[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])   writes:

We may  think about giving the bees a vacation once and while to  recover
 
Medhat has a good point.  It reminds me of cattle. I grew  up in cattle 
operations.  We fed out 1100 head of beef one year,  but  eventually went to 
dairy cows.
 
There may be some parallels here between beef versus dairy cattle  that may 
be somewhat analogous to pollinator versus queen breeder/package  
operations.
 
First, beef cattle operations often run very large numbers of animals,  
similar to big pollinator operations with thousands, sometimes tens of 
thousands  of colonies.
 
Range cattle are often fed out in a feedlot just before going to market  
(that's what we were doing with the 1100 cows).  We only had a cursory  
awareness of individual animals, and when one got sick, it was hard to spot  until 
 it was so severe, one would notice it in the crowd.  I've  had discussions 
with feedlot veterinarians who wonder if some of our  technologies could 
help them spot sick cows earlier in feedlots.  
 
With pollinators, bees have to be moved, fed, graded, etc.  Its  
challenging to check every colony, much less do it frequently.  So,  problems like 
varroa build up may not be noticed in the early stages.
 
With dairy cows, one sees each animal twice a day.  If she was eating  in 
the morning, off feed by evening, you knew - so we had the benefit  of very 
early intervention.  I see somewhat the same with queen  breeders.  Although 
they may work on a large scale, they tend to be more  aware of what's 
happening on a day to day  basis, seeing the insides of a  high proportion of 
colonies on a frequent basis - at least during  their main season.  And then, 
most let their bees make a honey crop, don't  put them on the road for 
pollination.   So, their colonies do get the  'bee-equivalent of a vacation' - time 
to settle down to making honey, caring for  brood.  They are not being  
pushed to pollinate where food resources  are often minimal, and where next 
week, you're somewhere else, trying to  keep things together.
 
Second, beef cattle matings etc. are timed for the herd as a  whole.  No  
one is milking the cows, and some don't live  long  enough to reproduce.  All 
a beef cow has to do is jump start a calf  and grow, put on weight.
 
With dairy, you  have to be on your mark with matings, or your  schedule of 
rotation gets off, and your  production starts to fluctuate too  much (one 
wants to plan how many cows are producing milk each month).  We  ran dairy 
cattle on a year schedule - mate, milk, milk, give them a  break, drop calve, 
milk again.  We couldn't just milk the cows 12 months a  year.  We had to 
give them a break (dry them up) for a period each year  before they dropped 
the next calf.  Ignore this, you burned  them  out,  production went down, 
health problems went up.
 
Beef on the other hand get a break - of course many aren't kept for much  
time - there are financial trade offs with obtaining calves versus   selling 
for beef.  That's why near aluminum smelters, I've worked with  cattle 
suffering from fluorosis - teeth go bad, joints get flouride deposits.  Worst 
case, cows is on its knees.  But not a problem with beef cattle - too  short an 
exposure time.  But it hits the dairy cows - continuous exposure  over 
years.
 
Finally, with dairy we pushed the nutritional limits - shots of high  
protein feed, mineral and vitamin supplements (no antibiotics though - when we  
raised cattle, that idea hadn't taken hold).  Over do protein and you  
started having problems.  Same has been shown with protein supplements and  bees.  
Too little or too much, each can have deleterious effects.
 
Quality nutrition is, in my opinion, one of the major problems facing  
beekeeping.  Monocultures and cultivars for maximum yield  without  considering 
attractiveness to bees or the amount and quality of the nectar and  pollen.  
I have seen some anecdotal evidence of the other extreme,  supplements too 
high in protein - there can be a toxic effect.
 
 
So, I can relate strongly to Medhat's suggestion that bees need a  
vacation.  Smoot Honey in MT goes to the extreme here; sell off shakes in  fall, go 
through winter without any bees, re-stock in the spring, and produce  the 
healthiest and best producing colonies I've seen in years.
 
Jerry

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