It would be interesting to know how well your walk away's do vs your purchased queens. It's too early to draw any conclusions, but it would still be interesting.
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It would be interesting to know how well your walk away's do vs your purchased queens. It's too early to draw any conclusions, but it would still be interesting.
Excellent question. Of my top 7 producers, 4 were splits with new B. Weaver queens. 1 was an older purebred Purvis. 2 were Weaver Mutts, walk away splits last year. The other 15 producers were 8 new B. Weaver queens this year (either splits, or requeened) and 7 mutts, all walk-away splits last year.
This year, with no money for new queens (and no real need because of requeening and new queens last year), I plan to do mainly walk-away splits.
Regards,
Steven
WOO HOO!!!! I'm a very happy camper!! :banana:
Just checked the colonies for the first time this year. First the caveat...in post 98 I indicated I entered Fall/winter 2011 with 34 live colonies - was actually only 32. 4 at home, 21 in one out-apiary, and my 7 Russians in another out-apiary. I lost only 2 this winter! That is a paltry 6 per cent loss. Of the remaining 30, I have to feed 5, as they feel very light. All the others are very heavy with stores still, and all bees are bringing in pollen. So, we'll see what this year brings. May you all have such good fortune!
and this is treatment free, on large-cell foundation or foundationless.
Regards,
Steven
Great news! I do hope that my fortunes are as good as yours but will not count on it yet. Old man winter may still have a trick or two up his sleeve. So far, it is looking very good for me as well.
Great job. Look forward to hearing more.
I wish I could take all the credit, but the reality is, the success is more than likely due to the genetics and quality of the bees.
Regards,
Steven
What advice would you give to newbees wanting to do what you're doing?
:D I've been giving it in most of my posts, Sol!
1. Buy your bees/queens from a breeder who does not treat. Period. No kind of treatment for mites, not even soft.
2. Do not treat. No matter what anyone says, IF you've done #1. You don't even have to do mite counts, IF you've done #1. And perhaps this is my greatest heresy - I've never done a mite count. Never plan to. :lookout: I figure my colonies have mites, but the bees know what to do. After all, I've bought "survivors".
3. Don't try anything fancy the first year or two...go with the basics, Langstroth equipment, basic management skills. Learn to keep your bees alive. Master the basics. You can pick up an old bee book cheap, read it and master it. In the second or third year you can begin to play around, if you wish. Too many forget it is the basics that do more than anything else to help a colony thrive.
4. Realize you are going to lose hives. So what? Everyone does. Get over it, do a post mortem on the dead hive, learn from it, start over.
5. As soon as you feel comfortable, go without gloves. That will lessen your fear of the bees, make your movements more deliberate, and make you more confident. Yes, you're going to get stung. So what? They're honeybees for heaven's sake. (if for some reason your health mitigates against this, ignore this point.)
Sol, rightly or wrongly, I think most newbies latch onto the latest fad in beekeeping, when more losses are caused by mismanagement and simply failing to master the basics. As most of us who have been around a bit know, there is no magic bullet. Beekeeping is hard work today. But man alive, it sure is fun and rewarding!
More than anything else, I attribute my success to the genetics of my bees, and the various sources from which I've acquired them.
By the way, I got my first arthritis treatment of the year yesterday. Even let the stinger pump all the venom into my left hand...I guess I'm becoming masochistic...oh...wait! Beekeepers are by nature masochistic! :lpf:
Regards,
Steven
There's always new newbees. Some things bear repeating, concisely and directly.
I also got my first stings of the year this past week. Not nearly as painful as the first of the season usually are. :thumbsup:
I think my bees do all the hard work and I appreciate them not stinging me when I steal the fruits of their labor.
Don't you feel not treating reduces most of the work a beekeeper has to do?
Some, by no means most.
By not treating, I don't spend time on acquiring and installing chemicals. Nor do I spend time on mite counts, or anything else related to treating or mites. Having never done those things, I don't know how much time I've saved, but know I have saved some. From the pros here, I've learned how to inspect a hive by watching the entrance. Minimizes the number of times I have to open the colony. Experience also teaches the time of the year I must get into the hive.
And of course there are those times when I simply need my fix, and go thru a colony.
Regards,
Steven
Any harm in giving us their names, member names if they are anonymous?Quote:
Originally Posted by StevenG
StevenG -- Without your management practices the genetic potential of your bees would never be realized. They are just living and dying like they have always done. Bees have been dealing with them longer than we have been keeping bees. New challenges always come along. Give yourself credit for giving them all they really need, a place to live, and decreasing their stress by only getting into the hive when needed. :thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by StevenG
I hope I didn't quote too much...Quote:
Originally Posted by StevenG
I'm not sure if he's right or wrong but I think it was Roger Moore that stated that the stinger dumps basically all of it's venom at the time of the sting and that the pumping action seen is not actually pumping venom but is the barbed stinger digging deeper to give the venom a deeper entryway.
Mechanically that doesn't seem possible.
You're probably right, bird. Morse is the only person I've heard mention that. Here is a link to what Dave Cushman presented on his website regarding the sting/stinger...nice drawings and info...
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/stingstructure.html
Well, now I'm beginning to wonder if it was Morse that may the statement above...I'll have to keep digging to find that one....or else I dreamed it up!
From what I've read, the pumping action continues to shove the barbed stinger deeper, at the same time it pumps venom into the "victim."
But the reality is, it takes a certain amount of foolishness :lpf: to stand there and watch the venom sac do it's work. I didn't have my reading glasses on, so didn't get a good view of what was going on, but the stinger sac seemed to change from beginning to end of the pumping cycle. Seemed to whiten up and flatten out towards the end, before I scraped it off.
Regards,
Steven
Ace, the harm would be in embarrassing myself by leaving someone out....there's about a dozen I trust and read their posts regularly. I will mention five by name, and tell why, with apologies to the rest (in alphabetical order):Quote:
Originally Posted by Acebird
Crazy Roland - met him this past summer, neat guy, 5th (I think) generation beekeeper. Went out of his way to drop by and talk bees.
Grant - doesn't post much, lives 90 miles from me, met him, bought his e-book. Makes a lot of sense, always enjoy him.
Mike Bush - don't need to say much about Mike and his value to our craft. To those who haven't checked out and read his web site, do so.
Sqkcrk (Mark) - Another beekeeper whose work mentors newbies with solid guidance and counsel.
Ted Kretschmann - a couple of years ago Ted and I got into a discussion here on the forum about commercial beekeepers going treatment free. We have a steak dinner riding on a bet. I said it would happen in 10 years, he said it would take longer. When I retire and have time to drive down to see Ted, I'm going to collect that steak, or have a good time paying off on the wager.
I really regret not having time or space to list all the others. But for the newcomers to our craft, get and read anything by Richard Taylor, also the two "Bibles" - ABC's of Beekeeping, and The Hive and the Honey Bee. And subscribe to at least one of the magazines.
Again, there are others, (ah, like Walt Wright!) but my mind has gone blank this morning...
Regards,
Steven
What doesn't seem possible?Quote:
Originally Posted by Acebird