapping fork on any sealed brood they found.

 

[richardbees]

The sayings of Finman no. 37



but stacking up those straw bales to fend off the winter snow is nothing short of heroic -probably tactics learnt in 'the winter war'...... all I have to do is put matchsticks under my glass crownboard to prevent a bit of condensation

 

[Suzi Q]

No, at Brighton they were just using an uncapping fork on any sealed brood they found.

Ta.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

No, at Brighton they were just using an uncapping fork on any sealed brood they found.

Thanks. And what about uncapped brood: just wait for it to be capped?

 

[VEG]

The treatment will get at uncapped brood

 

[mbc]

The treatment will get at uncapped brood

Uncapped brood wont have varroa. My understanding is that the gravid female varroa dive into brood about to be capped.

 

[VEG]

So they enter when uncapped then

 

[mbc]

So they enter when uncapped then

Obviously, but I recall reading some research suggesting brood on the verge of being capped has a specific pheromone mix which attracts them.
The vast majority of uncapped brood doesnt harbor varroa.

 

[Skyhook]

Regarding winter inspections.


While visiting LASI at the University of Sussex, I learned about their Oxalic treatment protocol.
They advise a frames-out inspection and sealed brood culling (if any is found), about 3 days before the Oxalic treatment.
This is to ensure that absolutely zero mites can hide from the Oxalic in sealed brood cells.
Any small patch of midwinter brood is going to be a liability to the colony rather than an asset during the winter.

Surely,if as recommended you leave 3 days between uncapping and treatment, a lot of those larvae (about half) are going to be capped?


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[Finman]

The vast majority of uncapped brood doesnt harbor varroa.

Sure. If it does, the colony is dead.

 

[VEG]

Surely,if as recommended you leave 3 days between uncapping and treatment, a lot of those larvae (about half) are going to be capped?


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They probably hook all the larvae out with the uncapping fork

 

[Finman]

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I use now this method:

- I take capped brood off to another hive. I may colect brood from several hives.

- Then treated hive has no sealed mites and I can give formic acid to clean the original hive. That is what I am doing now.

- I have 7 boxes hive, which I am going to split and then treat them.
Part of bees I give then to strengten nucs.


- To brood part I give once a week a treatment. That hive will have no queen. It reard emergency cells and it will be queenless 3 weeks. Then I pick emerged bees to other hives after cleaning.

,No forking!

 

[Nige.Coll]

isolation starvation .. which way round do you put your frames warm or cold ?