[JWPalmer]

Bill Hesbach posted a link to this paper on Bee-L yesterday. The research, conducted over a six year period of time, shows that spraying your hive with 100% cow urine can completely cure a hive of EFB and promote better overall hive health. Uh, anyone willing to give it a field trial here in the US? Squarepeg?

https://www.asianagrihistory.org/pdf/volume19/ruchira-tiwari.pdf

 

[jim lyon]

Very odd but the experiment and experiences described sound pretty legit. I was, however, left wondering what a chemical analysis of the urine used as opposed to other urines might reveal. I would submit that if one could synthesize the component or components that combat EFB to be used as the treatment would be far better from a public perception point of view. Pretty sure this isn't going to help the image of the purity of bee products from hives that have been treated with urine.

 

[crofter]

Not so many years ago pregnant mare urine used to be commercially collected for hormone production; estrogen perhaps? It is now synthesized. There might well be something valid in the connection with cow urine and bees.

 

[JWPalmer]

Jim, you read my mind. Isolating the components or active ingredients that actually make it work, assuming that it does, would go a long way in the public perception of purity as compared to "cow piss honey". Sounds like something you would buy at Spencer's, right.next to the Old Fart spray.

The question remains though, do the salts in the urine help combat the EFB directly, or do they provide an otherwise unobtainable nutritional boost that enables the bees to resist the infection and improve overall vigor? Or both? Could this also be why we see bees foraging in fertilized potting soil? Just contemplating the mechanisms...

 

[squarepeg]

"very interesting, but....", the late arte johnson

i am committed to defeating efb but not that committed.

i like jim's idea. too bad they didn't isolate the active ingredient(s).

 

[JWPalmer]

i am committed...but not that committed

:lpf:

 

[Robert Holcombe]

I believe Switzerland is going through a very severe EFB issue for several years. It is strange they would not pickup on this idea and research it. The ugly issue can be "marketed out"

Cow urine contains nitrogen, sulphur, phosphate, sodium, manganese, iron, silicon, chlorine, magnesium, maleic, citric, tartaric and calcium salts, vitamin A, B, C, D, E, minerals, lactose, enzymes, creatinine, hormones and gold acids. Ingredients of cow urine are similar with human body.

 

[crab414]

I wonder if my pig's urine is beneficial in this aspect. Maybe I can claim the pigs on my taxes as a support element for my bees 😁

 

[msl]

Same author did a mite study as well (I wasn't aware of the EFB work till I saw it on bee l) 70%+ mite kill https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/eac1/33002430783ed1b514edb71ca250e7841cc2.pdf

Must be some magic stuff, maby some one should see what happens if you put it in a propane fogger :lookout:k: (joke)

me, I will wait till there are some replicates

 

[Apis Natural]

so one either teaches the cow to pee in a bucket or chase them around all with a bucket in hand...sound fun

 

[crofter]

so one either teaches the cow to pee in a bucket or chase them around all with a bucket in hand...sound fun

Not much warning; when they are ready to go, they are quick on the draw! I've been had!

If the urine is not cow specific, I can think of easier sources!

 

[crab414]

One more reason to drink more beer.

 

[odfrank]

I will stick with Mann Lake Terra patty. Works well and I would have a hard time procuring cow urine. Would my own urine work? Easy to procure and I often have to urinate while in the apiaries.

 

[snapper1d]

I guess this gives a whole new meaning in beekeeping when you say "piss on it"!!!!

 

[grozzie2]

formic acid and oxalic acid already in wide use, why not uric acid ?

Gives new meaning to ppbk, piss poor beekeeping....

 

[crofter]

Its going to mess up calling out someone for PPB! (Pith Poor Beekeeping)

 

[Saltybee]

Apparently it would run along the lines of UTI prevention. Considering the back end of the average cow in a barn, must be more than chance.

 

[Schultz]

This reminds me of story one of my dairyman friends told me. He had about 80 cows in a stancion pipeline system. One of his friends decided a good way to make money without too much work would be to collect cow urine and sell it as deer urine to unsuspecting hunters. So, he shows up at milking time with a 5 gallon bucket and a 12 pack of beer. Doug said he'd see a cow pissing at one end of the barn and by the time he got there she was done. He said this went on for the duration of milking and was extremely amusing! He left with no urine and no beer.

 

[msl]

Wonder what it might feel like to get stung while peeing on a hive vs more normal locations..
luckily Michael Smith of Cornell has done the testing for you Smith ML. 2014. Honey bee sting pain index by body location.

 

[blainenay]

...The research, conducted over a six year period of time, shows that spraying your hive with 100% cow urine can completely cure a hive of EFB and promote better overall hive health....

I wouldn't put anything in a hive that isn't approved by appropriate agencies. Remember, it's a box containing food for humans.