Dee,
Thanks for information on your bees! Others may not think you have shared a
lot but to me you have. I understand what you are saying. I have few
comments but do have a few.


> Also propolis we
see as good, while others see as bad.

Only in the last few years have beekeepers stopped criticizing my operation
for not keeping free of propolis. When I first started beekeeping I was told
by *all but* my ninety plus year old mentor to keep the propolis out of the
hive! Lines which used lots of propolis should be avoided other beekeeper
said!  I followed
the majority of advice for years but as fast I removed the propolis the bees
would replace.

Then I started doing experiments. I found hives with the normal amounts of
propolis seemed to do better. Then I learned most bees will use propolis up
to a certain amount and then stop. I realized that especially some bees are
determined to keep what most beekeepers believe is too much propolis. To sum
things up I let the bees keep the amount of proplis they feel they need as
long as I can manipulate the hive parts.

I think most beekeepers are turned off by  propolis. Gets on fingers, bee
trucks and is hard to remove and remove for their own reasons. My partner
(which reads the list but never posts) has a thing about propolis and spends
hours (if not weeks a year) in his battle to remove porpolis from the hive.
You do!

>Another good is that they have been acclimatized by us to
accommodate our area

An important point. Also one I rarely talk about but comes out often in my
testing. Queens of lines from breeders in the south do not winter as well in
my area more often than not. I believe its because they are not selected for
wintering. However I believe if a line of bees which came from the south
were brought into a northern area and selected for for a few years for
wintering they would do fine.  Most beekeepers do not look close at winter
deadouts except to look for disease. High loss (with everything else being
right) can point to queens which winter poorly that you bought in the south
which have never been selected for wintering.

The beekeeper should always ask the person he buys queens from what they
consider as important in a breeder queen.

>But you are certainly accurate to state that the negative
traits can be overcome by management practices, but I would
add here.....to fit ones's area.

I agree.

Bees do quite well in most cases without help but to make a living from bees
you need  at times to help them along. Sometimes a little adjustment can
make a super of difference in a honey flow or help a hive make it through a
tough winter.

For those following along I might add about management. Only adjust a hive
when you know what you are trying to accomplish. Needless arranging can cost
production and survival. Forget the books and look at your bees. Know what a
normal brood nest looks like! If you know normal then you will recognise
abnormal!

Example for Missouri:
If you see in fall a brood nest which is spreading out to a point the nest
could split in winter rearrange back into a compact unit for winter. Same as
you would a tree growing in two directions in an orchard. If you don't
correct the growth early in life your beautiful fruit tree will split in
two later on. In the orchard the tree will grow until it splits in two. In
the bee hive in winter  if the brood nest is not compact the nest will split
and become two small nests. In Missouri these will die in long periods of
cold weather.

Dee deals with desert and I deal with winter. My bees might not work for her
and hers for me. I gave a couple examples of winter management. I am sure
Dee could give many examples of what they look for in hives in the desert to
survive the long period between rains.

Bob

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