BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > NATURAL & ORGANIC BEEKEEPING METHODS
the myth ? of the mite bomb
SiWolKe:
I think it is a fairy tale that you have more honey when you increase the entrances, because then more bees have to be turned off foraging to guard and ventilate.
Show me any research on that and I will believe it.
About the robber screens too. I monitored my hives and it makes a big difference, so big, some famous european beekeepers I know want to copy the management after I mailed my tablets.
In nature, there is no one who changes the entrances. It contradicts the practice of noninterference when you do it, Ace.
If the bees in the tree or building have too large entrances, these are often constricted, usually with honeycombs that are built across the larger knotholes, like a door, I've already seen it myself.
Or propolised.
Michael, I'm not talking about your enviable situation, you already have resistant bees. Anyway, thanks for chiming in.
I'm talking about the European situation where the bees usually die if they are untreated, and they die in summer. Mine are better, they die in winter , but I have resistant bred stock.
>>>....thought I would get too much flack from the mite bomb alarmist.<<<
please don?t provoke bad discussion. Thanks.
Sawdstmakr, can you imagine arranging the boxes on your trailer so that the entrances point in different directions?
I am now cooperating with two Demeter beekeepers ( Demeter is an organic label) who want to work without treatments. They are commercials.
We as a forum group will have a meeting in april in bavaria. Tf and T Beekerpers visiting a tf beeyard and enjoying a barbecue. Hopefully without fights.
I collect ideas and am grateful for each one. They will ask me, what works and what`s in vain. I appreciate sawdstmakr`remark very much.
BeeMaster2:
SiWolke,
Here are some pictures of my trailer from last year when I was adding supers.
There are up to 18 hives on this trailer and the space is tight. The trailer is 5 feet wide by 18 feet long.
I have 2 of these trailers, this is the larger and heavier one.
Jim
BeeMaster2:
By the way, anyone planning on making a trailer like this, do not use a wheel jack. Here is a picture of the wheel that is less than 6 months old when I took this picture and the damage is just from sitting on the ground from all of the added honey weight. That is a 1500 pound jack. As soon as I can get the hives off this trailer I will bee making a new base out of 4 by 4 quarter inch steal.
Jim
SiWolKe:
Ah, yes, you work on the bees from the passage in the middle.
Then you would stand in front of the entrances, if you align them in different directions. Very uncomfortable.
In that case I would label the entrances with geometric colored characters and point the screens openings upwards and downwards.
The one?s at the end can point backwards or forwards perhaps. Ot place the supers in between if you transport them separately.
Thanks for the pictures, that's great thinking.
Good luck with the new wheel jacks. Some heavy load but good harvest!
blackforest beekeeper:
My hives are two side by side. Entrances wide open all year long.
If one has a higher mite-count and the one on the side has lower, they don?t equal out over time. There is usually only a little drift, sometimes practically none. The entrances are about 2 inches apart.
The only time I get robbed hives is - as Ace said - "colonies" having a weak queen or none, which makes them a "non-colony".
The other oppurtunity for robber-bees is: sick bees.
Honey in the stores has nothing to do with robbing. Every hive has honey.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version