From: deelusbybeekeeper <deelusbybeekeeper@excelonline.com>
Date: Sun Dec 17, 2000 9:22pm
Subject: Re: girls on small cells, regressing bees

Hi to all on Biological Beekeeping at egroups:

I wrote:

> > John, why are you watering down the honey instead of just liquifying it?

John wrote:

> To save the bees from foraging for water even, Spring here can be very
> changable days, or hours even. I figure if I feed honey as liquid as spring
> syrup they'll benefit.

Additional reply:

John, this will be bad for the bees as the honey could easily go bad and
then the bees will not respond as you want to the feed! I would not water
down the honey, just liquify it.

I wrote:

> > John, why three day inspections? That would tend to disrupt the bees too
> > much from intended work.

John wrote:

> I'm scared of her running out of space, and swarming off. But you lead me to
> a question I've been meaning to ask for ages...how much disruption is an
> inspection? Some books say inspect every chance you get. Some beekeepers
> only look when they put supers on and remove honey. On good days the bees I
> examine seem content to carry on their business no matter what I do. Other
> days....well you know about those days!

Additional reply:

John, depending upon the time of the year disruption can run from a few
hours to 1-2 days. Normally, the greater the honeyflow, the less the
disruption. Conversely, the more non-existant the honeyflow, the greater the
disruption. Since most non-existant honeyflows occur in winter, this is why
they tell you not to break or tamper with the clusters, because of the
adverse effect it has on bees. Now, during droughts disruption can be severe
too, because if the queen is not laying, and with ample warm weather during
many droughts, colonies will swarm very quickly and then you will need more
bees.

John wrote:

> All my other queens are yellowy/golden or
> syrup colour at darkest. Some dark workers 'tho. Is colour directly related
> to size then (on a natural system).

additional reply:

Yes. It is also related to whether tropical or temperate zone and latitude
and altitude, with transitioning between, triggered by climatic conditions.

Sincerely,

Dee A. Lusby
Tucson, Arizona, USA