Non-interventionalist beekeeping?

[BeeJayBee]

Firstly many thanks Pargyle for my 'free' copy of 'at the hive entrance'. That’s my bed time reading sorted! What a great gift the internet and this forum is!

/QUOTE]

It's not a great quality ...obviously a copy that has been scanned ... I think it may be out of copyright now.

There are a lot of interesting books and documents about honey bees on http://archive.org/search.php?query="honey bee" Takes a bit of time to trawl through the list.

 

[TBRNoTB]

One who does his/her inspections in the nude

Sooner him/her than me gungadin!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Sooner him/her than me gungadin!

Fine as long as you keep your tool in your hand (hive tool that is, as you won't have a pocket )

 

[pargyle]

One who does his/her inspections in the nude

OK JBM ... I'll join in and degenerate this midweek thread to a Friday night special !

Do you think he's got his priorities wrong ?

 

[VEG]

well he got sandals on for a start lol

 

[MandF]

Your situation is clearly different BUT please don't make the mistake of thinking that unmanaged or low management non treated colonies are unhealthy or can't survive - they can and do. Also, in case you haven't seen my other posts, money isn't my thing - life is, however if you are paying £140 for some bees perhaps you could research other options, perhaps even raising some of your own?

Chris

Once again, I dont make that mistake. Once again I already said that I know some colonies survive heavy varroa infestations, and are "healthy".

Just like I know some people bitten by mosquitos wont catch malaria.

Out of interest, have you had the same issues as us in the UK over the last few year with the weather? Ie very long cold snaps in winter/spring, very long cold and wet spells in summer and spring?

Finally I know I could raise some of my own, but that is beside the point, that being you can afford to gamble on varroa not killing your colonies. Some of us are unable to or unwilling to. A beekeeping choice.

I am not criticising your 'naturalist' (better?) methods, just defending/explaining the choices of us others who choose to treat for varroa. If you were local to me, then I might be more interested in your choices and how they might affect my bees, but Im not so Im not.

Basically, if it works for you, thats great.

 

[victor meldrew]

OK JBM ... I'll join in and degenerate this midweek thread to a Friday night special !

Do you think he's got his priorities wrong ?

He may have got his priorities right?

Viagra is expensive (so they say)
VM


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Chris Luck]

Out of interest, have you had the same issues as us in the UK over the last few year with the weather? Ie very long cold snaps in winter/spring, very long cold and wet spells in summer and spring?

Somewhat off topic but as you ask.

The weather in France has been worse than in the UK this year and I'm currently feeding many of my new colonies - I have a lake outside my house where our lawn should be. There has been no spring honey to take despite having had several hundred hectares of OSR in forage range and I now seriously doubt there will be any yield this year at all even with the sweet chestnut to come, (many hectares), and thousands of hectares of sunflower.

So, spring can be hot, cold, dry, wet or in this years case the worst weather ever recorded here for the first 6 months of the year.

Chris

 

[DanBee]

I prefer to use icing sugar on cakes rather than insects whose tiny spiracles are likely to get blocked. How about you?

Powdered/icing sugar particles are of an equivalent size range to pollen grains, so unlikely to be any more of a problem than pollen. The spiracles are already well protected in that regard.

 

[pargyle]

Powdered/icing sugar particles are of an equivalent size range to pollen grains, so unlikely to be any more of a problem than pollen. The spiracles are already well protected in that regard.

That's a great photo .... she's bathing in pollen as well as collecting it !

 

[For want of a better word]

One who does his/her inspections in the nude

Would that not be NATURALIST beekeepering....

OH NO ... name calling again... but it is silly season... extracted first 140kg of prime prize winning bestest ever honey yesterday !....
and the mead is now drinkable !!!

 

[flemage]

[QUOTE
extracted first 140kg of prime prize winning bestest ever honey yesterday[/QUOTE]

Hi could i ask how many hives this came off, just for a refferance point for what mine have done?

Thanks sorry its off topic

 

[Chris Luck]

Would that not be NATURALIST beekeepering....

OH NO ... name calling again... but it is silly season... extracted first 140kg of prime prize winning bestest ever honey yesterday !....
and the mead is now drinkable !!!

I'm sure you are better educated than that, however it's NATURIST for any that missed school through ill health or don't have English as their first language.

Chris

 

[pargyle]

Would that not be NATURALIST beekeepering....
QUOTE]

No ... that's when David Attenborough, Bill Oddie or Chris Packham do it ...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Would that not be NATURALIST beekeepering....
QUOTE]

No ... that's when David Attenborough, Bill Oddie or Chris Packham do it ...

Hmm - oddie, naked, next to a beehive - can we ensure that they are particularly vicious little bleeders? anyone got any old bananas they don't want?

 

[pargyle]

Hmm - oddie, naked, next to a beehive - can we ensure that they are particularly vicious little bleeders? anyone got any old bananas they don't want?

Now that's a picture I will try and get out of my mind ...thanks for that JBM !

 

[For want of a better word]

I'm sure you are better educated than that, however it's NATURIST for any that missed school through ill health or don't have English as their first language.

Chris

English was not my first language... however due to the governments anti Celtic ways at that time, my first language was soon knocked out of me.
How I wish now that I kept it up!


Naturist... naturalist... natural...probably all derived from Latin or Ancient Greek ... and they were definitely off the curriculum for us East End Clearance Secondary School 50s factory fodder kids!

Just typed in NATURIST.. and my clock work computer spell checked it to NATURALIST !!not

worthy

for bring me up[ on it anyway.. now back to the bees.

 

[For want of a better word]

[QUOTE
extracted first 140kg of prime prize winning bestest ever honey yesterday

Hi could i ask how many hives this came off, just for a refferance point for what mine have done?

Thanks sorry its off topic[/QUOTE]

16 not all mine tho!!!

That should have read Lbs or 2x 8oz........my lack of a formal education!

 

[DanBee]

But it is very much in the beekeeper's interest to avoid introducing stressors to the host which render it less resilient to withstand parasite attack.
It is painful to have varroa consistently, and in my view, erroneously accorded terrorist status when in actual fact that there are a host of other stressors one might examine which lead to reduced fitness and vitality.

Absolutely right, except varroa has evolved to be a parasite on apis cerana, which can tolerate it for several reasons.

Unlike apis mellifera unless they have a particular genetic trait, like more grooming/cleaning than is usual.

Can you list those other significant stressors (and presumably virus vectors) which we can examine, and more importantly, manage as beekeepers?

Yes, I will, but probably later tonight, as my style of beekeeping implies heavy swarm watch duties at this very moment ....

Did I miss the rest of this discussion about stresses, how they were introduced, and how they could be managed...?

 

[Dishmop]

Did I miss the rest of this discussion about stresses, how they were introduced, and how they could be managed...?

Too busy catching swarms from wicker baskets.