Re: Checkboarding
Mike:
I plead Guilty As Charged. Would prefer the concepts be considered as conclusions based on observations, but will accept "story" with the caveat that it's not fiction. Spent a lot of years reading comb content to reach those conclusions and have confidence that they are accurate.
I've spent a lot of years reading combs, too Walt. And swarms. And I still figure that facts without proof are stories...sorry. With all your comb reading over all those years, how can you say that a repro swarm is any different that an overcrowded swarm?
You talk about bees in the wild. Follow what the bees do. I agree. But bees in the wild have limited cavity space. They can only expand so far before they hit the limit and swarm preparations start. You keep bees in the configuration...shallow, deep, shallow. To me, that imitates bees in the wild...too small a cavity. So, try keeping bees with a prolific queen in a too small cavity...wild or kept. Yes, they act exactly the same.
I don't want to keep wild bees, or keep bees by wild bee methods. I would not...no...could not ever keep my bees in shallow, deep, shallow configuration. My minimum broodcount for breeder queen selection at reversal at the beginning of Dandelion is 9 frames. I have many colonies with 10-12-14 combs of brood at reversal. There isn't room in a s-d-s to hold all that brood in the spring, let alone all summer. I would surely argue with what you call success if all it meant was that a colony survived the year. Survived because they had all the traits to do things right. The strategy surely servs them well...if survival is the only goal. And, I guess the wild colony in a tree somewhere does have just that goal.
How reversal crowds a colony...interesting theory. You're talking your wild hive again with a limited cavity. Your colony expands to the honey dome...or as I say cavity limit...and starts swarm preps. Ok I agree. At that point...just before backfilling, you say the colony has reached it's peak and never reaches that level of brood rearing again. That's if you permit them to do it their way. Why would you? The level of brood rearing can be maintained over the entire season with prolific queens that have ample laying space that isn't in competition with incoming nectar. To me, reversing and proper supering are intergral parts of building population.
You say that reversing will extend the period of increased brood volume that wouldn't be there if the bees followed their normal timeline. Well duh! And I want them to extend that period. I want them to build huge honey producing colonies. And you say that the beek might stumble, so he/she better not try. Why? We're all incompetant? Beekeepers kept bees for centuries and never had the foggiest? After all those centuries along comes one beekeeper to set us all aright. The experienced beekeepers of all time and all the literature that has come before us had it wrong. What's wrong with this picture?
I would still like some questions answered...with facts.
1. How can you say that reproductive swarms are different than overcrowded swarms. This seems to be the basis of your thesis. What science can you show to prove your point. A rose by any other name is still a rose. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a repro swarm??
2. When checkerboarding that super above the active broodnest...why not just place an empty super of combs beneath it..and above the active broodnest. Would acomplish the same thing without handling frames.
I don't mean to be so picky. Some might say I'm being a PITA. I'm an experienced beekeeper with many years behind me. One of them that doesn't know the truth, 'cause only one beekeeper knows the real answers. I'm insulted by your attitude.
I'm not saying that CB won't help in nectar management. Sure it will...especially when the broodnest isn't large enough to build a big populous colony. The bees have to go somewhere with the nectar. I am being told that reversing the broodnest will somehow negatively effect the colony. Make them crowded?? Really?? Not if you super properly.
I didn't write the nectar management theories fostered by WW. I'm only reading the thesis and trying to understand. I'm being told that my method is wrong...because I'm not allowing the bees to follow their normal timeline? Why would I if it means swarming, restricted broodnests, and smaller honey crops?
I'm only asking for answers to my questions about the "never before known" management and theories of the author. I very much doubt that they will be answered.
Respectfully submitted
Michael Palmer
French Hill Apiaries
St. Albans, Vermont