BEE-L Archives

Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

BEE-L@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Allen Dick <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Date:
Mon, 2 Mar 1998 03:48:34 -0600
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (71 lines)
> Some of our beekeepers shut down their queens (but usually a month or two
> later than the folks on the coasts).
 
I wonder if you can expand on this.  I'd be curious how they
deliberately shut them down.  I would assume that this would by letting
the brood area get plugged?  How do they manage in order to ensure young
populations in fall, or does the migratory aspect make this less critical?
 
> Like Jim, we estimate a queen loss of 30-50% as not being uncommon in
> these commercial operations.
 
That exactly corresponds to our figures over the year and we aren't
migratory at present.  30% is *minimum* replacement in our outfit. 40% is
our target.  We accomplish replacement mostly by splitting, not hunting
for queens.
 
> However, in eastern Maryland (or eastern Washington) you don't need (and
> may not want) large populations of bees mid-summer or during the winter.
 
Fall populations can be reduced by reducing the hive volume. At least it
seems that way.  When we've reduced large hives in the fall -- I'm
thinking of when we ran two queen hives in 8 standards right through to
September 1st -- to two standard brood chambers, we found that the bees
would not all fit and they hung out all over the place.  A few days later,
the clusters fit nicely into the hives; the clusters were big, but not as
amazingly so as one would expect.  And no, skunks didn't eat the extra
ones AFAIK :)
 
Now, I am *assuming* that the bees diminished in numbers, rather than just
crowding together, but others have said the same: extra bees just seem to
mysteriously go away (and most assume it is the older ones) when the
volume is reduced in the fall.  David Eyre said something about a bee
cluster being like a tropical fish (it is well known that the ultimate
size to which a fish kept in a tank will grow is related to the tank size.
 Move a fish to a bigger tank and it will often grow, even after having
seemed to be full grown).  I like that analogy, although it can get you
into trouble if used to excess or at the wrong time of year.
 
> Here, we still argue whether a large population is more likely to
> survive  a Montana winter (and as such justify the extra honey needed).
> Again, I  like strong colonies.  Our records show a much more
> consistent and  predicatable performance record from strong,
> over-wintering colonies (but  that probably reflects the vagaries of
> keeping bees in this geographical area).  With the advent of the mites,
> this may be even more important -  since most losses occur during the
> fall, winter, and early spring.
 
That is well worth repeating.  The other factor besides sheer numbers
of bees -- and one which is often neglected since we cannot easily
'eyeball' individual bees in the field -- is the age and nutritional level
of the members of that population, regardless of size.  If we were looking
at cows or horses, we could *easily* tell if a herd was likely to survive
winter in good shape: if the herd members were young and well fed we could
see that; if they were old and mangey with bones showing in fall, we could
see that too.  With bees being as small as they are, we mostly just notice
if they are numerous or not. Nonetheless, the experienced eye can in fact
tell a lot about the quality of individual bees and whether they are 'fat'
or 'skinny', young or old.  This is much more important than sheer
numbers, assuming that the numbers are adequate for survival.
 
Hoping to hear more about shutting queens down.
 
Allen
---
FAQs?  There is no BEE-L FAQ - as such - but you can
search for answers to most common questions by visiting
http://www.beekeeping.co.nz/beel.htm
or send email to [log in to unmask] and say
Search BEE-L KEYWORD(S)
('KEYWORD(S)' means a word or words unique to your question)

ATOM RSS1 RSS2