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In a message dated 06/11/2008 02:57:15 GMT Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
More
important than that, what is the state of Bee-L beekeepers' bees in
Britain?
Patchy.
This week I extracted over 90lbs of honey from a single hive (a CDB) that I
artificially swarmed earlier in the year. Her daughter in the hive alongside
has done reasonably well but not so as to produce a harvestable surplus. The
other 2 hives in that apiary are putting on weight and might survive the
winter but I wasn't able to take any honey.
I went into last winter with 18 hives and came out with 7. Usually I don't
lose more than the odd one or two, if any. I am now up to 19, but, the year
having been spent re-building, there is a very small honey crop. I don't put
my losses down to CCD as I haven't seen any hives with the symptoms ascribed
to CCD for several years. I first came across it about 10 years ago.
The weather this year has been upside down. Cold when they should have
been out pollinating early fruits blossom (so I had very few pears and plums
this year and am scouring the hedgerows to find enough sloes for sloe gin). We
then had a burst of good weather promoting lots of swarms and a heavy apple
crop. Summer didn't happen - it rained instead. They simply weren't able to
forage when the main crop is usually gathered and many colonies shut down brood
rearing for weeks at a time. (This may be a Amm trait as I am led to believe
that they are more responsive to adverse weather then Aml). A colleague
reported that hives he noticed were awash with varroa mites before the break in
brood rearing had comparatively few afterwards. Currently they are foraging
busily on the ivy (Hedera helix) at an ambient temperature of about 48F.
Chris
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