Opinion on this

[linoleum bonypart]

http://www.---------------.com/swarm-control-made-very-easy-apparently

 

[mbc]

Bust link

 

[Cussword]

It's no there

 

[Farmer Tom]

substitute talkingbees.com for the --- bit
website won't let me post the URL.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

still no there - unless you want to find a site to help you learn hindu

 

[Farmer Tom]

Ah, try putting swarm-control-made-very-easy-apparently into google?

 

[Farmer Tom]

If we keep this up I'll eventually be able to post the link. Maybe.

edit: It's an article about the work of Dr Roman Linhart,

 

[Cussword]

still no there - unless you want to find a site to help you learn hindu

I found that too.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Well, I found the Talking with Bees piece about this done-breeding method of swarm control - http://www.---------------.com/swarm-control-made-very-easy-apparently

In this piece there is a link to the original article by Dr Roman Linhart (http://thermosolarhive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Biologia-Antiswarming-behaviour.pdf) which I am going to have to read because I don't think the Talking-with-bees piece does it justice - or maybe I'm just being thick. I understand the main advantage of the thermosolar hive is that you can cook the mites occasionally at 40°C for an hour and a half to remove them from the hive, so maybe concern about the drones breeding varroa mites is not a major consideration.

CVB

p.s. insert --------------- where the ----- appear above

 

[Farmer Tom]

Slightly disappointed that I missed the Hindi page, in my line of work that might come in handy...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Well, I found the Talking with Bees piece about this done-breeding method of swarm control - http://www.---------------.com/swarm-control-made-very-easy-apparently

In this piece there is a link to the original article by Dr Roman Linhart (http://thermosolarhive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Biologia-Antiswarming-behaviour.pdf) which I am going to have to read because I don't think the Talking-with-bees piece does it justice - or maybe I'm just being thick. I understand the main advantage of the thermosolar hive is that you can cook the mites occasionally at 40°C for an hour and a half to remove them from the hive,

So it's that old chestnut again

 

[charlievictorbravo]

So it's that old chestnut again

It was a new chestnut to me and I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to read the Dr Roman Linhart paper but it was probably written in Czech and translated into English by a non-bee person so a difficult read. For instance , near the end , this appears "This method of swarming suppression is so effective that mothers rearing is not possible. Within its use, the colony tends to the so called quiet mother exchanges, which is also very much appreciated." Say what??

At the time the paper was written, nearly 3600 beekeepers in Czech Republic and Slovakia had tried the method with success but I think I'd need some better instructions before embarking on it.

CVB

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Found some better instructions - http://thermosolarhive.com/en/new-m...-evolutionarily-stable-reproduction-strategy/ but it looks like you need two 14x12 brood boxes to carry out the instructions.

That's going to be one tall hive when supers are added. Anybody work with double brood on a 14x12 format?

CVB

 

[REDWOOD]

Found some better instructions - http://thermosolarhive.com/en/new-m...-evolutionarily-stable-reproduction-strategy/ but it looks like you need two 14x12 brood boxes to carry out the instructions.

That's going to be one tall hive when supers are added. Anybody work with double brood on a 14x12 format?

CVB

What this guy has done is given them some hard work drawing out drone foundation, then a worker brood break, and then give them some even harder work building comb.
What he could have done is just split the two boxes when they naturally went into swarm mode and united later.
It would be interesting to know if he got any honey.

 

[Al-In-Italy]

...this appears "This method of swarming suppression is so effective that mothers rearing is not possible. Within its use, the colony tends to the so called quiet mother exchanges, which is also very much appreciated." Say what??...

In English beekeeper-speak, I think this means something like: "Hives managed in this way cannot be used for queen production and queen supersedure is common."

This forum seems determined to censor the Talking With Bees website, but if you copy the link in the OP, paste it in your browser and replace the dashes with "talking with bees" without the quotes and spaces, you'll get a page that's more comprehensible to us ordinary mortals than the research paper.

I also was a little taken aback by the idea of a double-brood 14x12, but that page suggests using a four drone brood frames in the 14x12 box and a super beneath it in order to allow space for worker brood. Alternatively, the method would require double standard National brood boxes with six frames for drone brood.

 

[Eyeman]

It would be interesting to know if he got any honey?

. Honey produc- tion in non-swarmed colonies has increased approxi- mately by about 30%, while the production of wax in- creased by about 40%. The time needed for the main- taining of one bee colony has decreased from the aver- age 160 minutes to about 60 minutes.

 

[user 6228]

if it works the possible behaviours that underpin this are facinating.

Does the colony have to grow to a ratio of workers to drone before queen production?

Does drone culling cause earlier swarming?

 

[Al-In-Italy]

...Does drone culling cause earlier swarming?

It seems to me that's the implication.

I found the original paper by Linhart, Bičík and Vagera tough going, since a fog descends whenever I encounter detailed discussions of genetics.

If you view the survival and distribution of its genes as the primary function of any organism, then it makes perfect sense for honeybee colonies to produce loads of drones. What seems very odd to me is that the study suggests that workers somehow "know" that they don't need to undertake the risky act of swarming because there are lots of their half-brothers out spreading the colony's genes.

I can see how this behaviour could be advantageous in evolutionary terms, but I didn't see any attempt in the paper to explain the mechanism.

Much bee behaviour is prompted by pheromonal triggers and we all know about queen scent, but I wonder if any work has been done to identify the unique substances produced by drones? I've come across several pieces written by beekeepers where it was stated that hives tend to become tetchy if there's a lack of drones. If a surfeit of drones suppresses swarming as the paper indicates, then could this be the result of the colony being saturated with "drone scent"?

If the swarming instinct is suppressed by "drone scent", then perhaps there's the potential for a synthetic version that would result in happier bees and beekeepers.

 

[user 6228]

It seems to me that's the implication.

I found the original paper by Linhart, Bičík and Vagera tough going, since a fog descends whenever I encounter detailed discussions of genetics.

.

wordy descriptions of a mathematical equation without the equation did the same for me...

 

[peterbees]

Try using www.tinyurl.com to convert a long URL into a short one.