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From:
Don Semple <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 3 Oct 2012 11:14:02 -0400
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Interesting.  Sounds good, but there is a lot that is not explained in 
that summary, so I hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions.

 > 40 + treatment free hives, sc, foundationless, 1 1/4" frame widths.

Is this 40+ producing hives?

---   No, 30 + Hives are new this year captures.

What exactly do you mean by sc, especially if the hives are foundation-less?

----  Our local ferals are small and generally draw out brood foundation in the 4.7 - 5.0 mm range. When I catch a new swarm that I don't know the source colony, I use bee size to help determine if they are from a feral source. I sell all the swarms I catch that I think are not from feral sources. So even though I'm foundationless, I'm making sure to keep small bees from feral sources. 

 > Avg. honey production was a little over 80 lbs a hive, which was good

That is over the entire 40+ hives?  i.e. 3,200+ lbs?

---- No, I'm a second year beekeeper, that is the average of the 12 hives I over wintered last year. Not harvesting any honey from new this years colonies, although I probably could have from a dozen or so. Had to robinhood about a dozen supers around to make sure some of my later swarm captures and removals have enough for this winter.

 > September 24/48 hour natural fall mite counts averaged 3 - 5
 > mites. No hives were over 10. Did sugar rolls counts on 8 big
 > two year old hives to double check and mite counts were all
 > less that 3%.

Appreciate the numbers.  A lot of people don't know what they are doing. 
  Seems you do.

---- I'm very impressed with the Randy Oliver's work about the population curve of varroa mites and how to know when your varroa population is to high. I don't want to wait 3 years to know if my hives are going to eventually crash to varroa. Also, when I see I have a hive with mite issues, I force them to requeen themselves, giving them a brood break.

Was that early or late September?  How much brood was in the hives at 
that point in time?  When is you first real frost?

--- Mid-september - 90% of the hives were in good shape with lots of brood. Had about a dozen that I combined that were weeker or recovering from late summer supercedures. First real frost should be in about 3 weeks.

 > Manage them like they would live in the wild, no feeding, no swarm 
controll, no splitting.

But supering and honey harvesting happens, I assume?

---- Yes, I super. And next year I will be opening up brood nest and/or reversing some boxes for some swarm control. Our early swarm season proceeds our main flow by about 6 weeks and I don't think production was hurt that much by swarming, althought it sure kept me busy catching my own swarms ;).

What is the annual mortality?

--- About 25%. I lost 2 out of 14 hives last winter and 2 out of 6 nucs. The nucs died of starvation, 1 large colony succumed to varroa, 1 had a late supercedure that didn't take and I missed knowing it was queenless. This year I've lost a few late cutouts and a half dozen or so late afterswarms, no large colonies. 

 > started with all local feral survivor stock that I've caught.

40+ is a lot of hives to have just caught in a non-AFB location.

--- We have a thriving local feral population. I did 16 cut outs and caught about 30 swarms this year. If I didn't have a full time job, I could have probably doubled that.

That sounds like a lot of work.  How long have you been at this?

2nd year beekeeper, still have gobs to learn. I've tried to follow Michael / Dee's plan as close as I can because I don't know what I'm doing well enough to change anything.

Don

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