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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
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Mon, 16 Jul 2001 19:15:35 EDT
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John Sewell repeats and coments on Dee Lusby's methods and there is one
aspect which I would lie to pick up.

Dee has reduced varroa and other pests/diseases in her bees so that they can
be managed without chemicals.  She puts this down to a third each of diet,
breeding and cell size.  However there is an important part of her method
which might in itself be a powerful aid to separating bees from their
problems.  This is her repeated shake down method which (as I understand it)
takes all the old brood comb and developing brood from the colony and forces
the bees to start afresh..  Done at the right time this will leave the vast
majority of mites behind and also the fungal spores and bacteria which can
have such a debilitating effect on the well being of a colony of bees.  No
wonder her bees apparently bounce with health.

I wonder whether somebody as a control could shake down equal colonies onto
4.9 foundation and onto standard size and compare how they do over a season
or two.  In the UK  where we have weather rather than a climate the shake
down method is probably not a suitable method but the US where I gather you
have a better idea than we have what the weather will be doing from one day
to the next would be a good place to do the test.

Chris

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