In a message dated 18/08/04 13:35:25 GMT Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<<As far as bees surviving quite well in the wild, true. But the key word
is survive. If we operated on that principle (which has been championed
on this list in the past- by those who not longer post) we would be out
of beekeeping quite early. Or we would "survive" but not get the best
out of our bees. That is especially true for northern beekeepers who are
faced with harsh winters and short summers. We have to practice the most
efficient beekeeping or we will be marginal or end up with a lot of
empty equipment.>>
Yes, but the beekeeper's bee has a number of advantagesover the feral one;
autumn feeding, regular requeening (sometimes), etc. If they survive in what
are basically fairly hostile climates there's not much wrong; my aim is to
take those bees and (hopefully) enable them to do better. Actually the reason
why I don't autumn feed under normal conditions is quite different; if bees are
so ill-adapted they can't winter on what they gather for themselves, I don't
want those genetics around. That may well not apply in regions where bees
are not native, so please don't anyone feel I'm getting at them.
<< I came into beekeeping just when Tracheal arrived and saw quite a few
beekeepers drop out of keeping bees. Their practice was "set and forget"
and tracheal did them in. When Varroa hit, we lost many more Beekeepers.>>
Maybe a 'set' practice isn't always a bad thing. I've been wondering for
a long time why British bees developed resistance to TM successfully, while
a lot of US bees haven't, and at last I think I've found something relevant.
Beowulf Cooper (Honeybees of the British Isles, p. 89) says that while a
'voluntary expert' (unpaid bee inspector) in Lincolnshire, he found that, in
single (National) broodboxes, the proportion of TM-infested stocks among
those which died out over the winter was far higher (no figures given) than in
those which wintered successfully. Colonies with larger broodboxes, however,
did not show this. It seems that TM-infested colonies eat more during the
winter, and in the small broodbox, these tended to starve, thus selecting
against the mite. Please don't anyone think I'm sniping at them, but is it possible
that big broodboxes and heavy autumn feeding are enabling susceptible stocks
to survive, when you'd actually be better off without them or their drones
perpetuating susceptibility?
Regards,
Robert Brenchley
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