Quiz? no, but here are some really good beekeeping knowledge questions

[Fusion_power]

What does the ratio 1:2:4 have to do with beekeeping?

Why is a colony with 60,000 bees roughly 4 times as efficient at honey gathering as a colony with 30,000 bees? How would you explain this to a newbee beekeeper?

Why are most forms of hive wrapping for winter counterproductive with limited exceptions?

How many worker bees are needed to produce a good quality mated queen from a nuc given a ripe queen cell? How many worker bees does it take to raise a single good quality queen from an appropriate age larvae?

In Breeding Super Bees, Steve Taber mentioned one queen breeder who consistently produced exceptionally good queens. What was his secret?

What makes the first comb aka primary comb unique as built by a swarm?

Why did Dadant propose 1.5 inch spacing for combs in his hives as being the optimum? What is the major negative effect of using 1.5 inch spacing? What is the best frame spacing?

How can you get an usurpation swarm as typically thrown by africanized bees to take up permanent residence in an empty hive? Hint, it is almost impossible to get an usurpation swarm to stay in an empty hive.

How many cells are contained in a single 14 X 12 hive? Modified Dadant? Langstroth 10 frame?

Which cell size do most European honeybees use when building their own comb? (4.9mm, 5.1mm, 5.4mm)

What reasons did Brother Adam give for using his own design hives? Are his hives more cost efficient than other designs? Can you prove it one way or another?

List as many genetic varroa tolerance mechanisms as you know of?

What does the honey dome above the brood nest signify in a colony before the primary nectar flow?

What considerations affect the new home chosen by a swarm? What single condition is an absolute showstopper that a swarm will never move in if this is present?

If you were breeding a perfect bee, what would you select for? against?

Which method is most successful for getting started with bees for a beginner? Purchase a colony from an established beekeeper? Purchase a nuc with young queen? Purchase a package of bees? Catch a swarm? Which is most expensive? Which costs the least?

How many beekeepers does it take to change a light bulb? Why does it take so long?

 

[For want of a better word]

Noticed you are in the Colonies... explains a lot!

Nos da

 

[derekm]

"Why is a colony with 60,000 bees roughly 4 times as efficient at honey gathering as a colony with 30,000 bees? How would you explain this to a newbee beekeeper?"

"Why are most forms of hive wrapping for winter counterproductive with limited exceptions?"

These questions arise from the doctrine of C.L. Farrar. His work is based on a flawed appreciation of heat transfer in honeybee enclosures.

hive wrapping as practiced in the U.S. usually has one of the following

1. Insufficient to produce an appreciable change in colony mass conduction ratio
2. used in conjunction with top ventilation.
3. the insulation is not sealed with no gaps.
4. is done late in the year

fix all of these and it works, heat and water vapour are then retained as in a tree. Bees know how to work with trees in cold climates

The difference cited between 60,000 and 30,000 bees is due to colony overheads, a large part of which are imposed by the bee keeper. The C.L. Farrar doctrine was to ignore thermal losses and inefficiencies and go for very large colonies, relying on the large mass to elevate the mass conductance ratio to a survivable level and improve the yield per bee. C.L. Farrar probably didnt know what the mass conductance ratio was.

His ideas about top ventilation are justified by some work published by Anderson in 1943 and 1948. That work does not bear close scrutiny, especially when compared to real engineering studies of "stacked ventilation" e.g. Linden(1999) Lin(2013)

For more information on mass conductance ratios in honeybee enclosures see Mitchell (2015)


Mitchell D. (2015) Ratios of colony mass to thermal conductance of tree and man-made nest enclosures of Apis mellifera: implications for survival, clustering, humidity regulation and Varroa destructor. . Int. J Biomet 10.1007/s00484-015-1057-z
Anderson E.J. (1948) Hive Humidity and Its Effect Upon Wintering of Bees. J Econ Entomol 41(4):608-616 doi:10.1093/jee/41.4.608.
Linden P.F. (1999) The Fluid Mechanics of Natural ventilation. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech 31:201-238 doi:10.1146/annurev.fluid.31.1.20.
Lin Y.J. & Xu Z.Y. (2013) Buoyancy-driven flows by a heat source at different levels. Int J Heat Mass Tran 58:312-321 doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2012.11.008.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I know only a few
The first is BIAS egg/larvae/pupae
Some are a matter of opinion

 

[Fusion_power]

Yes, some of the questions are a matter of opinion and intended to spark discussion. I'm not an instructor, nor do I want to be, so feel free to take exception to my answers.

Erichalfbee rings the bell for the first one. The ratio 1:2:4 is the ratio of eggs:larvae:sealed brood in a colony that is actively rearing brood. A beekeeper who learns to spot when this ratio is out of kilter can address colony problems much earlier than the beekeeper who waits until the swarm is in the air or the bees are dead from varroa.

derekm gets about 65 of 100 with answering the question about hive wrapping. Hive wrapping as promoted 100 years ago was not based on understanding the thermal dynamics of a colony of bees. Either the insulation value of the materials used was inadequate, ventilation of moisture was prevented, or thermal mass was too high preventing warming on sunny days. But this does not quite explain why a colony of 60,000 bees is about 4 times as productive as a colony of 30,000 bees and it does not explain this in novice terms. The performance of wood hives will never be up to par when compared with ultra-insulated modern hives in cold climates.

 

[Hivemaker.]

But this does not quite explain why a colony of 60,000 bees is about 4 times as productive as a colony of 30,000 bees and it does not explain this in novice terms. The performance of wood hives will never be up to par when compared with ultra-insulated modern hives in cold climates.

With 30,000 a large proportion of those bees would be required to maintain the brood nest, leaving far less to forage, with 60,00 bees only the same numbers of bees will be required to maintain the brood nest, leaving far greater numbers to forage.

 

[oliver90owner]

Steady on HM. Watch out for the idiot questions! Seen too many like that from the beebeeka. Bees gather nectar not honey! Well, unless they are robbing!

RAB

 

[derekm]

With 30,000 a large proportion of those bees would be required to maintain the brood nest, leaving far less to forage, with 60,00 bees only the same numbers of bees will be required to maintain the brood nest, leaving far greater numbers to forage.

Exactly and if you have a larger bee to brood ratio then more bees are needed for the brood and therefore less foragers in a given population .

 

[derekm]

Yes, some of the questions

derekm gets about 65 of 100 with answering the question about hive wrapping. Hive wrapping as promoted 100 years ago was not based on understanding the thermal dynamics of a colony of bees. Either the insulation value of the materials used was inadequate, ventilation of moisture was prevented, or thermal mass was too high preventing warming on sunny days. But thi
es.

Aah the old saw about needing to ventilate. That based on another fallacy related to poor understanding of humidity condensation heat loss and the requirements of bees. The sunny day warming is a non sequitur because it assumes the bees are cold and in cluster.
Read some heat transfer engineering books not works based on farrar thinking. Then read some books on modern building engineering. Research a building comfort diagram for honeybees. Then put it all together and you don't get your answers. Wrapping advocated 60 years 40 years and recently in the u.s. still doesn't understand heat transfer.

 

[For want of a better word]

Aah the old saw about needing to ventilate. That based on another fallacy related to poor understanding of humidity condensation heat loss and the requirements of bees. The sunny day warming is a non sequitur because it assumes the bees are cold and in cluster.
Read some heat transfer engineering books not works based on farrar thinking. Then read some books on modern building engineering. Research a building comfort diagram for honeybees. Then put it all together and you don't get your answers. Wrapping advocated 60 years 40 years and recently in the u.s. still doesn't understand heat transfer.

One needs to remember that the American immigrants invented modern beekeeping in around 1860..... well over 100 years ago!
Here in Europe we were all skeppists.

Other American inventions include Radio, TV, Light microscope, Electron microscope and of course the discovery of Australia, Penicillin,DNA...........

Yeghes da