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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Leendert van den Berg <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 2 Feb 1999 07:19:26 -0700
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 We have been following the discussion on the alternative methods of
treating varroa on the list.
Thank you Christopher for your positive remarks on the methods. We were
hobby beekeepers for over 25 years in the Netherlands and we never treated
for varroa. At first we thought we had to give up our bees, because we
didn't want to use the chemicals. We only used tobacco in the smoker when we
worked our bees. But we decided to give our bees a chance. We quit moving
our bees, let them swarm, caught the swarm and listened for the new queen(s)
to emerge. Then we opened up the other queen cells at night. We only
extracted honey at the end of the season, before feeding. Other members of
our beekeeperclub told us we would loose our bees within three years. But we
still had bees after 15 years ! We probably lost a couple of hives, due to
varroa, but we still kept  four to five hives every year and it looked like
things went better over the years. Leen once noticed some kind of grooming
and we sent an article to the Dutch Beekeepers Magazine and asked if anybody
ever noticed that kind of behaviour. No reactions !
Now we are professional beekeepers in the Peace River area of Alberta,
Canada. We started two years ago and wintered 800 hives this year. The mites
were here just before us and we test and use Apistan. We have a short
intense season in Northern Canada and we have to make a living of our bees
(and make our payments). We asked the extension people for  a  slowrelease
formic acid method, so far no reply. We have been looking on the internet on
the essential oil methods and especially the one that uses hem in the
extender patties looks very attractive as we use the unmedicated patties to
try to keep the tracheal mite infestation low, but we don't know if this
method is allowed in Canada.
From  the beautiful Peace county
 
Leen and Maria van den Berg.

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