Pete and Randy - boy-o-boy I can tell everyone is cooped up at home!
Regarding comb rotation and styles of beekeeping, I have worked all over
Eastern Europe and the Caucuses with beekeepers. Aside from having
wonderful bees, most beekeepers have 100 or 150 hives that are their
primary source of income. Most of them rotate out 3 brood combs a year -
and I am talking big combs in Dadant Blatt (like our old Jumbos) or
horizontal hives. Having seen this comb rotation practice and having seen
Randy's combs on a short visit several years ago I have just rotated out my
old 20-30+ year old combs over a couple of years. I used Duraguilt maybe
25 years ago and I rotated out a lot of old Duraguilt based combs. From a
completely subjective viewpoint I think my bees are doing better. These
Eastern beekeepers still use heavy plain beeswax foundation that they hand
wire into frames using a jig that bends in the frame's side bars and
tightens the wires. If anyone is interested I can post photos on my FB
page.........
Back to Eastern Europe, they also use follower boards and a heavy
telescoping cover with a quilt inside and a lot of them have a sheet of
plastic on top of the frames just under the quilt. Entrances are small with
sliding metal doors that allow the hives to be closed up for moving, as
that is usually done 2-3 times per season.
I can't tell you how many hives we have walked up to, popped the cover and
quilt off, peeled back the plastic, and lift out frames for a look with no
smoke, and the bees just watch us! My Russian mongrels would probably kill
me if I did such a thing. Fascinating working bees in their native
environment. Most of these beekeepers are very meticulous in management -
I don't know about you guys - but I always seem to be in a rush to get
through my bees and move on to the next task. I just retired from full
time work so I am currently taking my time with my bees and really enjoying
it.
Most of the Eastern European beekeepers I visit also remove honey one frame
at a time and brush off the bees, uncap with a cold knife, and have hand
cranked extractors. How much have you spent on your extracting outfit????
Very labor intensive, but, as I tell them over and over, they produce some
of the best quality honey in the world: Acacia (locust), Linden (bassword),
and wildflower. No heat used to process the honey and every comb is
inspected while harvesting. Beekeeping is a very traditional occupation in
very traditional societies.
I still see a lot of horses and oxen plowing land, haystacks and shocks of
corn stalks are common, and livestock is free-range, meaning you see big
flocks of sheep, geese, pigs, and cattle with shepherds and herding dogs.
The downside of open range is the animals eat everything. I am currently
working in Moldova and they are down to 11% forest cover, as tree seedlings
don't stand a chance with open range livestock. The animals also love to
bed down on asphalt roads - warmer on a cool day, and they love to bed down
on bridges - fewer flies I am told. Unlike in the US, if you run into an
animal in the road it is the driver's fault, not the farmer, so we try to
be off the road by dusk!
Cheers!
Bill Lord
holed up in Lousburg NC and practicing social distancing in my bee yards!
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