What chance of survival?

[jenkinsbrynmair]

you need to stop smoking that stuff, whatever it is.

 

[Curly green finger's]

you need to stop smoking that stuff, whatever it is.

Well you need to not be so closed of and old fashioned to the fact that some things that are a little different WORK!!

And by the way I don’t smoke

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hemo joking aside, if you have camomile and yarrow dried flowers and a colony with dysentery/nosema try using it instead of thymol ok you will be pleasantly surprised.

Have you tried it?

 

[Curly green finger's]

Have you tried it?

Hey? Yes and I’ve also used it in the autumn feeding on colony’s brought down of the heather

 

[pargyle]

I can only find one study - in Romania ... very small sample and guess what ? Ingredients of the Plant based dietary supplement:

" Group I was treated with plant dietary supplement. The plant dietary supplement of the present invention contains sugar syrup and herbal infusion: nettle, chamomile,yarrow, thyme, rattles and mint. This invention is based on the use of conventional active principles from different herbs and digestive tract content acidification of bees with vinegar. The plant dietary supplement is administered in therapeutically nutritious at 200 ml/ colony in the first treatment day and 100 ml/colony in the second and third therapeutic activity. For spraying inside the hive, apple vinegar, fresh grape wine and garlic tincture are added to the dietary supplement. The plant dietary supplement is a Patent application A000113 / 14.02.2014, OSIM registered (fig. 2)."

Blimey - if they survive being dowsed with that lot they will survve anything ! I note that THYME is one of the ingredients.

See the study:

file:///C:/Users/Philip%20Argyle/Downloads/Innovative_therapeutic_approaches_for_th.pdf

Not sure I would risk it with my bees and certainly not with just Chamomile and Yarrow ...Hivemaker did some great work witg Thymol and Nosema and it's proved to work ... if it works, don't fix it !

 

[Curly green finger's]

I can only find one study - in Romania ... very small sample and guess what ? Ingredients of the Plant based dietary supplement:

" Group I was treated with plant dietary supplement. The plant dietary supplement of the present invention contains sugar syrup and herbal infusion: nettle, chamomile,yarrow, thyme, rattles and mint. This invention is based on the use of conventional active principles from different herbs and digestive tract content acidification of bees with vinegar. The plant dietary supplement is administered in therapeutically nutritious at 200 ml/ colony in the first treatment day and 100 ml/colony in the second and third therapeutic activity. For spraying inside the hive, apple vinegar, fresh grape wine and garlic tincture are added to the dietary supplement. The plant dietary supplement is a Patent application A000113 / 14.02.2014, OSIM registered (fig. 2)."

Blimey - if they survive being dowsed with that lot they will survve anything ! I note that THYME is one of the ingredients.

See the study:

file:///C:/Users/Philip%20Argyle/Downloads/Innovative_therapeutic_approaches_for_th.pdf

Not sure I would risk it with my bees and certainly not with just Chamomile and Yarrow ...Hivemaker did some great work witg Thymol and Nosema and it's proved to work ... if it works, don't fix it !

Well my recipes have come from a tf biodynamic beekeeper of some 60 years the chamomile and yarrow are to build there immune system I haven’t got some of the other herbs which were to be added to the syrup/honey teas - feeding the teas in the autumn being the optimum time to get it into the bees.
Don’t fix it but find alternatives if they work.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

a tf biodynamic beekeeper of some 60 years

I suppose it cures covid as well as being a good topical treatment for haemorrhoids (you might as well stick it up your a~~e for all the good it would do)

 

[Curly green finger's]

Yes keep laughing at your own ignorance thats fine with me

 

[pargyle]

Well my recipes have come from a tf biodynamic beekeeper of some 60 years the chamomile and yarrow are to build there immune system I haven’t got some of the other herbs which were to be added to the syrup/honey teas - feeding the teas in the autumn being the optimum time to get it into the bees.
Don’t fix it but find alternatives if they work.

So ... your mentor has been TF for 60 years ? Well .. Varroa only arrived in 1992 and if he has been treating colonies with a 'Plant mixture' then that ain't treatment free. TBH ... I can understand the study working - thymol is derived from Thyme and Thymol in syrup is recognised as an effective prophylactic and remedy (sprayed onto the frames if they have it) so the study in some small way validates that. I can't find any evidence that Yarrow and Camomile on their own would have any appreciable effect on anything bee related ... seems a bit risky to me.

In all honesty, a lot of colonies recover from Nosema once the weather dries up and spring arrives, if you have had any success with it then your reliance on it may be misplaced.

 

[JamezF]

"Biodynamic" is a word that always raises my hackles, but equally it's fair to note that thymol isn't only present in thyme. I only discovered the other day that it is also in oregano, basil and bergamot (quite a few other plants too, though I can't remember any more). Perhaps it may be present in chamomile, yarrow and any of the other plants mentioned.

James

 

[pargyle]

"Biodynamic" is a word that always raises my hackles, but equally it's fair to note that thymol isn't only present in thyme. I only discovered the other day that it is also in oregano, basil and bergamot (quite a few other plants too, though I can't remember any more). Perhaps it may be present in chamomile, yarrow and any of the other plants mentioned.

James

Perhaps ... perhaps not ...

 

[JamezF]

Perhaps ... perhaps not ...

Absolutely. It's just a piece of information that I came across the other day in a context completely unrelated to beekeeping which surprised me given that beekeepers seem to associate it only with thyme.

James

 

[Sutty]

I think JBM is being a bit overly negative here, although I accept that there is probably no high quality evidence it works. However absence of evidence is not evidence of absence!
Many modern drugs originated from herbal remedies, the classic being digoxin.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Blimey - if they survive being dowsed with that lot they will survve anything

Amazing what bees do survive....considering the things some folk do to them. Mind you I used a good stuffing of lavender, orange peel and bay leaves in my smoker uneventfully for years till somebody here pointed out bay contains cyanide.

 

[E&MBees]

I think JBM is being a bit overly negative here, although I accept that there is probably no high quality evidence it works. However absence of evidence is not evidence of absence!
Many modern drugs originated from herbal remedies, the classic being digoxin.

My uncle was a haematologist specialising in leukaemia. Some of his work involved the Rosy Periwinkle for Vinblastine and Vincristine.

 

[Antipodes]

@Darryl can you borrow a mini nuc I have a mini nuc which has a few more bees than 30 say 200/300 in my honey room and I plan to do what @Antipodes ( post 16 ) suggested.

History this colony were in a poly nuc and have had nosema they have been sprayed with camomile/ yarrow tea syrup and are being fed honey/pollen and serviving with queen now laying.

The sooner you get some young Bees to join your 30 the better.
Good luck whatever you do

Nice one Curly. The other thing I've done is donate just a few bees into a mini nuc as a start. Even 30 bees added to 30 is a %100 per cent increase in numbers and most welcome. Coming from a donor colony of 30000, it's not an issue. They don't have to get the full 300 all at once.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yes keep laughing at your own ignorance thats fine with me

I'm happy enough laughing at yours

 

[JamezF]

bay contains cyanide

Doesn't stop people cooking with it though

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Doesn't stop people cooking with it though

and some smoking it, it seems!

 

[Sutty]

It's surprising what contains cyanide. I wasn't aware of bay (doesn't seem to hurt the bay-hopper on my hedge), but cherry pits have enough cyanide for only a handful to be pretty toxic/fatal if you crack the stones and eat them!
I think cooking destroys a lot of it though, so maybe burning in a smoker does too.