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Thread: todays news

  1. #2821
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Emma View Post
    ... Two hives have now turned space-age: I hid one beneath a neat, shiny insulation-foam cover, and crudely wrapped the other one in even shinier 1970s aluminium foil beer bags. An attempt at weatherproofing: in a few months I'll find out whether I've kept the damp out or in.

    My colonies have had their grumpy "Keep Out!" notices up for weeks by now. Aren't yours the same?! ...
    I've had to remove the Apivar strips from the colonies and have been dreading doing so as the weather turned colder and colder - but with today and yesterday's wonderful weather it was easy, and the bees weren't particularly annoyed. They were flying about enjoying the two windless sunny days anyway. Mostly I just tried to pull out the strips without moving frames about, but I did check a couple of colonies that I thought were queenless when I last looked at them about a month ago - and found worker brood! So I'm happy about that.

    Emma, I have polystyrene hives and have no experience of wrapping them, but if you have wooden hives, I think you need to leave a small gap between the wood and the wrapping to allow for any water in the wood to evaporate and, I think, avoid dampness. Perhaps somebody can help out and tell us whether I'm right.

    Kitta

  2. #2822

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    Quote Originally Posted by gwizzie View Post
    Just been up to check on my hives and they are flying well, most of the hives has taken all the sugar syrup that I gave it 2 have not touched it. I know I am new to beekeeping but there taking in some amount of pollen, is this normal ? does this mean the queen is still laying or are they just topping up supplies ?
    Could be a bit of both Graham
    It's a good sign though

  3. #2823
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Interesting graph DR ... either my eyesight is even worse than I thought or you've not indicated the spacing between the OA sublimation treatments? Can you enlighten me, or send me to SpecSavers?

    I did three in a row earlier in September, at 5 day intervals and still had a 'worthwhile' mite drop after the last treatment. Since then, almost nothing.

  4. #2824

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    Quote Originally Posted by fatshark View Post
    Interesting graph DR ... either my eyesight is even worse than I thought or you've not indicated the spacing between the OA sublimation treatments? Can you enlighten me, or send me to SpecSavers?
    From reading the paragraph under the chart it looks like the first treatment was on the 30th of October and the second treatment on the 8th of December...i think.

  5. #2825

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pete L View Post
    From reading the paragraph under the chart it looks like the first treatment was on the 30th of October and the second treatment on the 8th of December...i think.
    Yes Pete thats right
    Sorry about the quality Fatshark heres a link to a PDF which will let you enlarge the graph and read the text hopefully
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4k...ew?usp=sharing

    The dates when the counting got done are not all equally spaced but you can take the drop and divide by the intervening number of days and again by 22 hives to get the average drop per hive if you wanted that info

    The hive number and its colour key is on the right

    I was mainly interested in the whole apiary picture so thats why the stacked bar graph format
    I did the same survey/counting of kill rate a couple of years later but I'm not sure where that graph is filed at the moment
    Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 04-11-2015 at 12:40 AM. Reason: cant spell bad grammar etc

  6. #2826

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    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    Could be a bit of both Graham
    It's a good sign though
    Excellent, they were all flying well today like a mid summers morning. Fingers crossed for a mild winter and a warm spring.

  7. #2827

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    Hi Kitta
    Wrapping hives ?
    Cedar hives don't need painting
    Cheap soft timber needs paint but that's all
    Probably do a lot more harm than good wrapping them in anything
    But hey it's nearly Christmas so a colourful wrapping paper would look nice
    Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 04-11-2015 at 11:57 AM.

  8. #2828
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Thanks DR and Pete (Specsavers here I come). I don't really need convincing about OA vaporisation but the graph is pretty compelling. Presumably the colonies are reasonably brood-free during that period (end-October to early December) so giving the little b'stards nowhere to hide.

    There's clearly a lot of interest in sublimation/vaporisation on the forums (fora?) at the moment. I'm sure it's a lot less damaging to bees than trickling (as well as easier to administer). I've used it almost exclusively this year, including some colonies (not for honey production) that were treated regularly in high season. These had very low mite numbers at the last treatment. None of the queens have been lost and I've no evidence of damaged brood (though, in fairness, I've not done a side-by-side comparison with trickling which is reported to damage brood). I've got perspex crownboards and there's a bit of agitation during treatment, but they settle down within minutes afterwards. I've even treated casts and the virgin Q has got out within a day or so and mated without problem.

    Perhaps the next 'hot topic' should be how long OA persists in the hive and whether it can be used in season - for example, between spring and summer flows - without contaminating honey?

  9. #2829

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    Quote Originally Posted by fatshark View Post

    Perhaps the next 'hot topic' should be how long OA persists in the hive and whether it can be used in season - for example, between spring and summer flows - without contaminating honey?
    Hi Fatshark
    I can't answer that question but I would be fairly confident to say that varroa are still being killed/ damaged 30 days after the treatment because the difference before and after the second treatment isn't huge

    I wouldn't use OA in season except in close to broodless circumstances myself

    Usually in September or thereabouts there will be a brood break in many hives (people worry their queen has gone)
    Also if you use Snelgrove boards the box with the queen and flying bees at split time could be treated
    The problem in those cases though is that bees are still coming and going gathering stores etc

    The best time is when most flying has stopped for the season but before the cluster is very tight (I think)

    It would be simple enough to take the supers off in season because the whole treatment only takes 15mins or so before the vapour has settled as fine crystals in the brood box and on the bees
    It probably wouldn't show up in honey but the treatment would likely be less effective ?

  10. #2830

    Default Today's news

    Beekeepers stung by fake Chinese honey:
    http://www.euronews.com/2015/10/30/p...chinese-honey/

    When a similar topic was posted last week it was labelled as racist by Admin. I hope that Admin doesn't not view this post as such and come out in support of a country that has been the subject of anti-dumping action in the USA.

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