Hi Lloyd & all

> But, I wish I had a local mentor who could help me through
> the first few years

Not wishing to attract flak here, but I reckon you need someone who is not
local, that can identify some of the errors that have crept into US
beekeeping.

Let us examine comb replenishment... Many US beekeepers lay claim to having
much comb that is old and 'hard as boards', indeed they consider such comb
as a capital asset.

This old comb represses the vigour of colonies, so in order to keep up the
cropping ability, they select strains of bee that produce very large numbers
of bees, instead of replacing the old comb.

The need for high numbers of bees leads to a requirement to have a larger
winter population than the bees would choose for themselves and this in turn
leads to unstable wintering and huge consumption of winter stores.

The winter stores have to be fed to the bees, which is time consuming and
costly.

It is not the number of bees in a colony that gains the maximum crop, but
the number of bee foraging journeys.

A tough bee that can work longer hours per day and still live for more
working days than an Italian bee can gather a crop just as large, but with
many fewer bees in the box.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)

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