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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Murray McGregor <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 27 Aug 2002 12:57:04 +0100
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In article <[log in to unmask]>, Alan Riach
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Ross's problem comes mainly from going to the heather on a box and a
>half. The bees should be put to the heather on a single deep and a small
>one at that (a Scottish Smith or British National).

Not seeking to pick a fight here, but this is very old fashioned advice,
dating from an era when the only way to handle heather honey was as cut
comb, and thus the supers had to be kept virginal (not bred in) and free
of pollen plugs. It causes a short lived benefit as the bees work
themselves out, but there is not enough hatching brood to replace the
old bees and you get a brief burst of work and then a weak colony. Many
operators, even fairly big ones, still use this system, but it does
institutionalise getting a small crop.

Bees get honey, and with that in mind you want as many of them as
possible. If you can extract this honey, which most now can, you want to
give the bees unlimited laying space, not restricted laying space. And
you need to do it early enough to provide the big boost in bee numbers
in good time for the peak of the heather flowering.

Many traditionalists still say this is wrong and prefer the cramping
scenario, but all the crampers up here this year have from zero to two,
occasionally three, shallow supers of honey (thus averaging about 40lb).
We came back from the heather yesterday and the unrestricted colonies
have three full deeps in many cases, averaging about two (thus averaging
about 70 or 80lb). Best ones are filling their fourth Langstroth deep
and remain strong.

We rip all the excluders off around the start of July and let the queens
run. If we cramped we would no longer be in business due to lack of
harvest.

This effect of double the harvest in unrestricted broodnest over cramped
ones repeats itself year after year.

>At this time of year the bees inclination is to close down brood
>operations and load up the brood area with honey.

True, but you can just extract it, wherever the bees have put it.
'Filling in down' late in the season adds a remarkable amount to the
harvest in unrestricted colonies. As the brood hatches they fill in with
honey and this is all then extracted.

>Next year Ross, one small deep and boiling over with bees and advanced
>sealed brood.

I would suggest a side by side trial. Then decide which way suits you
best.


Murray
--
Murray McGregor

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