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Mon, 30 Mar 2020 14:08:46 +0000 |
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"I have seen exhortations from other beekeepers that rotating old comb out
of the apiary will improve colony health, honey production, etc."
I have seen all kinds of exhortations about bees and any number of other subjects. I was born bone idle lazy when it comes to my bees and lots of other things. I want to do what is really proven and not do anything that is simply a "I hope this helps." I buy what Randy said. Keep that bloody mite count low and supplemental feed protein or carbohydrates as needed. If you do those two things bee keeping is pretty easy. If you do not do those things you have a lot of dead boxes of bees come spring. Now, I will admit I am on a high right now. Last summer I did both the things Randy suggests with real care. I had hives that not only came thru the winter alive but stronger today than they were in Nov. In some cases a lot stronger. I lost one colony out of 19. Overall they look as good as I remember them looking back in the 1970s. Contrast that with a year ago. The prior summer my knee hurt so bad I was hardly walking. I was to the point I was about to drive my lawn tractor down the drive to get my mail. My drive is 80 feet long. I did a really crappy job of mite control and I knew it. I had 35% winter deaths and what was alive did not look great in a lot of cases. Well, 35% deaths is what BIP says is pretty normal. It does not need to be that way. In our local club I have been beating every body up about mite control. Folks who thought 35% was ok and then had a bad winter and lost 60% got the message, in at least some cases, and now their losses are in the teens or even lower. A friend had so many surviving due to swarms and raising more queens than she had room for she was giving colonies away just to get rid of them last summer.
I did rotate out some old brood comb that wax moths had chewed up in a couple of dead hives. Out of 30 frames I must have gotten all of about three ounces of wax! I guess those really were old. The comb was nothing much but propolis and cocoons. That had nothing at all to do with the hive dying. My crappy mite control killed it. I have a bunch of hives with brood comb just like that this spring, except not chewed up my moths, that look great. Nothing at all controlled about this observation. It is simply what I saw.
I really think Randy nailed it. Those following his suggestions are ok and those not controlling mites have lots of dead hives. It is our choice. We either do a great job on mites or decide it is not worth the effort. Fancy and expensive hardware is not likely to save us from ourselves if we decide it is not worth it. I need to be less bone idle lazy and keep up with the program. I find if you stay ahead of mites they are not all that bad a problem. But, let them get ahead of you and it is months to catch up due to all the virus build up that does not go away fast even if you kill every mite. Before mites people did not seem to need to rotate comb and we sure had lots of pesticides back then also. Some at least as bad, if not worse, than what we face today. At least where I live forage if anything is better today than it was back before mites when I could get away with being bone idle lazy.
Is mite control really different than things like changing the oil in your car on the recommended schedule? Or mowing the lawn before the neighbors call the lawn police? Or getting your dog checked for heart worms and giving it a preventative pill once a month? Or staying on your own blood pressure med so you do not have a heart attack or stroke?
Dick
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