>>>waldemar, a few comments inline:

-- "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
What are the coldest temps in the winter in Arizona?

>>>http://www.accuweather.com/forecast-normals.asp?partner=netweather&traveler=0&zipChg=1&zipcode=85621&metric=0
>>>has some typical highs/lows for her approximate area...but i also know that it often gets below freezing (and did this last year).

I am not used to such rough handling of bees but suppose this is how commercial beekeepers go through hives.  There must have been quite a few squashed bees from the movements I saw in the videos.  I hardly kill a bee when going through hives.

>>>i do things more gently also...but with this many hives, with this much to do, and with the cost of gas, to make a living at this, one needs to be fast.  when there are 12+ frames of brood, killing even a few hundred bees is down in the noise.

  And my bees, a little unlike the video, do boil over with bees.  If I did not smoke them into the boxes, I'd bee killing scores each time replacing a box.

>>>yes, i know what you are talking about.  my thoughts (at least at the moment) are based on the mendoza canyon video.  watch carefully....there are lots of bees flying, very few "landed" on us, and yes, less "on the comb" than you often see.  yet, it isn't like there isn't plenty of capped (and uncapped) brood.  there must be enough bees to forage for and raise all that brood.  based on that, i can't really see being "concerned" that there aren't more bees on the combs...conversely, it makes me wonder why we often see the pictures (and hives) we do see that are "dripping" with bees during the daytime...what are all those bees doing?  i would assume they are necessary to raise the brood, but dee's hives show that they can raise plenty of brood _and_ store honey without them.

If you say you reeked of alarm odor, how come you were not getting stung?  You'd expected a few stings under such conditions even from European bees.

>>>oh, we got a few stings, no doubt...but i don't think i ever got more than 5 in a day (of 100 or so hives).  if you look closely, you will see the bees hovering around the veils...the combination of co2 and alarm scent kept that going...but really, if you look at all the bees flying, and you look at us, you will see bees in the air, not on the beekeepers.

I was also very suprised how easily the boxes separated.  My bees strive for continuous comb and I have to push down on the lower frames before lifting off a box.

>>>well, a few observations.  first, dee doesn't treat and uses all deep boxes..this means that frames can migrate easily between broodnest and honey storage duty.  dee harvests propolis in the honey house, by scraping frames...this certainly accounts for some of the cleanliness.  secondly, dee makes her own foundation, and leaves plenty of empty space at the bottoms.  this leaves the bees room to put plenty of drone cells on the frames...when beekeepers use full sheets of worker foundation, the bees are more motivated to put comb between the boxes for drones.

I was also surprised how seemingly effortlessly Dee was lifting off those deeps!  A strong person indeed.  Even a brood-filled deep is somewhat heavy.

>>>yes, a strong person indeed!  i moved many of those boxes, and they are not as light as she makes them look.

Wow!  There was a mention a couple of times that you did not want to use smoke to drive nurse bees off the brood.  Why?  Were you concerned there would be insufficient nurses for the splits?

>>>the splits were almost all full box splits, without finding the queen.  the idea is to make each part of the split plenty strong enough to build up quickly.  when splitting off a box, any foragers are going to return to the old location...so having a large number of nurse bees is important...as the bees in that box have to continue to do their house duties, while  also providing foragers and guards.

>>>deknow

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