You remember the previous post about the “multiple test”(MT)-colony, natural positioning, plastic frames, a mouse (or mice), mild winter and what a good condition this colony came out with now in spring. I’ve been thinking about it. Mild winter Yes
Marco Moretti made a valid comment to the sugar shaker post. It doesn’t surprise me that Antonio Nanetti found checking mite populations besides a real treatment is unreliable. It is many factors making the results uncertain. Why beekeepers want to
I wrote about counting mites recently. Even if I don’t, others do, and sometimes it gives information that may help you make a decision. John Harbo mentioned when he lectured in Sweden in May 2013 that before choosing the method
Rüdiger Dietrich’s comment is so good I made it into a post of its own as well. Thanks Rüdiger! As a German I have of course to answer to Eriks contribution “Breeding for Varroa resistance: Germany versus USA”…:-). When commenting
When I first read that bees don’t uncap and clean out drone pupae, as they do of different reasons with worker pupae, I was a little bit surprised as I saw it ‘all the time’. Then I read it another
Why treatmentfree bees when you are not treatmentfree yourself? Every stressfactor put burdon upon the bees and lower the immune system. You can’t hinder the farmer from using pesticides, but you can stop yourself. If you manage to do that,
VSH – Varroa Sensitive Hygiene – is a very valuable trait and VSH-test is a very valuable way of finding out if a colony is an eventual breeder colony. You can read about that and my first VSH-test here: http://www.elgon.es/diary/?p=154
A lot of discussion is going on which role neonicotinoides and gmo play for die offs and ccd of bee colonies. A poison is never beneficial, neither for bees nor for man (well, many are used as plant protection). And
Two weeks after the first check after winter ( a week ago) I visited Karin again and checked the colony. See the first post on this subject for a background. But this colony has been on its own on