BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > UK / EUROPEAN BEEKEEPING
Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
SiWolKe:
Yes,
The smaller clusters in a tf setting have more difficulties, for sure they are surrounded by treated colonies and drifting or silent robbing occurs.
Reinvasion is the biggest problem in a resistant bees breeding enterprise.
Therefore I use robber screens on every hive, but I can?t tell my bees not to rob mite infested neighbor hives before those are treated in august.
I don?t want to combine though it has an advantage concerning the survivability. I?m not able to evaluate a colony then, in spring. They have to survive or not.
Plus, I?m splitting once every season. These colonies are established in summer, but they are no production hives, expanded to be huge.
>>>>in my hobbyist setup with five hives I did the "don`t treat until threshold reached"-thing the year before.<<<<
This confirmes my opinion that in our country most constantly treated bee colonies never have a chance to be without treatments except after some years of propagating stronger stock.
I wonder what your threshold is?
Acebird:
--- Quote from: SiWolKe on January 04, 2019, 01:33:27 am ---Some poison the bees because they can?t identify a honeybee. You would not believe how many people don?t know anything about insects except that they feel molested by them.
--- End quote ---
You think that is any different anywhere? Very common.
--- Quote ---Often the bees are placed in cold foggy pools and the wetness goes up into the hives.
--- End quote ---
Beekeeper mistake ... in a foggy climate the hives should be placed near the top of a hill not the bottom of a valley. In a desert place your hives at the bottom of a valley.
--- Quote ---I don?t want to combine though it has an advantage concerning the survivability.
--- End quote ---
Why fight it if it works?
blackforest beekeeper:
--- Quote from: SiWolKe on January 04, 2019, 06:25:24 am ---Yes,
The smaller clusters in a tf setting have more difficulties, for sure they are surrounded by treated colonies and drifting or silent robbing occurs.
Reinvasion is the biggest problem in a resistant bees breeding enterprise.
Therefore I use robber screens on every hive, but I can?t tell my bees not to rob mite infested neighbor hives before those are treated in august.
I don?t want to combine though it has an advantage concerning the survivability. I?m not able to evaluate a colony then, in spring. They have to survive or not.
Plus, I?m splitting once every season. These colonies are established in summer, but they are no production hives, expanded to be huge.
>>>>in my hobbyist setup with five hives I did the "don`t treat until threshold reached"-thing the year before.<<<<
This confirmes my opinion that in our country most constantly treated bee colonies never have a chance to be without treatments except after some years of propagating stronger stock.
I wonder what your threshold is?
--- End quote ---
I use about the numbers halved of Liebig. But in this case I was a bit more daring. Usually I treat when half of the threshold is reached.
SiWolKe:
BFB how do you count?
I?m ignorant of the numbers Liebig gives. What are they?
blackforest beekeeper:
uff. beat me...
I "count" mites on the drawer underneath the mesh. It`s a bit of an oracle, but for I do - further down - it suffices.
I think it was like 10 in summer - per day.
for autumn it should be 5,
and for winter 1.
If I get single ones around 10 in summer, I remove all brood from them. Treat that of course (formic)
If more get above around 5, I treat em all and take em out of the flow (forest).
In autumn (I`d say end of September/beginning of October) I treat them all usually. If weather is fair and dry, with formic, else with OAV.
In winter I treat them all. OAV or dribbling OA.
Nucs he takes half the numbers.
So really 5/day in summer is my threshold to stop making honey. All other thresholds I ignore pretty much and treat. This is for full-grown hives.
About the incident I talked about I wanted to try OAV on breeding hives. I got the gadget a bit late it was October, bees untreated till then. Threshold was still allright, although maybe colonies were a bit too small. I milked the mites out successfully with OAV, but winterbees were damaged already, which showed in the cold-spell end of March.
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