On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 11:21 PM, randy oliver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Juanse, you've got me really curious, but I'm not sure that I'm completely
> understanding.
Most of the time I do not understand my self either. I do not have a
pattern, I change all the time depending on the conditions. I believe
beekeeping is done like 200 years ago, with barehands, a hive tool, a
smoker and a veil, the rest is a huge and ever expanding toolbox full
of knowledge and tricks of the trade. I love to learn !!!
>
> Question: if you
> 1. make up nucs from strong colonies, and
I am not sure what do you call strong colonies. For sure I do not do
what I understand you do. I mean, as we are not graded for almond
pollination I do not have any incentive to build up colonies early.
Also our early pollination uses between 1/3 to 1/2 our colonies,
therefore, I let them "usually" buildup by themself and select the
best/bigger/stronger ones to move to those early pollinations.
Usually (again) I do not split during/after almonds, we "milk" frames
to boost the smaller colonies that were left behind. We have supers we
call "ambulances" with mesh on top and bottom, that we use to carry
those frames we milk from the strong colonies. with this technique we
level early all colonies.
> 2. then gas those nucs immediately, and
> 3. then place them in the same yard as the parent colonies,
Some season, around mid november (around mid May for NH) we need to
"milk frames" the strong colonies that are pollinating blueberries to
avoid swarming, This is particularly so when we have canola planted
near the blueberries. However we never make nucs bigger than 4 frames,
because our nuc boxes are for 5 frames and we use one space for the
frame feeder. Therefore, we milk frames and start filling nucs, as
many nucs as frames we have. We try to mix frames from different
colonies on one nuc, but I am not very strict on this procedure.
Most of the time, to carry as less material as possible, we use those
"ambulances" to fill them up with the milked frames and then do the
nucs on another spot the following day. When I said "another spot"
this could be from some meteres to some km aways.
But yes, sometimes we do the nucs on the same yard where the milked
colonies are. As we know some of the foragers will return to the
"mother" hive, we shake bees from aditional frames above the frames
with bees and sealed/open larvae. We do the nucs with the entrance
close with a sponge. Our nuc boxes have an inch hauger (?) hole on the
back, by the inside this hole have a mesh, so it is only for
ventilation (no bees can move through it) We use this hole to AN gas
the nucs. We gas the nucs after we have placed the queen caged inside.
After gasing and while bees are sleep we take the queen out of the
cage and "drop it" between the frames and on top of the bees (remember
that the queen is also sleep). We close the nuc and open the entrance.
> are you saying that the field bees in those nucs will NOT fly back to the
> parent hives after they wake up?
So yes I do not pretend with the gasing that the bees do not return to
their original hives (parent for you, mother for me), we use the AN
gas for inserting the virgin or mated queens fast, without having to
go to the same yard again.
But on the other hand, most of the time, we do not notice a huge
reduction in population, so the AN gas is doing part of that trick.
And as said before, we have used a couple of times the gasing for
changing the foraging behaviour of the colonies, or for moving
colonies a couple of meter aways from their current position to a
newer one close by. And we have seen that it works.
It doesn't work on a 100%, because some bees will return to their
original position or keep their former range, but the results are
quite interesting, enough to keep the AN as part of our toolbox.
Hope I have answer your questions in my paranormal style .... did i
told you - I love you too?
Cheers
Juanse Barros J.
APIZUR S.A.
Carrera 695
Gorbea - CHILE
+56-45-271693
08-3613310
http://apiaraucania.blogspot.com/
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