I have to admit, a polite and pleasant Jim, was not what I expected....
> You can hive a hive full of honey and brood starving to death for
> protein.
There are many edge conditions that can only be detected by beekeeper
examination, but if a hive is full of honey, yet lacking protein, one would
expect the entire yard to suffer the same symptoms, and examination of any
hive in the yard would reveal the problem, assuming that one can notice this
at all. I've seen undersized newly-emerged bees, but this is a little
"after the fact". I have not heard anyone explain any other way to detect
this before the damage is done - could you tell us your method?
Look at the brood pattern, examine the pollen band, and the wetness of the
brood, and the color. There are some great slides out there showing it.
It is the way to inspect. I don't recall who taught me to read nutrition
this way, might have been Randy, or some othewr large commercial guy, but
brood planning and hive nutrition for that brood is what makes a beekeeper.
Not how much honey the weather and forage allows.
.
Another happy convert to data-driven beekeeping!
At risk of sounding like a Mastercard commercial, "What's in YOUR notebook?"
You made some interesting points, but you haven't closed the sale.
Whats the point? For the average beekeeper? Why is the scale the way to
go instead of opening the hive? What is it the scale does that helps? I
can see the flow, I can see hive activity, I can see swarming. Tell me
what a scale does for me?
I see it as a curiosity, kinda neat to see how much they can put on in a
day, how much is honey (after drying) or how much a hive can consume. But
these are all things I have to learn to correlate first, and while I am
learning what all this means I realize just open the darn thing and
look....
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
