Hello, List,

I just met a beekeeper who evicts the bees from his entire apiary at the
end of each season.  In September, he puts the queen into a shallow super
at the bottom of the hive and isolates her with an excluder.  He then
evicts all bees in October and takes all the honey.  He does not treat
for mites at all and and starts afresh every spring.  He said that
economically, this practice makes the most sense, citing the high cost of
Apistan and weighing the extra income from the honey in the brood box
against the cost of new package bees.  He said that even when he used to
treat for mites and did everything in the book for his hives to survive,
he still lost 75% of his apiary each of the last three winters.

What do fellow listmembers think of this practice?  I think it sounds
horrible, but could it make sense?


Mac Calhoun