Hi Joe,

I am sorry for the delay in getting back to you, but the grant has made 
us a little extra busy.

On the front cover of the April issue of Bee Coulture is a photograph 
that Kirsten took of a frame of pollen in one of our hives. The queen is 
the daughter of a feral queen from Old Sol Enttiprises at 
http://www.oldsolenterprises.com/. We received 12 of these queens in 
Sept 05 and put them in 5 frame nuc boxes. We gave them two frames of 
brood, one frame of honey and one frame of pollen/honey. They only had 
foundation for the fith frame. We were testing them for their survival 
rate without treatment. They were in the same apiary with 12 commercial 
queens who were in 10 frame Langstrogth hives. In the ten frame hives 
the bees collected just one or two bland colors of pollen, which they 
stored as bee bread. The hives headed by the feral daughter queens drew 
out the cells with wax and propolis and filled them with an artist's 
array of colors and blends of pollen. We fed them a little to build them 
up and all the five frame nucs went into the winter with one to two five 
frame boxes of honey stores on top that were taken from other hives. The 
hives survived the winter well.

While the commercial queens from several sources had thymol in 
August-September and then oxalic acid in January, they did not fair as 
well. In March we combined several of the nucs with the 10 frame hives 
to strengthen them up for the coming honey flow. We had no problems with 
the combining. Most of the nucs have now been transferred into ten frame 
hives.

I would rather have a better queen at a higher price than a cheap queen 
at a lower price, because a good queen is less work and gives a higher 
return. The problem, as Bob Harrison has said, is finding them.

Bob Harrison may have different opinions on many things in beekeeping 
than I or others, but he also has a lot of experience I wish I had. Bob 
took a queen rearing course with Marla Spivak and Marion Ellis in 
Nebraska, which I also attended. My background is such that I have had 
to develop a fairly good sense of observation. Nothing that went on for 
those several days seemed to pass Bob's notice. At the time I was 
completely unware of Bob's background, but quickly knew he was not just 
a retiree with a few beehives. He was there to understand, learn, and 
raise awareness of potential problems with his insights. I did not 
introduce myself to Bob, I just listened.

I may debate with Bob about what I have researched that may be different 
then his knowledge base, but it would be nice to see more beekeepers 
with such dedication for so many years and still going strong. Let us 
hope we all keep listening to the other side, especially about AHB. Who 
would debate that if we had taken more precautions in the past, US 
beekeeping today would be so much easier?  It makes very poor business 
sense to play Russian Roulette with beekeeping. Having been to short 
courses taught by beekeepers who stick to a regimented program without 
adjusting their treatment schedules based on the needs of the bees makes 
me wonder what the future of beekeeping will be. Unfortunately it is not 
the bees making beekeeping decisions, it is us.

Kirsten has an article in the April issue of Bee Culture about the 
medicinal products in the hive, the same subject for which she received 
the German Chancellor Scholarship. We want to find out why the German 
beekeepers are so heavily supported by their government through research 
and education. From what we have seen on the German sites you have to 
study beekeeping for 3 years at the bee institure before you can be 
called a professional beekeeper. Obviously, I do not know who has the 
better system, but I plan on trying to find out, as I think a future 
lies in greater communication between beekeepers worldwide.

Michael Traynor
www.mdbee.com


J. Waggle wrote:

>Beekeeper Selected to Receive German Chancellor Scholarship
>The Fredrick News-Post   March 27, 2006
>Keeping bees:
>http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/agriculture/display.htm?
>storyid=47606
>
>Joe Waggle ~ Derry, PA 
>

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