...WHAT?! Completely WRONG! Our bees do not need more than 1-2kg per month in the winter months, while clustered.
So you're saying that our bees (I think you mean Dark Bees AMM) could survive on 4 to 8 kilos of stores over the winter. Nice to know that. Thanks.
I don’t know where that ‘myth’ of 20kg comes from - or is it just exaggerated bovine excrement to try to make a point?.
Let me answer your question by paraphrasing what I previously said - I have been told it by multiple beekeepers with decades of experience, until I have yearS of experience I am hesitant to allow a good sized colony to go into the winter without 20 kilos of store.
True, we reckon to feed for around 20kg, but not for the time while clustered.
I wasn't referring to a clustered colony, my sentence was within the context of wild hives, which usually have well insulated hives (100mm thick wood, ref: Seeley, who among with others have stated clustering is a 'survival' response and not normal for well hived colonies), glad to see that you have agreed with the "myth" or "exaggerated bovine excrement" as you also called it
At 10kg /month, very few of our colonies would survive until the new year, let alone the whole winter! Do give just a little sensible thought to your posts!
Ok, I didn't know that! Winter lasts a minimum of three months, although here in Ireland we usually 'close' our hives up for about four months, but according to your statement your colonies would need more than "10kg/month" so your colonies need 10kg x 3 months = 30 kilos plus, mmm that's 50% more than the "exaggerated bovine excrement" amount of 20 kilos....
Who said the previous summer was a bad one?
coffindodger in the second post, it was what I was replying to.
Who said that winter arrived then?
The wiki link that this Thread is about, in the first Post.
Sub species of bee was much different, true. Much less human intensive farming then? Overnight frosts would not have killed off the hardy flora, unlike what we have left these days. No weedkillers to decimate flowering plants in large areas of arable crops like we have now. Low temperatures would have reduced spring build-up and colonies would have not been so big - but they did not require feeding for the winter, like keepered hives - they would ‘cut their coats according to the size of the cloth’ as the saying goes.
Yes, they would have taken a severe hit that summer and the following winter, but would have bounced back as soon as the weather improved, just as the flora would have done - with far fewer humans to disrupt them. I would expect them to have returned to reasonable levels within about 5 years, or so.
Yes, well said, I now think that your summary is the most likely long term outcome.
It was the human population that starved by relying on a potato crop - a non-indigenous plant - that was not adapted for those conditions.
Mass starvation didn't happen until around 1845 to 1849. I think you may be partially referring to the Potatoe Famine, which was primarily caused by, yes a reliance in a single crop (about 40% of the population were dependent on it - but this is probably comparable to some grains in other parts of the world), BUT mainly relying on a strain of potatoes that were very susceptible to Potatoe Blight, think of it like the Dark Bees AMM of Britain and Ireland which were imported here, it was beekeepers reliance on a strain that was susceptible to the 'Isle of Wite Disease' that caused beekeeping to be so severely affected around 1921 ish (I've simplified these two points to compress them).
Think about it a bit more and do leave out the exaggereation.
Yes, "Think about it..."
