At 12:00 AM 7/30/2007, mark berninghausen wrote:
>On the other hand I will quote the reaction of a long time 
>successful commercial beekeeper who when asked about his opinion on 
>CCD said, "Work your bees. Good old fashioned beekeeping is what 
>will carry you through. Work your bees."


As a very small hobbyist beekeeper (who still feels like a rank 
beginner after 4 years) I am wondering about what parts of "working 
your bees" are for increasing honey production, and what parts are 
specifically for maintaining hive health? Of course maintaining hive 
health is crucial for honey production, but things like moving frames 
around to prevent swarming, feeding early in the spring to get 
numbers up, reversing brood boxes in the spring, and even requeening 
strike me as being mostly for the purpose of maximizing honey 
production, not keeping the hive healthy. By healthy I mean able to 
put by enough stores for their own use, and survive and thrive from 
year to year with enough build up to swarm occasionally and keep up 
the local population.

So it seems to me that if one were "working your bees" for hive 
health alone, with no thought to maximizing honey production, there 
would not be much to do besides inspection, monitoring and -- 
depending on one's beekeeping philosophy -- treating for 
diseases/pests. Maybe swapping out broodnest frames for fresh 
foundation occasionally to keep pesticide residues down. Am I missing 
something here? What other "work" has the result of keeping/making 
the hive healthier -- which does not necessarily mean any more 
productive than necessary for the bees themselves -- and more 
resistant to CCD?

I'd appreciate others' thoughts on this. Of course I realize that 
most of us wouldn't be going through the whole exercise of keeping 
bees if we didn't get at least some honey for ourselves, but I'm just 
curious about the reasons for what we do, and what "working your 
bees" means in the context of CCD prevention.

Thanks,
Diotima


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If there is a better solution...find it"    Thomas Edison

Virtual Assistance: The better solution for small business.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Diotima Booraem, CPVA
Virtual Executive Assistance
http://www.virtualhelp.biz
E-mail:  [log in to unmask]
            

******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at:          *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm  *
******************************************************