- Joined
- Mar 30, 2011
- Messages
- 37,278
- Reaction score
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- Location
- Glanaman,Carmarthenshire,Wales
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- Too many - but not nearly enough
Did you expect anything else?
The intent is to discuss what you do and see if there are reasons to do anything different. That you think it is claptrap might suggest the difference between my climate and yours. When the temp is 45C for 3 weeks in mid-July and hives are in full sun, combs will soften and detach from the top bar if the hives are not properly prepared. I don't know if you have ever dealt with a hive that melted down, but I assure you it is a sticky nasty mess. Plenty of ventilation, ready access to water, and hives painted white so they don't absorb heat become very very important.Then list a load of unnecessary claptrap?
Plenty of ventilation, ready access to water, and hives painted white so they don't absorb heat become very very important.
100 mm of pir is equivalent to 150mm of expanded polystyrene.
That is the high density. When you look at thermal conductivity figures for high and low density there is not much difference. The high density performs a little better than the low. Bigger differences occur on the expanding gas employed. References for this and the variation of conductivity with temperature are in my paper IRCFor the sake of clarity, is that the high density polystyrene that hives are usually made of, or the type used in construction?
Here are a few of the things I do to manage my bees.
Then list a load of unnecessary claptrap?
Thanks, but nothing wrong with leavingbhives in a full, sunny position.
You decrying the Warre system?
I don't interfere with my bees unless deemed necessary. Bad practice. Hefting should be adequate and if they have more than sufficient stores at the start of the wintercweather, they will not run short until spring.
The rest of the post is basc claptrap, too. Mostly simple beekeeping, so nothing special. He's never seen a hive which doesn't need the bottom board cleaning? Try an OMF as the bottom board. Simples.
Finny, with a metre of snow, might disagree about frost pockets, too! Fairly irrelevant when covered in snowall winter.
There are basic things that need to be done when necessary. Not necessarily 'regular' or even every year. And waiting until the colony is 'in trouble' is often too late. Simple observation is the key, with taking action as appropriate. KISS principle in operation!
That about covers it.
We don't have small hive beetle yet so will have to learn those practices as the need arises.
Our main defense against small hive beetle in the UK, when it arrives is that we have a broodless period, as phoretic beetles can only live for 2 days without brood. To the forum - cosies off or on should SHB arrive?
OP thanks for your input. Sorry about negativity from some quarters. Perhaps you can be kind enough to expand on your SHB strategies?
Our main defense against small hive beetle in the UK, when it arrives is that we have a broodless period, as phoretic beetles can only live for 2 days without brood.
Upon emerging from the ground (where they pupate), adult small hive beetles search for honey bee colonies, probably identifying the host colony by a suite of olfactory cues. Investigators have shown that small hive beetles fly before or just after dusk and odors from adult bees and various hive products (honey, pollen) are attractive to flying small hive beetles (Elzen and Neumann 2004). Some investigators have suggested that small hive beetles also may find host colonies by detecting the honey bee alarm pheromone (Elzen and Neumann 2004). Additionally, small hive beetles carry a yeast (Kodamaea ohmeri) on their bodies that produces a compound very similar to honey bee alarm pheromone when deposited on pollen reserves in the hive.
Upon locating and entering the host colony, adult small hive beetles seek out cracks and crevices where they hide from bee aggression. These locations are often referred to as 'prisons' (Ellis 2005). Remarkably, honey bees station guards around the prisons where small hive beetles hide. The 'prison guard' bees keep the small hive beetles confined to the cracks and out of the brood combs where there is an ample supply of honey, pollen, and brood on which small hive beetles reproduce. Small hive beetles do not starve in these prisons as they are able to solicit food from their bee captors. In this behavior, small hive beetles use their antennae to rub the bees' mandibles and induce the bees to regurgitate. Small hive beetles then feed on the regurgitated food (Ellis 2005, Ellis and Hepburn 2006).
Mating behavior of small hive beetles (including whether female small hive beetles mate once or multiple times) is not understood, but adult small hive beetles do not appear to be sexually mature until about one week post-emergence from the soil. If allowed to reproduce, female small hive beetles will oviposit directly onto food sources such as pollen or brood combs. Alternatively, female small hive beetles may deposit irregular masses of eggs in crevices or cavities away from the bees as female ovipositors are long and flexible, being perfectly designed to lay eggs in tiny and concealed places. A female small hive beetle may lay 1,000 eggs in her lifetime
What an absolute load of claptrap.
Beginners are well advised to ignore these ramblings
Might just be a mix up. If you substitute Tropilaelaps clarea for small hive beetle it is not far from correct.
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