What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Etton]

I thought you said they hadn't drawn any comb in there

Sorry mixed message, I was referring to a different hive

 

[Tremyfro]

Raining here and windy again. The last few days have been wonderful...and not windy. I hope this front blows through quickly and that it is sunny again. My bees have been having a bonanza. The last few days we have been seeing white backs. We have been leaving them alone to harvest...no inspection this week. We are only going to look in the queenless nuc...which should now have a queen...hope she got out to mate while the weather was good! Also a peek to see if there are queen cells on the frame we gave the colony which killed my lovely golden queen. Otherwise we will have to search for eggs as they must have had a hidden virgin at the last inspection.
OH has donned a jacket and hood...strimmed the grass in the Bee Yard ready to put down the weed suppressant fabric.....and then hopefully we can start moving the hives into place...only a few feet forward and sideways. My aim is to have an 'L' shape of hives all pointing outwards..south and south/east. That will leave the centre of the Bee Yard clear with easy access to the Bee Shed....dreams!

 

[Fusion_power]

I received 8 Buckfast queens from Canada this morning. As soon as the rain stops, I'll get busy introducing them to colonies. So what plans do I have for these queens? They will be used to produce daughters that mate with drones from my mite tolerant line. With a few years to work on them, I hope to combine most of the production traits of Buckfast with very high levels of varroa tolerance. The minimum is 3 years to achieve this goal.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

try thirty

 

[Fusion_power]

I'm a pessimist, it will take at least 3. This presumes I can raise 9 generations of queens in 3 years. Couldn't do it in the UK climate, but can pull it off here.

 

[beeboybee]

slight break in weather so managed to install two Rather nice looking HM queens into queen less colonies,
will have a look tomorrow and remove plastic tab.

 

[Millet]

Nothing to be done today, its like winter out there at the moment, dull windy and lashing down.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'm a pessimist, it will take at least 3. This presumes I can raise 9 generations of queens in 3 years. Couldn't do it in the UK climate, but can pull it off here.

the realms of fantasy more like

 

[For want of a better word]

I'm a pessimist, it will take at least 3. This presumes I can raise 9 generations of queens in 3 years. Couldn't do it in the UK climate, but can pull it off here.

Beekeeper over the Pond seem to spend a lot of time pulling it off!

I put another nine newly hatched nice black pedigree black Cornish Amms from the incubator into Keilers... just as the Sun was setting over Liskeard.

This is the sixth lot of queens to go through the Keilers.... and the drone flooding colonies have worked impressively... and are still full of drones!

How many more weeks can the Amms go on?

Some of the New Zealand Italians yellow stripies seem to be chucking drone out already... there season is drawing to a close.

Yeghes da

 

[B+.]

I hope to combine most of the production traits of Buckfast with very high levels of varroa tolerance. The minimum is 3 years to achieve this goal.

How high?

 

[Hachi]

Collected a decent sized swarm

 

[Fusion_power]

I'm going to use the definition of resistance as bees that actively kill varroa and/or prevent varroa from reproducing. I will use tolerance to refer to bees that tolerate the effects of a large mite load. By this definition, VSH bees exhibit a resistance trait and Ron Hoskins bees with DWV type B exhibit a tolerance trait. There is nothing to prevent bees from exhibiting either, none, or both mechanisms.

Bees that express too much VSH remove too much brood. I had that with some of the Purvis queens. That is why I selected away from his line in 2005 and 2006. VSH has to be in the mix for bees to have a high level of resistance to varroa. My bees exhibit good to very good levels of grooming and mite mauling. Between grooming traits and VSH traits, it is possible for bees to maintain a productive colony while keeping varroa to levels that are nearly undetectable.

So to answer how "high", if I see any detectable varroa mites in a colony of my bees, I requeen that colony. This level of varroa resistance came at a price. My bees swarm more than I like. They shut down brood rearing at the least hint of pollen being unavailable. I purchased the Buckfast so I can cross them to my line and bring some of the production traits back into the mix. This means having to compromise over the next few years because Buckfast have low resistance to mites. I will probably have to treat any pure Buckfast colonies next year and may have to treat them this fall.



Noting in passing that JBM and Hoppy are happily engrossed in passive aggressive behavior. Maybe Hoppy can get a job in environmental management at Trump's golf course in Scotland and get them to hire JBM for border security. I'm sure Trump will see the wisdom of having two professionals on his team!

 

[Obee1]

On Tuesday I went to my field apiary and snaffled enough bees to fill 9 mini mating nucs. These were locked in for 50 hours back at home. 12 hours prior to their nighttime release each of the nine, plus some nucs I had made up a bit earlier, were given a ripe QC each from our breeder queen. I now have hidden 13 mating units around the garden. Added to the five other proper colonies at home my garden is somewhat over populated- hence the hiding of the mating nucs. - OH is complaining bitterly about 'my' bees stopping him gardening. I thought they were our bees!

Also on Tuesday whilst loading the bee mobile at the farm field someone came over and offered me his graveyard next to his cottage as an apiary. It's half a mile further down the road but looks ok. More of a village setting than my field - so lots of gardens with forage. Plan on moving some of my colonies from home asap. Hope they aren't superstitious bees.

 

[Tremyfro]

Obee1.... You will get found out! I hope you have a plan!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

This level of varroa resistance came at a price. My bees swarm more than I like. They shut down brood rearing at the least hint of pollen being unavailable. I purchased the Buckfast so I can cross them to my line and bring some of the production traits back into the mix.

So basically you've bred yourself a load (well, a handful anyway) of shaite bees which are no use to man or beast but at least (so you claim) don't need treating, you are now going to throw in a random shovel full of hybrid bees which is proven world wide to need constant tweaking to maintain integrity of the line and you hope after three years of open mating with your poor quality mongrels that you are going to end up with the definitive superbee.

Forget Donald Trump, it's a wonder that Daffy Duck isn't the forerunner for the presidency

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Well that's the last we will see of FP

 

[For want of a better word]

Noting in passing that JBM and Hoppy are happily engrossed in passive aggressive behavior. Maybe Hoppy can get a job in environmental management at Trump's golf course in Scotland and get them to hire JBM for border security. I'm sure Trump will see the wisdom of having two professionals on his team!

Well I would be possibly over qualified as I have a BSc in Environmental Science... but the golf course could be turned over to better use as perhaps a motocross circuit?... what else is contaminated land usefull for.
Seems there is a lot of it in the USA... Love Canal etc etc... or did Big Pestco USA clear that mess up as a big publicity stunt?

In passing... a paper recently publish on DWV type B actually shortens workers lifespan... IMOL&VHO we would be better off without all these novel imports of virus... JMB in charge of border control... probably would do a better job than the toup silliedillies we have in charge of it at the moment!!!

Yeghes da

 

[Cussword]

Well that's the last we will see of FP

I seriously doubt that.

.

 

[B+.]

I now have hidden 13 mating units around the garden.

What will you do if you end up with 13 mated queens?

 

[Cussword]

What will you do if you end up with 13 mated queens?

I'll have a couple if they're buckshee.