I'd need to see whether you are referring to an outdated chart, but as I recall, my most recent chart indicated the theoretical proportion of the colony population that could devote itself to honey processing (nectar collection, nectar receiving, comb production, and nectar ripening)--not just foragers.. A colony requires roughly an equal number of mid age bees to foragers, in order to receive and transport incoming nectar. And then more mid age bees to build comb.
Not sure which one it was either, Tim Ives had linked to it on Facebook. Several of us have been discussing and debating this on other forums.
For me, I am trying to figure out how to package the message. I run for honey in the summer. Not a fan of being up all night moving bees for pollination gigs. So honey for me. Towards that I have studied read and benchmarked several From Killions, to Tim to Ron Housholder, as well as a few others. What I have learned is there are only a few who have really mastered honey production in their regions.
One thing that seems glaring is the region/forage matters a lot in this formula. Singles/doubles or even triples, 2 queens or single, leave queens in, or pull for honey flows? Lots of options I have tried and explored.
For my region double queens are a non starter. To make sense you would need to make MORE than 2 times the honey to warrant the grief. Not been able to even hit double the honey on a regular basis yet. Although they do look great and produce well, its not be in proportion for me.
"unlimited broodnest" The Concept Tim uses, is also a no go. First of queens will only fill those boxes for a few weeks in the spring, and as soon as out nectar flow stops or slows, they suck down all the honey and brood nest shrinks. Tim swears its my queen stock, but given Dr. Seeleys work and the math we know about queens laying ability, it seems to be a tough push. In fairness I have devoted a bit of time to it, with zero success. No unlimted hive has yet produced more than 60-70 lbs. I did have one swarm a few season back that did this and pushed close to 300, but never again.
Doubles, also a bad choice for max numbers here. Bees do well, but it seems they really get "comfortable" with that hive size. Throw on a super and they will usually fill it, and part of the top deep, many will completely fill the top deep, and the super, but usually only about 1/3 of them. Many will also brood in the top and super and skip the bottom box quite a bit. Walt wrote about this quite a bit 15 years ago. And what he wrote seems to fit my area also.
Singles, for me without any hesitation is the way to go. I come back from CA with doubles, we make one split and an excluder and super up, starting with 2 supers. Close attention paid to space and bearding. As they beard out, supers are added. Slowly as to avoid beetle issues. This setup for me, added with multiple pulls of honey, is pushing 150 this season on the hives managed this way. Last pull should be next week, and back to doubles for CA pollination and spring splits again. Ron has taught me keeping that queen down in the bottom on solid bottoms keeps pretty close to wall to wall brood most of the season. The hives managed this way, all look great. Hives done other ways are not nearly as good looking right now, with most of the doubles being in trouble.
So this concept of "how many bees" and the right ages is been a point of serious efforts for the last 4-5 seasons for me. I would love to have a good counter to study that and the effects of moving hives, but so far that’s been a bit elusive.
Charles
***********************************************
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
|
