allen dick <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
In Particular, I'd like to hear from those who read BEE-L and seldom or
never write.

allen

Allen wanted to know what kind of beekeeper is out here so here is my response.  I’m now at the point where I hope I know enough to know just how ignorant I am about keeping bees.  Years ago when beekeeping was easier I taught a couple of adult education classes in beekeeping and this past spring I started back and taught another under the auspices of the county agricultural office.  I think I am most proud of this latest class.  Out of eleven students I think I have about ten of them keeping bees, a couple starting out with nothing and now having six or more hives (a combination of purchased hives, purchased packages, and caught swarms).  A couple have done things this first year that I haven’t done up to this point.  We are in the process of trying to establish a beekeeping club in the county ( a few classmembers are reluctant to join because they want nothing to do with the bee inspectors and feel they would be identified and imposed upon if they joined an organized club)!
 .  I’m
 planning on writing an article about the proposed club for the county newspaper this coming week and seeing what develops at our next meeting.

I am currently beset with a hard infestation of AFB in one yard and have isolated it from all my other bee activities.  Being so small I am really reluctant to destroy the remaining hives but plan to do so when I get back from my trip to Europe.  I am currently planning on conducting the shake-swarm method of transferring the remaining colonies to completely new equipment and seeing if I might possibly save the bees themselves.  I would appreciate any responses of those of you out there who have tried this or have knowledge about it.  I am also trying to set up a process with our regional cancer treatment center to heavily irradiate my infested equipment and determining if, after irradiation, it has become AFB free.  I am currently a small beekeeper and want to expand as rapidly as possible which is why I’m trying the irradiation, both to save equipment and also as an experiment to see if infected equipment can be saved.

In another yard I am involved with a state university study comparing attributes of three strains of bees; Russians, SMR’s, and a cross of Italians/Buckfast as controls.  We are studying the ease of management, the production qualities, and finally and most important – the ability to survive as drug free colonies.  We started out with splits and introduced queens and the program has been very interesting so far.  In the future I’m planning to expand by making splits and raising my own queens for introduction into the splits.



Mike

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