polystyrene hives not recommended for overwintering

[Finman]

To do it properly would take many more colonies than I would like to assist in keeping. I would have to outsource that level of effort

20 hives is minimum to make research.
And 3 years to see effects of different years.
It is not easy to keep them all alive from start yo end.


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[user 6228]

PM sent.

I worry about the role of companies like Springer who monopolise access to research papers (or Pearsons who are trying to monopolise education and exams).

To make my paper open access would cost me between £1000 and £2000 depending on the journal.

 

[B+.]

To make my paper open access would cost me between £1000 and £2000 depending on the journal.

Preceisely. The journal has sold the intellectual property rights to Springer who charge whatever they like for it. I remember being able to go into a library and read published papers for free.

 

[Thymallus]

Yes, but who had to pay to buy the journals for the library for you to read?
Get access to a University library and you can still do the same.

 

[Finman]

Yes, but who had to pay to buy the journals for the library for you to read?
Get access to a University library and you can still do the same.

If I need some knowledge about wintering, I phone to professional beekeepers. I do not get any gnowledge from university or from library, and last place is internet.

I love to do benchmarking. That is best way to get new informatiom. Our best beekeepers read new researches and they have network of knowledgable people
They have too international connections.

To seek old researches from internet is very uneffective way to solve problems.

.if you have problems.... A problem is your modern level to do things and the distance between modern way and wanted level.

Now I have a problems, what to do to bubbles when I pack honey to jars.

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[jenkinsbrynmair]

Now I have a problems, what to do to bubbles when I pack honey to jars.

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suck them out with a straw - says so on yootoob

 

[user 6228]

Preceisely. The journal has sold the intellectual property rights to Springer who charge whatever they like for it. I remember being able to go into a library and read published papers for free.

this is a good article
"Who are the most ruthless capitalists in the western world? Whose monopolistic practices make Walmart look like a corner shop and Rupert Murdoch a socialist? You won't guess the answer in a month of Sundays. While there are plenty of candidates, my vote goes not to the banks, the oil companies or the health insurers, but – wait for it – to academic publishers. Theirs might sound like a fusty and insignificant sector. It is anything but. Of all corporate scams, the racket they run is most urgently in need of referral to the competition authorities."

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/academic-publishers-murdoch-socialist

 

[Finman]

suck them out with a straw - says so on yootoob

One of those typical Welsh advices: suck!

 

[Cussword]

suck them out with a straw - says so on yootoob

Ah youtube, the fountain of all knowledge.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Ah youtube, the fountain of all knowledge.

The Mecca for all suckers

 

[B+.]

this is a good article

There you go.... Its in The Guardian, so I must be right!

"Though academic libraries have been frantically cutting subscriptions to make ends meet, journals now consume 65% of their budgets, which means they have had to reduce the number of books they buy."

It should be the other way around, if you ask me.....but academic books cost a fortune too. But, don't get me started on that!

Companies like Pearsons are doing the same thing in schools. Not content with monopolising the academic textbooks our children need for school, they're setting their own examinations too!
You can just imagine a university entrant boasting about how many Pearsons they'd received (although, perhaps not )

you say? I have to agree

 

[beebot]

this is a good article
"Who are the most ruthless capitalists in the western world? Whose monopolistic practices make Walmart look like a corner shop and Rupert Murdoch a socialist? You won't guess the answer in a month of Sundays. While there are plenty of candidates, my vote goes not to the banks, the oil companies or the health insurers, but – wait for it – to academic publishers. Theirs might sound like a fusty and insignificant sector. It is anything but. Of all corporate scams, the racket they run is most urgently in need of referral to the competition authorities."

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/academic-publishers-murdoch-socialist

Always amazed me that I got nothing when I published my research - often had to pay for the privilege. Certainly something wrong somewhere.
A similar thing is happening with the examining board Edexcel. They have been bought by an American publishing company Pearsons.
They sell the textbook, resources, examination CPD and the exam itself. They have a vested interest in changing the course all the bl**dy time so they sell another load of textbooks etc whilst the educational value of things comes well down their list of priorities.
Still at least its only a week until the Christmas hols.

 

[Into the lions den]

This thread is very strange.

I described it in a conversation about it as (the justification of wood as better) being 'an attempt to rationalise inertia'.......we have wood and will take any piece of evidence to support not changing and can thus ignore the evidence favouring poly.

Sample size? You want sample size? How about in excess of 1000 hives of both poly and wood? Over 15 seasons?

Bare facts.

Winter losses in poly under half of those in wood.
Spring build up starts a little earlier in wood. (More responsive to change of season)
Poly catches up and goes past wood very quickly once they get going (need less bees to keep the brood warm).
Poly breed later into autumn. (Precise converse of the spring) Thus more right age winter bees.
Increase in poly easier and more sustainable.

and the biggy?

Over 15 years we have had approx. 30% more honey from poly by seasons end. The gain comes most noticeably late in the season.

That goes right onto the bottom line as costs are about the same.

In autumn we can feed poly with syrup at least two weeks (often more) later than wood and have no fear of it being too late.

Trust me on this....I was a serious sceptic myself............but an experiment we did from 1997 to 1999 changed my mind. It took a free bunch of hives from a maker to get me to do the trial however, but they were confident I would see a difference, and boy, did we see a difference.

 

[Finman]

.
Into, do you know, if poly colony nurse brood later, and it consumes pollen stores in autumn. Then wooden hive has more pollen after Winter and it can start brood rearing earlier. That is the way how Carniolan goes compared to Italian bees.

Our hives start small brood rearing in February even if out temps are -20C. But in practice, brood rearing starts in first of May when willow starts blooming.

 

[beebot]

Well that's that then - when is the Paynes poly sale??

 

[Thymallus]

Well that's that then - when is the Paynes poly sale??

Well they had one in October........

 

[beebot]

Not got a time machine. Next paynes sale not last paynes sale.

 

[Thymallus]

Paynes sale starts 26th December....I would be tempted to hang back for the new Abe...o poly hives. I've seen the prototypes and they look good. Ready painted with what seems to be a plastic type paint, reinforced top edges, gaps for hive tools and more....and no I have commercial interest with them.
I think they go on sale sometime this spring.
Wishing I hadn't spent so much "painful" money.

 

[Itchy]

ITLD What is your method of dealing with varroa in each type. Does it differ?

 

[B+.]

This thread is very strange.

I described it in a conversation about it as (the justification of wood as better) being 'an attempt to rationalise inertia'.

The question was not whether wood was better (I think we all agree that it isn't) but how much insulation is necessary.
The insulation that I saw in Dereks presentation was about 4" thich but I'm not sure how dense it was. My concern is what effect placing that much extra insulation on a polyhive would have. Is there such a thing as too much insulation? We just don't know.