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Thread: importation of bees

  1. #11
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    Primary cause = the beekeeper.

    Incorrect varroa management leads to anemic bees which are open to all sorts of infections and illnesses

    Trying to keep weak colonies through the winter brings strong ones down with them - sick bees fly into the strong colonies & strong rob the weak and pick up the infections or by that stage more likely dysentery.

    Not skimping on feeding enough in the autumn (giving the winter bees food in the winter early spring shortens their lives considerably).

    Keeping bees in an area where they can collect a good variety of pollen.
    In Russia winter runs from October to May (thats freezing temperatures down to -35°C) and they keep their bees alive harvest honey and manage varroa.

    Cool site from the Republic of Mari El http://www.mari-el.ru/bee/ second biggest export after wood is honey. Population 800 000. Federal Law section is very interesting.
    Last edited by Calum; 23-06-2010 at 09:21 PM.

  2. #12
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Adam View Post
    I might have missed tha answer somewhere else... The question is, what are the best practices to keep bees alive over winter in Scotland? Why did some do OK and others suffer large losses?
    I doubt if Scottish bees are much different from mine and I agree with Calum.
    Feed generously in the Autumn and treat varroa in time so that the colony can raise healthy bees in the Autumn which will overwinter well.

  3. #13
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Feed generously in the Autumn and treat varroa in time so that the colony can raise healthy bees in the Autumn which will overwinter well.
    ... and if your bees are not in polystyrene hives, insulate the roofs overwinter and especially after the turn of the year in case the weather turns cold. Keep an eye on other diseases too, and treat in time if necessary. Sorted.

  4. #14
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    I'm not starting to wonder if I just had beginnner's luck this winter as I pretty much left them to it with no additional insulation other than a standard wood crownboard. I am intending to add insulation this year so we'll see what happens.

  5. #15
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    Nellie, my view is that top insulation is there only to prevent condensation from forming on the underside of the crown board and subsequentyly dripping onto the cluster. Before OMFs became popular people often increased ventilation by putting matchsticks under the crown board or even removing the crown board completely. Either method (ventilation or top insulation) will help keep the cluster dry and that, to me, is the most important requirement. I don't think cold has any relevance in our climate, particularly if you have native or well-adapted stock.

    Last winter your colonies probably remained dry due to decent ventilation so top insulation would not have been needed.

    Rosie

  6. #16
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    I suspect that cold does matter, particularly after brood raising has re-started. Uninsulated colonies (as all of mine have always been until the last few weeks) will eat up their stores at a much higher rate, but worse than that when they cluster over the brood in cold weather they will be less able to reach distant stores than colonies with a warmer brood nest.

    G.

  7. #17
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    I think insulation might give you a slightly earlier start in the spring but that's no good to me when there is no forage for them anyway. For 7 or 8 years I have kept my OMFs open with wooden hives with just top insulation. I have yet to get more than about 20% winter losses. Last winter was by far the coldest I have experienced and had only 5% losses. 3 colonies were on an exposed, North facing hillside at about 1100 feet with open floors and all came through the winter as strong as any I had. The feed they all consumed was not noticeably different to any other year either (about 20 lbs). I have yet to find any correlation between cold and survivability amongst my stocks but perhaps not all bees are like mine.

    Before I used OMFs I had solid floors with the crown board feed hole fully open and had about the same winter results.

    Rosie

  8. #18
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    Interesting thoughts and, as ever, the joys of asking a question, multiple schools of thought.

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