Hello Murray!
Good to have you on board again, I always appreciate your posts as
they come from long experience and rational thinking.

>We fill the mini nucs on an opportunist basis from late April ( but more
>normally first 10 days of May) as soon as the first grafts are ready,
>and first time around a 70% success rate would be good, a lot need
>refilling that early.

You are a bit ahead there. I can start queen production mid May, but
usually wait until end of May. Otherwise I would have to combine hives
to get cell builders. So around mid June the first mating nucs goes
out to the mating yard. The last grafting is done around July 20. When
getting into August the success rate is going down, September would
mean queens that might not be properly mated.

>True average is over ALL your units, not just the successful
>ones, including all the dinks. Anything else is skewing the figures, and
>deceiving others, and perhaps also yourself .

This is very important. Proper records have to be kept, all hives (in
my case all hives that made the winter and have a queen) have to be
included. Every year there are some hives that look especially good,
when out in the yards working I think those will be the ones to select
for next years breeders. After the season is finished I sit down with
Excel to organize the collected data and figure out who's going to be
the queen mothers. Often those hives that looked so good don't get
selected. We have a way of fooling ourself, even after many years
experience.

>We even remove a lot of stores from the broodnest, leaving maybe 4 or 5
>bars especially those with a lot of pollen, and give them approx 14Kg of
>syrup. This is enough for winter here, and does not cause overcrowding
>that prevents that last important brood cycle in September

We do the same here, taking honey out from the brood nest. For me it's
also part of recycling the brood combs. Old combs that has been in
contact with fluvalinate are burned and newly drawn out are
introduced. Yes we have Api-Invert and also a locally made bee feed
with similar content of inverted sugars. I still use white sugar (400
kg bags) as it is cheaper and easier to handle. Those bee feeds you
buy are higher sugar content than I manage to handle. I'm pumping feed
and have a setup with a small water pump that works well with 65%
solution if it's not too cold. Dry sugar is also better to store. I
give my hives 20 kg dry weight sugar. Back in those days the black
bees were still used, my uncle who introduced me to beekeeping,
claimed 12 kg were the norm here. Your 14 kg of syrup would about
equal to that. 12 kg would take my bees through winter too, the
difference is that they start brooding early in the spring and quickly
burn the feed on new bees. I could take an extra feeding tour early to
the bees, like many hobbyists do here, but it's more rational to give
them all in the autumn.

>touchy about it. ( My conclusion, based on no evidence at all except
>their own reticence, is that, Dee Lusby apart, they do not add up to a
>lot.)

If they do not produce any honey, or have large enough colonies to do
any significant pollination, what is the meaning of keeping those
bees? Reintroduce feral colonies is the only reason I can think of.
They would be good for that, but not for much else. Dee has many
hives, but I have never heard her say she is making much honey from
them. We all presume because she has those numbers she also makes a
good honey crop. But does she..? What makes me wonder is the way she
was able to build up the numbers again after the initial crash due to
varroa. Would you or me be able to do what she did? Loose the source
of income and instead put a lot of work and money in slowly rebuilding
up again during many years. I sure would not. I would go bankrupt.
This lead to the question if she really is dependent of bees for her
income, or if the honey production from her hives are of minor
importance.

Of course the best would be that the small cell natural advocates told
us the truth and put facts up for all to see. Then we wouldn't have to
speculate.

But in this case, no answer would also be an answer.....

-- 
Regards

P-O Gustafsson
[log in to unmask]  http://beeman.se

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---