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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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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:
Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:18:00 -0500
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> I recall that Marla Spivak, speaking in a session at Niagara Falls in
> 2002,
> suggested that beekeepers leave a yard or two without treatment and see
> what happens.

Myself , Dann Purvis & Bell Honey in Florida have been doing exactly the
above long before 2002. I can not speak for the others but in my case the
last of the last "leave alone " yards died last spring.
All I ever had were "dinks' which limped along and were unproductive. The
longest lived was a colony I removed from a horse barn. Although only on
several frames of brood & bees the hive lasted five years with varroa and
other issues. The last year I had to toss a super of honey on top for the
hive to survive. The queen was replaced once in the second year. I marked
the queens with numbers.

> Marla is one who has quietly put years of sweat and brainpower into the
> problem of hygiene, with amazing results.

Marla in my opinion has produced the best results with queens commercial
beekeepers want. In east Texas her queens are the most used. Beekeepers
selling cells and mated queens using her breeder queens are in the majority.
We raised over a thousand mated queens from *one* of her hygienic breeder
queens years ago.

Because BEE-L is a mainly hobby list what I say above does not apply to your
hives. keep whatever line you want. Leave untreated if you want. I only give
my opinion from a person which keeps bees for a living and talking to a
retired commercial beekeeper (Allen) with a similar background. Allen and I
are on the same page. The theme of EAS was keeping bees without treatments.
Allen is conveying those researcher thoughts ( plus his own) and I am giving
mine as I was unable to attend


> Bob, I really have no idea how you find time to do everything you seem to
> be doing.

The bees this time of year the bees  take most of my  time. I get up early 
(very
early ) and go to bed usually by nine PM. All outside calls are monitored 
and I only talk to
people after they insist I talk with the people usually a day after they
call. I am in contact by phone with other beekeepers daily and at times many 
times a day when problems arise. The phone works best for me.
 I work on average a couple hours before help arrives and many times hours
after they leave.
I am home today looking after my wife home from a week in the hospital which 
gives me time for BEE-L while she is sleeping. The crew is extracting and 
they work better when I leave the crew alone. They know that when I check 
their work at days end I will quickly know if they have been working or 
playing around.
Due to health issues i may have to sell most of the hives before long but as 
long as I can find help like I have right now I will not. My new companion 
is a small bottle of nitroglycerin tablets. My doctor and I have been 
friends for decades. Actually the most important friend outside of family 
and close friends in my life. Our friendship can be embarrassing as when I 
went Monday for test results I walked into a room full of patients and my 
name was the next name called. my next door neighbor lady in the room looked 
at me like "What gives!" and shook her head
.
I certainly do not have all the answers to today's tough beekeeping 
questions but with forums like BEE-L and others beekeepers from all over the 
world can discuss today's problems and compare notes.

One aspect of many national meetings I dislike is there is  not always  time 
for many questions after presentations and the researcher says he will be 
around the meeting all weekend to answer questions but many never seem to 
be.

bob 

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