From: "William E. Slusser (Bill)" <catatoniccat@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 05 May 2001 07:29:28 -0000
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: new biological beekeeper Bill

Hello,

My name is Bill Slusser and I am in my second year of beekeeping. I
had two colonies going into the winter and only my Russians
survived. My carniolians died out, I'm not sure why, maybe the queen
failed or they just got to cold in the top bar hive.

I made a split of the carni's around late July as they where doing so
unbelieveably well, even though they were just a package months
earlier. I put three frames of half brood and honey in a lang box
with a new russian queen form Hardiman apiaries in GA. The queen
was execepted with fanfare and things got off to a great start.

Then the comb grew to fill the lang box and I had trouble keeping the
comb attached to the top bar. I had an episode that totaly deflated
me when I inadvertantly killed alot of bees when honey comb fell on
them. I then ordered an insul-hive from dadant and tied the top
bars into wooded lang frames with string.

Fast forward to this year, I opened the hive and they have still to
fully draw out enough comb to fill the lang frames. When they do I
will remove the top bars. Some of the frames are also a bit stuck
together, I will deal with this when they move onto other comb this
honeyflow. I don't want to upset them that much this early in the
year.

Now the original natural comb size was about 5.2 for 10 cells. That
was the Carnolians doing. I will see what the Russians do/have done
with their natural comb. Now the insul hive came with plastic one
piece frames, I will measure 10 cells by next weekend. I am hope they
measure 5.2 and not 5.4 or so. They have drawn some of the plastic
frames out but have yet to use them.

I have just read some of the Lusbys work last week and am totaly
intrigued with this. I have been feverishly searching for more
information this past week and just found this list.

Before this, I came to the conclusion that it would be more cost
effective to just buy another package of bees instead of pouring
money into chemicals, which go against my grain anyway. I am only a
hobbyist with a few hives and you can't seem to order chemical
treatment for only a few hives.

Now I will build and use screen bottom boards, work to reduce cell
size to a natural level for central Illinois. With my beloved Russian
Ladies being somewhat resistant to varroa I may be able to keep them
alive. I will make a split this honey flow and either order another
Russian queen or have the bees raise one. I will also buy some drone
brood foundation to use as a varroa magnet. I'll just use one frame
and do the freezer trick each capping. Maybe I should also buy the
4.9 foundation and use starter strips from that.

I plan to collect more insul hives as they seem to be a very good
hive for cold winters. Having two deep insul-hives the bees should
be warm enough in the coldest winter even with a full screened bottom
board. They should then also have enough air flow.

One thing I did that maybe I should'nt have was cover the entire hive
with black plastic along with using an entrance reducer. But it
worked as they are alive and well. Must have been humid for them
though. I didn't have the entrance covered with plastic, but the
entrance reducer was in place leaving a very small opening.

I sure could use some feed back from all you seasoned vets out their!

thanks newbee biobee,
-Bill