Refrigerating bees to get them to cluster and brood break in South California

[jarmo henttu]

Refridgerated July, August and September for 18 days each month.

Holy ****!

Use that oxalic acid fumidigator...

 

[Anduril]

Holy ****!

Use that oxalic acid fumidigator...

They are on about using one round of chemicals per break instead of four.

 

[user 6228]

They’ve been refrigerating bees in Canada for years. What’s the issue with not feeding there’s obviously stores available or they are dead.

No additional stores only whats in the brood boxes. Any honey boxes are removed. They treat before and after refrigeration.This is summer at high temperature with the bees at high activity high brood rate, completely different to winter in Canada. The honey bees fight the refrigeration by trying to keep the temperatures up and then cluster when they cant fight it anymore. Winter is unavoidable but this is a choice to correct the high density of hives spreading parasites.

 

[user 6228]

For me this is another reason to never buy any food stuff from the U.S. Nature is red in tooth and claw but repeated artificially stressing an animal for commerical gain so much that it eats it own young is to me cruelty.

 

[jarmo henttu]

Now I understood. Bee colonies are dieing for climate change. It is too hot in the USA for bees. That is why beehives should be cooled.
Such article...

 

[B_north]

For me this is another reason to never buy any food stuff from the U.S. Nature is red in tooth and claw but repeated artificially stressing an animal for commerical gain so much that it eats it own young is to me cruelty.

The practice certainly gives one pause. The bees in Canada are not 'forced' into prepping for winter it is a natural progression as the days get shorter and the weather cools. We do all sorts of manipulations for the hive but I am not sure about this type of bee manipulation, it is akin to large factory farming.

 

[jarmo henttu]

The practice certainly gives one pause. The bees in Canada are not 'forced' into prepping for winter it is a natural progression as the days get shorter and the weather cools. We do all sorts of manipulations for the hive but I am not sure about this type of bee manipulation, it is akin to large factory farming.

Why bigger bee farms should use cooling systems to colonies?

Is Canada warmer place than Australia?

If you want an average 90 kg honey per hive, who has invented that you should destroy hives's brood in the middle of summer? California and Canada are different places.

Of course, if you just love bees and you do not mind about yield, you may kill brood just for fun in summer.

 

[B_north]

Why bigger bee farms should use cooling systems to colonies?

Is Canada warmer place than Australia?

I am not sure I follow what you are getting at. It could be the translation. But I will try and answer what I think you are asking.

We don't use cooling systems in Canada in the summer. They put the bees in a shed once they cluster up for winter and keep the temperatures in there cold enough so the bees do not come out of the cluster, but not as cold as the -40C winter they would endure outside. In effect I guess it is a warming system, keeping the hives warmer than they would be outside in the elements. They stay in the shed all winter and don't get brought out until the weather in spring is warm enough. It doesn't change the root of the bees wintering behaviour nor the timing of their brood laying it's purpose is to increase the winter survivability of the hives.

 

[jarmo henttu]

I am not sure I follow what you are getting at. It could be the translation. But I will try and answer what I think you are asking.

We don't use cooling systems in Canada in the summer. They put the bees in a shed once they cluster up for winter and keep the temperatures in there cold enough so the bees do not come out of the cluster, but not as cold as the -40C winter they would endure outside. In effect I guess it is a warming system, keeping the hives warmer than they would be outside in the elements. They stay in the shed all winter and don't get brought out until the weather in spring is warm enough. It doesn't change the root of the bees wintering behaviour nor the timing of their brood laying it's purpose is to increase the winter survivability of the hives.

 

[jarmo henttu]

I have nursed bees in Finland 60 years and I know enough wintering in Canada too. Do not worry.