The barefoot Beekeeper doesn't convince me
I don't mind what people believe but when they evangelise they can lead new beekeepers off in the wrong direction.
Sometimes even experienced people are sucked in
There are cults even in beekeeping it seems
The barefoot Beekeeper doesn't convince me
I don't mind what people believe but when they evangelise they can lead new beekeepers off in the wrong direction.
Sometimes even experienced people are sucked in
There are cults even in beekeeping it seems
The barefoot Beekeeper doesn't convince me
Nor me, but he's apparently making money out of his books and lectures/demonstrations. It's what people want to hear: heavy on emotion and righteousness, low on facts. Imagine the joys of having them just on your doorstep...!
I don't like his approach either but I can imagine a lot worse on my doorstep.Originally Posted by Dan
Rosie
like the moonies or my chickens they are not welcome on my doorstep
I think the matchstick idea lets excess moisture out of the brood box.
A better way is to leave a round plastic type rapid feeder over the feed hole in the crown board (an empty one)
Moisture rises with warm air into the feeder
The moisture condenses on the central cone/cup and then runs down into the feeder bowl rather than back into the hive.
If the bees need water they can come up for it but they are only likely to when the stores are something like crystallised rape honey.
Most likely winter problem is too much moisture due to condensation rather than lack of moisture I think
Look out for my book "The Threadbare Beekeeper" coming soon
Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 04-10-2011 at 11:23 AM.
I do, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Some of them formed a group in Bristol, high on the above, low on practical beekeeping experience. There's now an offshoot group who still want nothing to do with the BBKA but who appreciate that meetings concentrating on just what a bunch of gits the rest of us are and the evils of anything but putting bees in a top bar/warre hive and then ignoring them is doing nothing for the health of their bees or their enjoyment of beekeeping for that matter. So within our bit of Bristol they're putting together an informal support group, I might just wander along.
I don't actually have a problem with either Warre or Top Bar Hives, it's the mythical properties bestowed upon them and the smug righteousness of people who've never kept bees that goes with them from some quarters I object to.
interesting idea.A better way is to leave a round plastic type rapid feeder over the feed hole in the crown board (an empty one)
Moisture rises with warm air into the feeder
The moisture condenses on the central cone/cup and then runs down into the feeder bowl rather than back into the hive.
Epoxy coated wire mesh cuts with scissors doesn't rob heat and impervious to acids
.450 Black Epoxy Coated Galvanised Mild Steel aperture is 2.72mm
JT wirecloth advertise in SBA and Beecraft they cut it to size
http://www.jtwirecloth.com/prod06.htm
Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 04-10-2011 at 12:53 PM.
Not impervious to the blow torch though, although would certainly have done the job in my correx nucs.
I cut my sheet of galvanised stuff into little pieces with the angle grinder yesterday.
The Beeless Beekeeper would be a better title for the book, as he loses his stock over and over again in mortal combat with the mite using nothing but icing sugar and lard patties. Cutting edge on the biobees site. Maybe the deep fried Mars bar could be spread on a little card like Apiguard and placed over the winter cluster. Nothing like a culture specific solution to the varroa problem.
Interesting that Dan and some of the other commercial beekeepers use solid floors. I have often wondered how many mites slip to their doom through the mesh. I have at least half a dozen colonies on solid floors and they seem happy enough. I have never noticed any difference in varroa levels between mesh floors and solid floors.
The barefoot Beekeeper doesn't convince me
I started beekeeping last year having read The Barefoot Beekeeper (amongst about 20 other books) and attended our local BBKA apiary..
I have 4x TBH and two warre hives ( one with OMF, one with solid floor) but am by no means wedded to all the ideas espoused in the book. It must be obvious to anyone that an insulated roof is better than a non-insulated one and a floor needed in very cold and windy weather.. So I ignored part of his instructions and did so.
After a -18C winter and snowdrifts I am glad I did.
I insulate on top of the TBH topbars - with carpet underlay and then have an insulated roof. And shut off the OMFs with a (loose fitting ) plank. I did get condensation - on the walls - which ran down and out the gap in the plank/hive boundary and froze to a rather fetching 100mm long icicle.
Both hives survived.
The Warre plan based on the sawdust roof is imo based on 1800s technology so I use a fully insulated (100mm of roof insulation board) , Will be interested to see how it survives.
The matchstick thing I read. I mentally dismissed it like the Forager who clearly condemns something without using one.. (In medieval days his attitude would have resulted in drowning witches etc). And the defence of the Forager in this months News basically said the Forager was wrong.
My experience of beekeeping is there is a lot of learned knowledge but also it's treated as a craft and not a science. I am still a member of the BBKA but they print a load of conventional stuff which is in my view out of date and outmoded by modern materials.
The unwillingness of UK beekeepers to adopt insulated hives is a case in point.
For the record I have just finished construction of my first fully insulated 4 foot TBH...hinged roof and fully insulated floor.
(Unfortunately too late to fill this year )
Be interesting to see how it goes.
( I trained as a physicist so a lot of what I read and see in beekeeping is anathema .. )
Last edited by madasafish; 04-10-2011 at 02:03 PM.
They do sell very similar mesh made from stainless steel without the epoxy coating.
There is a kind of lemming like view that the only bees with varroa resistance are survivors of the "live and Let Die policy " as Pam Gregory calls it.
That's just wrong Les Bailey made the point that any bees challenged by disease over a long period will develop some resistance.
Logically if bees are exposed to mites whether you help them by treating or not they have the same chance to develop resistance (if that is possible)
The notion that survivor bees are better has been dis proven in the attempts to breed for resistance to AFB.
Unfortunately for bees Varroa are by nature able to adapt and change more quickly than bees.
You go for it my friend it never hurts to do your own thing.
My only advice would be make sure you kill the varroa which might mean spraying with Lactic Acid this month
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