On 2/20/2011 2:43 PM, dthompson wrote:
>> ...>Has anyone confirmed your observations in other operations and
confirmed
>> >that VC works for them?
> No and this is the strangest thing...
Since 1997 I have been using small amounts of a Vitamin C Ascorbates
powder (Nature's Sunshine Products brand) in some of the syrup that I
open feed to my hives (20 to 50 average). Having read a lot on
pollination ecology when I studied nectar feeding bats, it seemed likely
that many bee nectars had Vit C traces. It had also helped reduce
disease problems when mixed into the feed when I raised catfish. I have
never tested the pH of this product, but it is less acid than pure Vit C
but acidifies the syrup slightly. I also suspect that pH of feed is
going to be found important in the future, when we've had more study of
bee gut and pollen bread microflora.
My bees have had no treatment since some experiments with mineral oil on
surfaces (not fogged), sugar dusting, and formic back before 2003. The
stock is mixed, selected for survival, refreshed annually with a few
queens from various resistant stocks, and heavy on the Russian
characteristics (I've brought some Russian or Russian hybrids since the
first year they were commercially available). Queens are mostly from
swarm cells. I also feed open dry pollen sub (Bee=Pro first, now Mega
Bee) when they'll take it, and use a pollen sub/syrup/vegetable oil
paste piped onto the bars when (if) I work them. Due to my health and
work there have been some hives unopened for 4-5 years that have had 5-6
boxes on them. Other hives winter as nucs, not hard here in the South
Carolina Piedmont. I haven't seen anything that definitely fits the CCD
pattern, tho the bees our club brought in about 5 years ago added an
increased tendency to abscond if they don't like the situation.
Does the Vit C help? I don't know. Does it hurt? Probably not.
Something I am doing (or not doing) has allowed my isolated yard to
evolve a stock of bees that generally out-survives the purchased hives,
even in the hands of other beekeepers. I have no idea what their honey
production abilities are, with our perpetual droughts there are years I
take no honey. I do know they make more honey than dead bees....
Should I live so long as to retire and if I can keep the neuro Lyme
suppressed, I hope to apply more of my biology training to better
observation and maybe experimentation. And have time to follow all the
great Bee-L discussions...
Carolyn in SC
P.S. In most biology, especially that with field components, the
operation is run on a worn shoestring on whatever money is available to
extract the most knowledge possible out of the very limited resources.
Whether doing spill responses for the railroad, construction water
quality monitoring, or chasing bats in old churches, the non-biology
people around me, even the ditch diggers, were making more money than I
or the highest paid person in my group. Try checking on the cost of one
pesticide sample before you worry about the piddly millions spent
recently. The amounts spent now are less than the baseline basic
research that should have been ongoing since the 1980's when research
was "privatized". Goal driven research is always playing catch up if
the basic biology is unknown. Good old fashioned natural history like
the "leg rub" observation is the foundation of all good biology. I'm
headed out to my hives now to look for leg rubs, thanks for that tidbit!
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