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Subject:
From:
Bob Harrison <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 11 Nov 2006 20:45:07 -0500
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Hello Joe & All,
I will reply as my quote was the first in your post to P.O.. 

My concern with many beekeeping observations concerns the number of hives 
involved. Many studies published in bee magazines involve as few as five 
hives.

Dan Purvis ( Purvis Brothers apiaires ) which has done as much research on 
survivor bees as any beekeeper in the U.S. and I agree a study needs to be 
ran with at least fifty colonies and a hundred is better. 

My testing of survivor bees was done with three lots of 100 different 
survivor queens and two lots of fifty survivor queens from different queen 
breeders.

I based my statement on four years of observing those five queen lines.
Four of those tests involved Russian bees.

To sum the results up 425 queens kept small clusters and shut down brood 
rearing with every change of the weather. I found a single exception.

In the spring I will see what the offspring are like. She is 
Russian/Russian.

I brought 26 instrumentally inseminated "blue" line Russian queens back 
from Purvis Brothers several years ago. Three of us took turns inseminating 
the queens that day at Purvis Brothers so without checking her number with 
Purvis records I am not sure which one of us inseminated her. Both the 
queen and drone source were from Glenn apairies II Blue line Russian queens.

Her hive wintered on 12 frames of bees last winter and I made two splits 
from the hive this spring. The hive produced over 150 pounds of honey when 
we saw the worst honey production ever in Missouri. Hard to find a varroa 
mite in her hive but every once in a while I can find a varroa in her drone 
brood. The hive has not been treated.

One out of 426. I hate to think what it cost to find her. I put a hive tool 
to the other 25 II queens I brought back ( and many of the other 400).

I read of a beekeeper in Germany which used the "live and let die method" 
and found a single hive alive out of 850. He based his queen breeding on 
the single queen and now has varroa tolerant bees.

I do not know if his bees were prolific or not. I would guess not. I am a 
profit minded beekeeper and not interested in bees which are not prolific. 
I need bees I can rent for pollination.

I look at many hives each year both of mine and other beekeepers.

This week I traveled to Nebraska with two other beekeepers to depopulate 
350 hives considered not worth hauling to Texas. All were started this 
spring as strong splits with new queens.

We took every frame from every hive. one strong/one weak and one in the 
middle. All treated by the commercial beekeeper exactly alike. Privately 
researchers tell me their test hives are similar. Or as a beekeeper says 
when asked of the condition of his hives.

 " Some weak, some strong and some in between"

My point is we can not read absolute truths about beekeeping without field 
trials (with controls) and a large number of hives. Then the experiment 
needs repeating and the results should be the same.

Stress and added varroa pressure lets the queen breeder see which survivor 
line can resist varroa. Dan Purvis adds frames of varroa infested brood to 
hives considered for varroa tolerant breeder queens. I add the stress 
factor.

I have not ever seen a experiment published (other than mine and Dan's) 
which involved stress & adding extra varroa to the hive.

Hives in most USDA experiments sit in a single location by researchers and 
are feed both syrup & pollen patties. The hives of yours, Dee's and Dennis 
M. are never moved. Are never placed in areas of thousands of varroa 
infested hives with drifting drones.

Dennis Murrel has suggested I test small cell. He has suggested a way I can 
test on a large scale with a small investment so I believe I will do the 
test next spring. 

I am going to take 25 pounds of small cell foundation and wire into new 
frames ( yuk!) and place in super strong hives at the height of brood 
rearing in May. Two to a hive or around 80+ hives involved. Once drawn and 
the queens lay in I will go in and pull pupa at the purple eye stage and 
observe and see what you are seeing ( or not).

Dennis says the experiment is worth doing and I should see what you small 
cell people are seeing.

Comments? 

Sincerely,
 Bob Harrison
 Missouri
" Show me state"

 

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