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Sun, 18 Nov 2007 08:39:04 -0500 |
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>The colonies can then be run on separately or re-united if that would be
>more advantageous. You will have got rid of a high proportion of the
mites at a
>cost of 2 frames of brood; drawn new brood combs; re-queened; obtained the
>extra bees from running 2 queens for a while, and possibly gained an extra
>super of honey while the foundation in the brood box was being drawn.
Chris, Thanks very much for the reply. That sounds almost exactly like
what I'd like to achieve (at least as one option). The difficulty I see is
in the timing and the way things get divided up. When would something like
the above take place? As a swarm prevention measure it seems it would have
to take place before the honey flow, which in my part of the world means it
would have to take place when lows are in the 30s and 40s with occasional
freezing temperatures. If I separate all that brood from the majority of
the bees, it might very well get chilled, and that's probably the most
valuable generation of bees of the whole year, i.e. that's the generation
that makes my main honey crop. On the other hand, if I put more bees with
the brood, then the remaining hive with the laying queen won't draw much
comb and there won't be the comb or the nurse bees for that queen to
continue producing. I could almost just as well kill all my queens and let
all my hive go broodless the month before the honey flow. Is there a way
around this dilemma? The beekeepers that do employ similar methods in the
UK, do they do this in the early spring? Is there less cold during the
main swarm season in the UK? Does this kind of method simply require huge
numbers of bees, where enough bees can be removed to care for 8 frames of
brood and a full, strong colony still left behind, too? Can anyone
envision a solution in a kind of double screen board that would stop the
return migration of the mites, or am I chasing a practical impossibility?
Thanks,
Eric
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