I agree with Peter. Our data from the past three years shows a standout
commercial beekeeping operation - Smoot Honey in Power, Montana.
They shake out and sell every colony in the fall to people going to
almonds. By October, they've no bees. They start new every spring with packages
from CA. Those packages arrive with a variety of viruses, sometimes
mites, etc. By mid-summer, their bees look as good or better than any we've
seen from across the U.S. Hardly any viruses, mites.
I assume a lot of this is because their equipment, which they scrape and
repair before storage in an unheated warehous, gets a severe cold treatment
and also about 6 months of non-use (no bees), before the packages are
installed. Any mites, moths, etc. would be killed by cold. Nosema spores, at
least N. ceranae, should become inviable, since it seems to not be
particularly hardy outside the host, and since Cramer found cold or heat quickly
does a job on the spores.
Also, the packages take off in a spurt of growth as the summer hits and
the queen is at her peak laying.
At that time, we see viral loads drops (IVDS and proteomics). We see very
few varroa (no brood in packages). We haven't seen any Tracheal mite. We
don't see much Nosema. My guess, the growth rate of the bee colony is
faster than that of the diseases and pests. Old bees are dropping out fast as
they wear out, and these are often the ones carrying the diseases.
That's not to say, we never see anything. We do see some chalk brood -
which isn't real surprising as the packages get started.
Can't say the same for nucs or colonies off the truck. They don't
necessarily improve just by being brought into Montana.
I think the Smoot's are on to something - annual bees. Shed many of the
problems. jerry
Jerry
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