[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask]) writes:
We may think about giving the bees a vacation once and while to recover
Medhat has a good point. It reminds me of cattle. I grew up in cattle
operations. We fed out 1100 head of beef one year, but eventually went to
dairy cows.
There may be some parallels here between beef versus dairy cattle that may
be somewhat analogous to pollinator versus queen breeder/package
operations.
First, beef cattle operations often run very large numbers of animals,
similar to big pollinator operations with thousands, sometimes tens of
thousands of colonies.
Range cattle are often fed out in a feedlot just before going to market
(that's what we were doing with the 1100 cows). We only had a cursory
awareness of individual animals, and when one got sick, it was hard to spot until
it was so severe, one would notice it in the crowd. I've had discussions
with feedlot veterinarians who wonder if some of our technologies could
help them spot sick cows earlier in feedlots.
With pollinators, bees have to be moved, fed, graded, etc. Its
challenging to check every colony, much less do it frequently. So, problems like
varroa build up may not be noticed in the early stages.
With dairy cows, one sees each animal twice a day. If she was eating in
the morning, off feed by evening, you knew - so we had the benefit of very
early intervention. I see somewhat the same with queen breeders. Although
they may work on a large scale, they tend to be more aware of what's
happening on a day to day basis, seeing the insides of a high proportion of
colonies on a frequent basis - at least during their main season. And then,
most let their bees make a honey crop, don't put them on the road for
pollination. So, their colonies do get the 'bee-equivalent of a vacation' - time
to settle down to making honey, caring for brood. They are not being
pushed to pollinate where food resources are often minimal, and where next
week, you're somewhere else, trying to keep things together.
Second, beef cattle matings etc. are timed for the herd as a whole. No
one is milking the cows, and some don't live long enough to reproduce. All
a beef cow has to do is jump start a calf and grow, put on weight.
With dairy, you have to be on your mark with matings, or your schedule of
rotation gets off, and your production starts to fluctuate too much (one
wants to plan how many cows are producing milk each month). We ran dairy
cattle on a year schedule - mate, milk, milk, give them a break, drop calve,
milk again. We couldn't just milk the cows 12 months a year. We had to
give them a break (dry them up) for a period each year before they dropped
the next calf. Ignore this, you burned them out, production went down,
health problems went up.
Beef on the other hand get a break - of course many aren't kept for much
time - there are financial trade offs with obtaining calves versus selling
for beef. That's why near aluminum smelters, I've worked with cattle
suffering from fluorosis - teeth go bad, joints get flouride deposits. Worst
case, cows is on its knees. But not a problem with beef cattle - too short an
exposure time. But it hits the dairy cows - continuous exposure over
years.
Finally, with dairy we pushed the nutritional limits - shots of high
protein feed, mineral and vitamin supplements (no antibiotics though - when we
raised cattle, that idea hadn't taken hold). Over do protein and you
started having problems. Same has been shown with protein supplements and bees.
Too little or too much, each can have deleterious effects.
Quality nutrition is, in my opinion, one of the major problems facing
beekeeping. Monocultures and cultivars for maximum yield without considering
attractiveness to bees or the amount and quality of the nectar and pollen.
I have seen some anecdotal evidence of the other extreme, supplements too
high in protein - there can be a toxic effect.
So, I can relate strongly to Medhat's suggestion that bees need a
vacation. Smoot Honey in MT goes to the extreme here; sell off shakes in fall, go
through winter without any bees, re-stock in the spring, and produce the
healthiest and best producing colonies I've seen in years.
Jerry
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