Natural Beekeeping

[olhillbilly]

Welcome to the world of Natural Beekeeping.

A couple things, then I'll go tell Jer thats he's just inherited a new board.

Bees, I feel are a very important key to our future. Its like one of the main reasons we have agriculture. ie, Pollination.
Bees are havin a hard time surviving on their own cuz of numerous reasons. Most man made. Chemicals mostly. Kinda like cuttin yer tail off just below yer ears. Lets kill off the things that help us survive.

The benefitual properties of honey and other bee products are just starting to be taken serious.

I have raised bees a couple periods in my life and plan on again soon. I'm not one to follow the medicating plan very well. Mine or the bees. Hopefully with Jeremy's help we can raise healthy bees again without all the added chemicals an meds everyone says ya gotta have.

Chances are, if yer eating a fruit or veggie, thank a bee.

Hb

[famfish]

The birds and bees are important to us! I have a question about what is hurtng the bees but it seems that nothing is proven yet! Can it be the problem of all the cell phones hurting their directional impulses!

[beenatural101]

Hi guys, I think I gotta write a book to start. The problems with the bees are many. They navigate by sight, by the sun and visual cues, i mean they can find 1 tree in a whole forest. The ones that just disappear are now thought to have absconded, and the ones hat dwindle suddenly some pesticide is likely the culprit either killing them on the way home or messing up their nervous system. The wax in those hives was highly toxic, and the few remaining bees were disease and parasite ridden. I mentioned parasite, the varroa destructor, a mite ( gift of globalization). Like a tick, it sucks hemolymph (blood) from the bee and also vectors in disease. As a double whammy this little sucker also reproduces within the capped cell with the bee pupae. Add this little bugger, which is everywhere now I think even Hawaii, not sure about other countries, to the already abusive practices used by us and you have disaster. I say abuse, because I feel as though commercial practices border on abuse. moving bees in a truck is very hard on them, as well as single crop forage. Yes the ancients moved bees up and down on the Nile on barges, but there were no warehouses for winter, forklifts, nets, 18 wheelers. the barges were smooth, purpose built and followed the bloom slowly with the season allowing the bees maximum variety, which is key. I like bees, cause I don't wanna eat oatmeal all the time. bees are the same, through multiple forage, they acquire the minerals etc from the nectar that just is not there in sugar. Yes, I move my bees, 5 or 6 miles down the road for 8 weeks when I make a split, and then to their permanent home. These mites are a problem for all. Much success has been had by scientifically breeding them for varroa resistance, My bees are queened with survivor stock, and are doing great. Basically the bees go in teams, the first will smell out the (mites/infected pupae?) and uncap the cell it is in. Then the others will begin cleaning the cell of brood, mite everything. I have seen half pupae in the middle of capped brood, it is the only explanation. These bees also seem more inclined to corner hive beetles and groom each other more frequently, knocking mites off, which then fall through the screen bottom of the modern hive. Also, after honey season I dust them with powdered sugar, it makes them clean and a lot of mites get knocked off. Where do the mites come from? Flowers, they fall off other bees and hitch rides on ours.
The latest theory, and research and trials are promising, natural sized cells. See here go us people again, not only do we have to poison the land and put poisons in our hives to kill these mites that we introduced, but some genius a long time ago decided bigger was better. Printed foundation was fairly new at the time, and the cell size was inceased to 5.4 mm i think. bees in the wild make worker cells anywhere from 4.6 to 4.9, or so I have read in multiple places. This year I am starting to go foundationless. When you multiply that increase into 3 dimensions, you get a bee about half again as big as natural. Great work horse right? no. See a bigger bee takes longer at least a full day as a larvae and another as a pupae. That means more time for the baby mites to mature more and breed more effectively. Mites prefer the drone comb because of this time factor. I urge anyone keeping bees to use drone comb, a wild beehive has more like 10 percent drones, useful if u have a hive trying to re queen. also a good way to cull mites in a langstroth.
I will put no chemical in my hives, no antibiotic, no miticides, not even the new feeds they have out. If I have to feed in an emergency, i will add some essential oils like honeybeehealthy to the mix is all. If my bees get somethin and die, Im gonna burn the frames, scorch the inside of the box with a torch and get different bees, or work off the ones I got that are making it.
Being in the South, Africanized honeybees may become a problem, so i use marked queens and keep an eye on em. I also flood the area with good hygienic drones to water down anything that may be out there, as well as help out the neighboring beekepers in their home grown queening efforts.
We brought the honey bee here from europe and agriculture is heavily dependant on the. The benifits of the bee go way beyon pollination and honey. Since we brought em here and need em, we have good naturedly been screwin em up since
J

[beenatural101]

One thing I gotta expand on is genetics. you have to find good bees somewhere, suitable for your locale, but overal they ave to be of hygienic stock and bred by someone who knows their stuff and will not let inferior queens go out. I prefer the more personal approach, and the folks I know for a fact are good to deal with are the Rossmans in GA, Brushy mountain in NC and the folks out there in NM ay Zia queenbees have some impressive survivor stock and all are a pleasure to deal with as well, Brush mtn offers queens by Jennifer Berry aka The bee lady. Hers are italian based as are rossmans. The folks at Zia have diverse choices for hot or cold, like I said I am impressed w the italian based renia i got from them. They have others for northern climes, italians as well as carniolan based hygienic survivors. Those types of bees with certain practices like dowda, drone comb culling (freezing or uncapping), and natural cell are probably the only chance we have to have the healthy honeybee we need.

[famfish]

Very interesting. Great post thanks!

[buzzard]

Good post beenatural! Famfish, I ain't seen no bees carry itty bitty cellphones around LOL, my thinkin is is the chemicals being used on the crops/trees that's beginning to affect them.

[famfish]

Don't bee hives have cells in them where the bees breed! Maybe the bees had a type of cell phone before we did!

[olhillbilly]

Since this is/was kinda the intro to the new board, I gonna pin it for the time being. Hate for BN's small novel he wrote to get lost in the shuffle.

[beenatural101]

Biggest thing here is my philosophy, bees will be bees, now lotsa folks are doin it their own ways and its working. I am learnin as much as I can from them and have some Ideas for spring. But I will stick to my guns no chemicals. they run into enough. I need more hives like 20, but i am getting there slowly. Good stock is central, I now understand the drone congregation thing better, where they may be, I will go around tomorrow and listen here and there where I have a hunch local. Seems as though people don't have a lot to do they actually caught over 400 drones in such an are and the results were astounding. Mind you nbees are rather scarce here still, and where the study was they are plentiful. Out of 400+ drones they had drones from over 150 hives drones go 7 miles up to to find their own yard seems. I am gonna look round here. Queens just know to look for these places high treelines on ridges next to open areas, bottom land with a steep hill or two on sides, tall trees around a lower area is supposedly where to look. earphones, amplifier, zoom camera. Ill let yall know what I find.