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"Pesticide exposure in honey bees results in increased levels of the gut pathogen Nosema"
from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3264871/

So perhaps Nosema care?

Any sub lethal...

Just needed to clarify we booking queens for end of May and early June at this time. We have the nucs ready in mid May unless otherwise arranged and will take nuc orders until about April 15.

Properly cared for Almond hives should have been fed many times since November... and in which case a crash in progress would have been noticed or possibly prevented... at least it would not be a...

http://chrissladesbeeblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/how-are-the-mitey-fallen/

a report of some success

The same is true in horticulture, however there are IPM strategies that specifically plan for care and consideration of the beneficials such as species specific treatments and host plant nurseries to...

The biocontrol agent from a few years ago was a fungus... Metarhizium anisopliae. I have wondered about predatory mites before as they can be effective in horticultural settings. The question is...

Those would be naturally mated queens and some come from isolated yards, and occasionally some do come from our more open mated yards. This will be the first year we will aggressively pursue II. By...

Does Canada allow Australian bees in?

It should be working, recently checked. Nucs are moving way faster than usual this year.

Thanks for pointing that out. That is 13 year old information on that particular page. Need to do some updating as soon as we are done putting in the almonds. We are at a state now where if we find...

Going back to the subject at hand. We can use two types of analysis for our observations that we use to make breeding decisions; qualitative and quantitative. We really need both to see the whole...

As ptmerrill pointed out I was referring to HYG behavior, using the freeze killed brood assay. I found it interesting that we were able to obtain such results the first time. We reached this point...

" Yet, despite rather easy to follow procedures for assaying VSH behavior, virtually no one is doing it."- deknow

After my conversation with Dr Harbo, this procedure sounds like hours time...

"Perhaps some of the newer (or future) iterations of the program will prove to be persistent....that selection for survival and production are sufficient pressures to keep VSH traits prominent in a...

Good point JWH;

Harbo is Still working, from his web site: "A top priority of Harbo Bee Company was to solve the problem of poor brood production. This was not a common inbreeding condition but...

Being treatment free is no reason not to know what mite levels are. One needs to know if the queen has or is expressing the traits required to keep mite levels down. If she does not have enough VSH...

"It appears to me that when VSH is actually measured and is present at higher frequencies, there is a cost to colony fitness." JSL

The same could be said of Varroa present at higher frequencies. ...

For a hive to express a trait has a whole unit not every bee has to carry the trait. Look at the characteristics of Hyg behavior, VSH, and aggressiveness as examples. So I would say yes there...

Sippy, I don't think the extreme is helpful here. If one is going to go that far then even moving them to a flow or putting them in a box would disqualify. Once the beekeeper is involved in any way...

Perhaps relevant here, a piece on honeybees taste perception thresholds:
http://chemse.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/05/26/chemse.bjr040.full

"The response threshold of these sensilla was...

Sippy: "According to Dr. Spivak.. even feeding your bees would automatically deduct from your ability to make a survivor claim."

Are sure about that? That is not my interpretation, but I may be...

We also monitor for longevity.

Please see our website for pricing: www.oldsolbees.com

We are currently booking queens for the end of May and early June (and beyond). We can accept nuc orders for pick up in Rogue River or...

Drones are half the reproductive equation, swarms and virgins are the other half. I usually see drone cells on vigorous colonies 6-8 weeks before swarm season begins in earnest around here. ...

Good question. Here is what I look for in a breeder queen:
Productivity- Can the hive produce surplus of all three; honey, bees, and Pollen? Don't settle for just one.

Mite tolerance- Can the...