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Author Topic: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany  (Read 34173 times)

Offline blackforest beekeeper

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #40 on: February 10, 2019, 04:53:41 pm »
problem with poop is only if it?s inside the hive...

Offline SiWolKe

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #41 on: February 11, 2019, 01:04:06 am »
Thank you BfB,
I had this only with one hive and once so far and the frames were spotted too, but it did not matter to the bees then.
I took out the frames and cleaned the top bars, scraped away some traces on comb and gave it back.
The moment season started they were healthy.

Hopefully this time it?s not a big thing too.



Offline SiWolKe

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #42 on: February 16, 2019, 12:53:44 pm »
Update: 10?C sunny

Check today: ALL colonies are still alive, I do not know about the Ferals, they did not fly, but in the shade it is quite cool. It will not open until I know for sure they are dead..

Elgons:
5 colonies strong, 4 hives weak, one very weak, possibly queenless. Food stores good, easy to reach. 4 hours of sun a day when the sun is there.
No pollen yet, I just saw one bee with pollen. Very frosty there. No new poop traces, dead bees are pulled out . With the strong hives, 2-3 handfuls of dead, no crippled bees.
Brood nest I did not look at.  Just looked sideways and from top if they have stores.

Buckfast:
they are standing on the dry southern slope and flew heavily. Pollen entry, looks like hazel. The hazelnuts and alders are already blooming there. One hive seems to be without a queen, it did not bring pollen and did not release much of their dead. It was the strongest in the fall.
I'll wait. All colonies are strong, on 4 frames, not much food. Have the feeders filled with moist sugar-honey mixture.

Offline blackforest beekeeper

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #43 on: February 18, 2019, 02:37:22 am »
the last few days it was sunny and mild during the day, freezing at night. the bees - even in the blackforest - took achance on a cleansing flight (we still have a foot of hard frozen snow around the house, but the bees are standing sunny).
In the commercially orientated apiary-part in milder parts with no snow I checked on them. I was very concerned about them for there is a lot of pine-honey in the stores and due to a very consistent winter this year they werent able to fly out and poop for more than two months.
Two succumbed to the pine honey. poop all over the place inside. but the other 69 were going strong. up to an early breeding with up to two hands of capped brood on single frames.
i did some OAV and dribbling on some nevertheless.
lots of pollen coming in. they have used up a lot of feed already, though I had been feeding well in fall. Gotta stir up some sugar in 3 or 4 weeks, depending on weather.
if winter doesn`t hit back hard, as it may, everything seems to be leading to early splits and early-flow-ready hives.

Offline SiWolKe

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #44 on: August 20, 2020, 03:28:32 am »
Hello folks!
Thanks to those who texted me privately the last months. Thanks for caring about my well-being.

I?m fine, moving to Sweden right now.

I had given my German bees to a friend in Bavaria. He wanted to mate the new queens in the bee yard of a known tf beekeeper so he invited the bee inspector to examine them to get the permission.
This guy was very awed about their strength and health, which made me very happy, having invested so much time and love in the project.

In Sweden my number of colonies went up to 5, all three colonies I started with surviving winter and giving two splits out of the strongest.
No mite problem so far. They all have winter strength right now and a lot of honey. Since the fall honey, dew and heather honey, is not good on the digestion, I plan to take this and surround the cluster with the spring and summer honey combs this September.

Life in Sweden is very peaceful, no covid hysterics like in Germany and the regulations of distance keeping and hygienic behaviors easy to keep.
We have nice neighbors, the working on the farm buildings is going well and my permaculture garden covered with bee flow plants right now.
Plus we have jobs as shareholders of a company.

So Ihm blessed and grateful to have this great future.
Best to you all!
Sibylle

Offline Ben Framed

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #45 on: August 20, 2020, 11:03:57 am »
Sibylle, I am glad to here everything is going well for you and your husband! I recall that you were hoping to make the move to Sweden. If anywhere in the world I were to choose to live beside my home, Sweden would be one of my choices also. It is good that you have again bees and they are at winter strength. I have not heard of honeydew. Hopefully you can work around this problem. The trap comb sounds like a very good idea!

You are blessed, You left the rest of the world just at the right time. The world seems to have went crazy with the virus and the terror of it. I hear Sweden keep a level mind and is doing great! Is this true?

Congratulations on you new life, your new farm and your new job! Sounds so good! Do you have dogs at your new farm?

Stay in touch.

Phillip



   
                                                                                                                                                    .
                                                                       
« Last Edit: August 20, 2020, 11:21:56 am by Ben Framed »

Offline The15thMember

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #46 on: August 20, 2020, 12:00:22 pm »
Hello folks!
Thanks to those who texted me privately the last months. Thanks for caring about my well-being.

I?m fine, moving to Sweden right now.

I had given my German bees to a friend in Bavaria. He wanted to mate the new queens in the bee yard of a known tf beekeeper so he invited the bee inspector to examine them to get the permission.
This guy was very awed about their strength and health, which made me very happy, having invested so much time and love in the project.

In Sweden my number of colonies went up to 5, all three colonies I started with surviving winter and giving two splits out of the strongest.
No mite problem so far. They all have winter strength right now and a lot of honey. Since the fall honey, dew and heather honey, is not good on the digestion, I plan to take this and surround the cluster with the spring and summer honey combs this September.

Life in Sweden is very peaceful, no covid hysterics like in Germany and the regulations of distance keeping and hygienic behaviors easy to keep.
We have nice neighbors, the working on the farm buildings is going well and my permaculture garden covered with bee flow plants right now.
Plus we have jobs as shareholders of a company.

So Ihm blessed and grateful to have this great future.
Best to you all!
Sibylle

HOORAY!!  You're back!!  :grin:  Now we can talk varroa trapping without any technical difficulties.  Sweden sounds wonderful; I'm glad to hear everything there is going well for you.     
I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led.  And through the air, I am she that walks unseen.
https://maranathahomestead.weebly.com/

Offline SiWolKe

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #47 on: August 20, 2020, 02:43:53 pm »
Thanks, my dear friends, I don't know if I'm back but I will try.
I shunned all social media for months and feel very happy about it.

Yes, we can talk about trap combs. I will build some over winter for my Swedish colonies in case of emergency. It's an easy non chemical treatment, not much work, not much disturbance, no danger for the beekeeper and no contamination of honey. If you want to discuss this again, fifth member, please do! I long to hear about your own managements.

To Sweden: it's a strange but fascinating country besides living in a wonderful nature.
It seems, that people in the country feel as a big family even including their governments and officials and authorities, no matter how rich or poor or what interests they have. In need, all stay together, well, in our area it is so.
You can cross every property as long as you stay a distance to the homes, swim in every lake, put up your tent anywhere. As long as you leave no waste and keep the dog on the leash because of so much wild animals.
Most people I met loved to talk to me.

The virus was not spreading in Germany much as long as we were in lockdown, shutdown. Now, that restrictions are taken off, numbers rise.
In Sweden it was the other way around. They have regulations like keeping distance and not meeting more than 50 people, but everything is recommended, not ordered. People follow.
They had a lot of old dead people in April. The system is that governments and health office can only give recommendations. The actions are taken by local authorities. And in the Stockholm region the authorities failed to protect the old in the homes. They just forgot to provide the workers with protection materials and the workers are mostly poor immigrants working for low wages and not knowing about their rights. So when they had symptoms, they still went to work. Now they plan the state authorities to watch over the private nursing industry conditions again.

Where we have our little farm we had no cases for weeks. Our friends probably went all through the disease but were not hospitalized, nor tested. This was in April. They had the symptoms and just went into self decided quarantine.
They are well now.
In our area the health home service workers locked themselves in with the old people in isolation while they waited for the masks and protection gear. So not many dead ones there.
Some who were serviced in their homes got it and passed away. But all were over 80.

Phillip, yes we have our airedale terrier girl Perle. She is a good watchdog but gentle. I plan to hunt with her next year with my neighbor, hunting wild hogs but we have to train her. She is eager to hunt.
Maybe she will have puppies some day.


Offline SiWolKe

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #48 on: August 20, 2020, 03:21:34 pm »
Many wild animals.
In Sweden I speak a mixture of English, German and Swedish, depending on who talks to me. Hard to concentrate on the right grammar. :wink:
Swedish is just some words and sentences. I bought a book and CDs and will go to school next year when we leave Germany forever. Courses are free for immigrants.

The bees do not have a problem with me not yet speaking Swedish fluently, though.

Offline The15thMember

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #49 on: August 21, 2020, 05:12:47 pm »
Mr. Van posted that video of Mr. Buchler's presentation that we were discussing, Sibylle.  I though you might like to peruse the thread.
https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=53778.msg486961#msg486961

I have put in one of my varroa trapping setups already and will be putting more in this weekend.  I'll put more details on the linked thread, so everyone can get an update on my progress. 
I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led.  And through the air, I am she that walks unseen.
https://maranathahomestead.weebly.com/

Offline SiWolKe

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #50 on: August 22, 2020, 07:22:19 am »
Thank you.
I have made two posts there.

Offline Acebird

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #51 on: August 22, 2020, 09:09:17 am »
Welcome back Sibylle.  Good to see your post.
Brian Cardinal
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Offline Ben Framed

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #52 on: August 22, 2020, 12:35:08 pm »
Welcome back Sibylle.  Good to see your post.

Times 2 !

Offline SiWolKe

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #53 on: August 22, 2020, 12:51:11 pm »
Hi Ace!
Active as ever, you are  :grin:

Offline Acebird

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Re: Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany
« Reply #54 on: August 23, 2020, 09:05:57 am »
I usually read new posts and make comments every morning on topics that interest me.
Brian Cardinal
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anything