Hi all,

Allen writes:

<<In spite of the literature, for some gut reason (sorry), I never
been a huge fan of fumigillin, and although I did use it a few times,
any time I looked, I could never see justification for using it in my
own outfit.  I suppose I should do a slide or two this year, since
everyone else I know (everyone) is using it and showing much lower
nosema counts.>>

We have never used fumigillin in our almost 30 years of beekeeping. Maybe we should get spore counts and monitor for this pathogen. But on the other hand, I always thought we we in line with other beekeepers that do use fumigillin in regards to overwintering and honey crops. 

Our greatest focus is the control of varroa mites to get the lowest possible count before the honey flow and immediately after pulling honey to quickly reduce the mite loads to  get the best healthy young bees to overwinter and go to California almonds or Florida for splits. I think we have been successful once again(knock on wood) with a multi-pronged approach to mite reduction. 

I am interested in any research Jerry may do on the pollen sub recipe that may help with virus reduction in any fashion. That caught my eye immediately. Jerry wrote:

 <<We were going to start with the commercial protein supplements and a
'beekeeper' recipe, but yes, they all warrant consideration - who knows
what some of the home brew may do - and some of the initial virus
screening data suggests at least one may beat the commercial
preparations in terms of reducing viral loads.>>

We bought a couple pallets of Bee Pro from Mann Lake. I think I will also get the Mega Bee again too. I did run both in our queen cell operation last winter to build up our cell builders and promote royal jelly production in our breeders. The bees took both ok. I should run some trials this winter. I was thinking of running about 40 cell builders on one type of patty and the other 40 builders on the other. We should get a "feel" for it.  My wife Sharon likes abundant jelly around the larvae for grafting. 

We are upping the ante on feeding pollen sub on our bees we just set down in Florida. We start at the winter solstice. I think it pays back with good dividends of extra brood to make our splits. 

Kirk Jones

Sleeping Bear Farms   beekeepers making honey...
Benzie Playboys           cajun and zydeco band........

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