>>>>Peter wrote: I am sorry but those hives are simply not strong hives.<<<<

Let's see if we can get past any flame war and discuss.

Let's assume that Dees' bees are Africanized.  That she is working them at
all should be the lesson, not whether the narrative matches the picture.
That the work goes on without treatments merely underlines what has been
seen in other countries. A friend of mine has worked Africanized bees
without gloves in 3 countries.  Another friend, Bill mares (Bees Besieged)
demonstrated that he finally did so after finding the right bees in Central
America. In Brazil, you couldn't give a European colony away. They are
considered to be reservoirs of mites and disease. My source there with 100
hives told me that 80 percent of his hives were workable and the rest were
psychotic.  So.  It is no secret that African bees vary; that they have
resistance to mites and disease and that they are worked all over the
southern hemisphere and exist in profusion from Kansas to southern GA.  

Peter wrote:

>>>>Fourth box, frames not stuck together, most of the frames have NO bees
on them. The frame where she supposedly sees the queen has no visible brood.
She knocks the queen off before we can see it.<<<<

It sounds like you think the 3 folks involved are being deliberately
duplicitous. What would be the motivation to do that?

>>>>Look, this video is not a video of beekeeping the way it is practiced
generally. Nothing in the narrative agrees with what we are seeing.<<<<

 

I don't have your experience Peter but have made splits with several big
'keepers. This sort of slam-bang approach is exactly what I expected.

 

>>>>The hives are not strong, the bees are vicious.<<<<<

 

And your point would be..? I've taken a lot of bee pictures. It's hard to
see the bees in many of them. If you catch a swarm against the sky sometimes
it can be done. The relative strength of the colonies may not be as
important as the data that they are going from year to year without
treatment. There's certainly enough to be "vicious." I assumed this was at
least in part a set-up so that the camera could show the routine rather than
show the struggle of breaking the seal loose. I have no inside info.

 

>>>>I am VERY SORRY I got involved, but I am tired of false statements being
issued out of ignorance.<<<<<<<

 

If we just change that one thing-that the bees be assumed to be
Africanized-then are we past the false statements? (After all, it is just a
label) Great minds could disagree about colony strength. The data is: there
are bees there that work. Ascribing their success to small cell, housel
positioning, unlimited brood nest etc. may not be scientific but I don't
think that gives you the right to call them false statements if Dee believes
them and you can't prove them false. One large bee man I talked to this year
has 1600 colonies committed to small cell operation in some degree. Others
are watching closely. Put your hand behind you ear. Can you hear the buzz?
The AHBs are coming. 

 

Dick Marron

 

 


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