Wales with no treatments?

[Fusion_power]

Don't tell hoppy and jbm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgR5FzMx_uA

Do be sure to see where the URL on the page leads. Seems there is always an agenda.

 

[Finman]

,
At least those two guys have not much knowledge. They say that any treatment contaminates wax.

Then treatment is expencive.

I not not trust that kind of people in serious issues.
.
"leave them alone". Amen.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Reading between the smug ******** what it boils down to is that they don't treat and most of his colonies die - he slipped up by admitting most of the colonies die to get replaced each year by captured swarms.

 

[philipm]

The thing is there are many ways to control varroa and some years there is less varroa than others its one of the reasons we do hive inspections.That said chemical treatment isn't the only way to go there are other ways .I've been having a swarm from a feral colony living on a farm next door to me every year for a long time always come to the same bait hive position. I can't say they have less varroa that my other bees but they are in the same position as a colony that has had a brood break in that the only varroa is what is on the bees until there is brood.

 

[mbc]

I have a lot of time for Pete Hayward and have no doubt he speaks the truth as he sees it but his methods wouldn't work in the area in which I operate as bee density is much higher and a little more migration happens bringing in novel bees, varroa and their viruses.
Many beekeepers will fill in surveys as treatment free due to the threat of prosecution or having their honey taken off the shelves if they admit to using generic thymol or oxalic acid treatments rather than the many times more expensive licensed products.
Not wishing to rain on anyone's parade, just adding cautionary reality.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Many beekeepers will fill in surveys as treatment free due to the threat of prosecution or having their honey taken off the shelves if they admit to using generic thymol or oxalic acid treatments rather than the many times more expensive licensed products.

 

[philipm]

I agree with all that has been said in the last posts.But many have been fooled into thinking that they have to treat with brought in treatments when there is not always a need. I haven't winter treated with oxalic for a couple of years now because the varroa count has been low.But I can see some on the forum slagging me off because I haven't followed the accepted proceedure.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I haven't winter treated with oxalic for a couple of years now because the varroa count has been low.But I can see some on the forum slagging me off because I haven't followed the accepted proceedure.

Not from me, I have only winter treated twice (two winters) in the last twenty four years, and thankfully for the bees that was not all of the hives.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Haven't done mine for a few years - get it right in the autumn and there's no need. Winter OA trickling is designed for catching the colonies broodless and is meant to be instead of not as a supplimentary to autumn treatment

 

[Finman]

The thing is there are many ways to control varroa and some years there is less varroa than others its one of the reasons we do hive inspections.That said chemical treatment isn't the only way to go there are other ways .I've been having a swarm from a feral colony living on a farm next door to me every year for a long time always come to the same bait hive position. I can't say they have less varroa that my other bees but they are in the same position as a colony that has had a brood break in that the only varroa is what is on the bees until there is brood.

Nothing wrong in chemical treatments.

Brood break does not save your bees. It is sure.

When a swarm leaves the hive, it takes only 10% out of hives mite stock. You could treat swarm with chemicals and it would be quite clean.
.

.

 

[For want of a better word]

Published research in Beefarmers last issue showed that OA vaporisation was most efficacious when there was no brood in the colony.... also any brood present was deliberately uncapped.

Randy Oliver suggested that keeping Varroa at a very low level within the colony was a practical approach.

Last occasion [ must have been the Winter of 2008] I Winter Trickled... all three colonies crashed and burned by Spring... opening up a colony in mid Winter is perhaps not the best advice to give any beekeeper.

Using VMD approved apibolloxall or not!

I of course have varroa resistant Cornish Black Bees that do not need any treatment.. apart from a dribble of Vimto as a tonic in the Spring

Yeghes da

 

[BeeJayBee]

Do be sure to see where the URL on the page leads. Seems there is always an agenda.

A quick search for beepods shows that it's a new name for a top bar hive.
http://www.treehugger.com/sustainab...back-an-old-design-for-better-beekeeping.html

 

[fatshark]

When a swarm leaves the hive, it takes only 10% out of hives mite stock. You could treat swarm with chemicals and it would be quite clean.
.

.

Up to 35% according to Seeley in http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0150362#pone.0150362.ref019 citing

Rangel JS, Seeley TD. (2012) Colony fissioning in honey bees: size and significance of the swarm fraction. Insectes Soc 29: 453–462. doi: 10.1007/s00040-012-0239-5.

and

Fuchs S. (1990) Preference for drone brood cells by Varroa jacobsoni Oud in colonies of Apis mellifera carnica. Apidologie 21: 193–199. doi: 10.1051/apido:19900304

though the figure is extrapolated, not measured directly.

 

[Finman]

Up to 35% according to Seeley in http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0150362#pone.0150362.ref019 citing

.

How do you explain that 80% of mites are in pupae under cappings. 20% are free in the workers.
Then half of bees leave with swarm.

"Up to" means some kind of record?

But of course it depends how much original hive has mites, 1000 or 10 000 and how big is the swarm, 1 kg or 5 kg

.
A small tree hole hives, what the research handles, may have a situation, that the nest will be filled with honey. The queen does not have much cells to lay. Mites emerge from brood but they do not have larvae where to go to propagate. So they are many to ride out.
.

 

[domino]

A quick search for beepods shows that it's a new name for a top bar hive.
http://www.treehugger.com/sustainab...back-an-old-design-for-better-beekeeping.html

I don't really get the appeal of top bar hives, they seem less flexible in me and I struggle to see the actual benefit of them over a normal vertical hive. If anything the stackable hive accommodates the bees desire to build upwards.

As I understand the current design of the TBH is a creation from the 1960s

 

[Finman]

Published research in Beefarmers last issue showed that OA vaporisation was most efficacious when there was no brood in the colony....

Yeghes da

But it is only English opinion.

We have a long winter and dribling works fine.
.
Other countries are not so eager to vaporize. The method is 30 y old.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Other countries are not so eager to vaporize.

Yes they are, the USA.

We have a long winter and dribling works fine.

Do you do a lot of dribbling in the winter?

 

[Fusion_power]

I don't really get the appeal of top bar hives, they seem less flexible in me and I struggle to see the actual benefit of them over a normal vertical hive. If anything the stackable hive accommodates the bees desire to build upwards.

Top bar hives and horizontal frame hives are two variations on the same theme. They are primarily used in third world countries where cost of the hive is paramount.

There are some advantages to horizontal hives that can't be matched by vertical stack hives such as Langstroth, British Standard, Rose, Dadant, etc. Consider that with a horizontal hive, the brood nest is always accessible with no supers to be removed. A horizontal hive exhibits a natural seasonal cycle filling the back of the hive with honey while the brood nest is at the front, then during winter, the bees eat their way to the back, then next spring repeat the cycle. Removing honey from a horizontal hive does not require disrupting the brood nest. Just pull out the frames of honey and replace with empties.

There are also some unique disadvantages. Horizontal hives require more tending over the season because frames of honey have to be removed regularly as they are filled. Unless foundation is used, the combs are difficult to extract so most honey is collected by crush and strain. Horizontal hives are fixed size, meaning that extra honey storage space can't be easily added. Putting a "super" on top of a horizontal hive defeats several of the advantages listed above.

 

[mbc]

Do you do a lot of dribbling in the winter?

Old age doesnt come on its own.
Henaint ni ddaw ei hunan.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Do you do a lot of dribbling in the winter?

Makes a change from drivel throughout the rest of the year