|
 Thursday
April 1st 2010
April past:
2009,
2005,
2004,
2003,
2002,
2001,
2000,
1999
April Fools Day.
Here are our
normals for this time of year: Max: 9°C Min: -4°C.
Sunrise: 7:08 / Sunset: 20:05. We're running a bit
above normal lately.
 March was a big
month and there were many topics covered in the past few days.
Here's the link:
March 2010.
Feeding, syrup, patties, scale hive data, pillows, boxes
for sale, cleanup, HFCS, splitting schedule, Styrofoam
hives, accuracy of beekeeper reports, to treat or not to
treat and with what, stock selection,
Aldera --and more...
What was happening
about now last year in
2009? How about
2005,
2004,
2003,
2002,
2001,
2000,
1999?
Let's take a look
at 2009. On April 11th, 2009, I had just gotten home from
Victoria and put on the first patties. That was about
it. Sometimes I get on a writing jag and sometimes
not. Lately, I have been somewhat house-bound with the
flu and, as I am discovering, this
Aldera treatment is affecting
my activities.
OK. Let's try
2005. Oh! That is along ways back. 3GB a month
bandwidth cap? I sometimes use 3 GB a day now.
Actual measurement is about 4 GB/week unless I am
downloading operating systems. Geocaching?
Haven't been geocaching for a while. Must get going again.
I see I got certified in SCUBA in 2005.
In
2004, Bert and I went skiing on this day, and I was working
selling my last Swingers and Trucks. Sad!
In
2003 I was yarding bees for sale. I had just changed
my site to the new servers from a directory on Internode.
I was looking at motor homes. I bought one and it just
sits...
As for today,
my back is better, we skipped the Victoria trip for the first
time in five or more years, I am considering buying a
Swinger again, and the Orams and I plan to go skiing Easter
Sunday. It's a family religious tradition to go skiing
on religious holidays. I worked as a part-time bee inspector
last fall, and expect to put in three weeks or so in late April
and early May this year, so I am back in the industry a bit
anyhow.
To recap,
after years of being skeptical about essential oils, I am
starting to think that they may have their place and have
spent several days looking over literature. (See
March 2010)
I also find
that simply relying on the bees to handle AFB is not a good
idea if there is any residual spore count in hives.
Inspection, and management measures like medication, re-queening
or culling are necessary. I see that AFB cost me 10%
of my hives last year and winter due to my being away and
not bothering to check. It seems that I may have actually
seeded some hives with scale, since I just had the hives
split while I was away and deadouts were used as-is without
inspection. There is a lesson learned -- again.
I'm managing
my hives more intensively this year and have arranged my
plans to be here for splitting on several occasions a month
or five weeks apart.
  The
word is that bees increase their feed consumption when
rearing brood compared to the consumption during winter, but
my scale hive numbers do not bear that out, yet at
least. Any increase I can see is very small --assuming
that the weight changes reflect consumption. Of
course, if the bees are converting fed into brood of the
same weight or adding water, since brood is mostly water,
then maybe the scale numbers do not reflect the actual
consumption of feed. Perhaps increased consumption is
balanced by the brood produced, when viewed by an external
measure.
Another
consideration is that the scale hives are in Styrofoam
boxes and I have observed that the colonies in this type
of boxes tend to be later brooding up than the hives in
wooden boxes, although they catch up by the time
splitting is over. (see 2003)
I have turned
the chart right-side-up to show weight gain as positive and
loss as negative. Loss is now negative. The winter chart
(left - click to enlarge) is the opposite. The bump on the
spring chart at right is from outside feeding on a warm day
which resulted in weight gain. Both charts are from
the same ongoing data stream.
The winter
chart shows the long-term trend and a slight change in trend
seems to have started around the end of January, with a
slight upslope, but it is not as drastic a slope as I
expected.
By now, I am
thinking the hives have several frames of sealed brood. I'll
find out when I go through the hives again one of these
days, soon. There was a frame or two with brood in most
hives a week back.
Well, I just
got off the phone. I bought three 4-lb packages with
two queens each. I pick them up tomorrow. The
cost is $230 each. (Wow!). Two are for Mike and
one is for me to play with.
I want to
compare the package hives with the overwintered ones.
The queens are from Australia and from Hawaii - Big Island,
I think. I am not too eager to have these blond bees,
but it will give me something to compare. Also, if I
buy superior queens, which I intend to do, and am not
raising many myself, the drones will not matter.
I went out to
check the hives this afternoon and found they have all eaten
their patties down to scraps, with a few exceptions. I
put patties on until I ran out about halfway though, then
panicked. Then I remembered two more boxes in the
basement and put most of them on as well. I have about
a half-box left.
I
did not shoot pix of the good brood, but just shot examples
of problems. I typically found hives has three frames
with good sealed brood areas, but the hives which ate less
of the patties had less brood. In one case, the hive
is fighting AFB and has an occasional cell. I think
I'll have to medicate.
One brood
picture is presented to show that drones are underway and at
the capped stage, so that queen mating will be possible as
early as a month from now.
Taking
pictures while working bees is a bit awkward, but the Fuji
waterproof model I have stands up to the job, even if the
pictures are just so-so.
The
patties I have added are Global 15% and 4%. I
don't see any difference in consumption between the two.
At this point,
I have not seen on single pollen load coming in and there is
almost zero pollen in the hives. What there is is
buried in outside frames.
As you can
see, I don't fool around when feeding the patties. I
go away for several weeks from time to time and I don't want
them to run out. I last fed on March 21st and this is
eleven days later. Interesting. Last time I
checked on the 21st, it was eleven days after the first
feeding. Clearly, for some of the hives I did not get
back fast enough or put enough on last time. They had
eaten everything I gave them.
A
commercial beekeeper asked me today if I figure that,
given the price of patties, it pays on a commercial
scale operation to feed like I am, since the cost adds
up fast. It can amount to $10 per colony on average.
Oddly, nobody asks that about syrup, which is not cheap,
either. People do not hesitate to pay for Apivar,
and it is not cheap.
Labour
adds up fast, too. Checking queens in spring is an
arduous job that can be eliminated largely by just
slapping on patties. As you can see from my
pictures, what you see on top is an x-ray picture of
what is happening below. the only frames I will
bother to pull are the ones in the 20% or so of the
hives which are not eating. These hives are3
candidates for new queens as soon as I have some.
My
answer was this: If you are buying packages, then
you are paying $115 for each starter hive, and the 90%
of the original number which survive to summer often not
up to pollination standards in time. On the other
hand, properly made splits can make the grade, and cost
just the price of patties and a queen. Not only
that, saving even one hive from winter or spring loss
buys a lot of patties.
  I
normally do not swell when stung, but in the spring,
sometimes I do. Today, I was working on one particular
hive and it became a bit jumpy. A bee flew straight
for my eye and nicked me. I persevered, then another
and another did the same. I ignored that except for
removing the stingers. Guess what, I swelled.
Meijers came
over in the afternoon for as visit around four, then we all
went to Three Hills for Bill's 76th birthday celebration.
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 Friday
April 2nd 2010
April past:
2009,
2005,
2004,
2003,
2002,
2001,
2000,
1999
Good Friday
Today, I have
a drive down to High River to pick up some packages and then
a stop in Airdrie to help Mike install them into his new Bee
Villas. I'll bring one home to install here as a
project.
 The
day began with a phone call from a beekeeper who needed
boxes. Mike said he could be down before lunch, so I
said, "OK". He and his crew came down and loaded up
some boxes, had lunch, then they were off. While they
were loading, I was making up brood chambers. I need
six, four for Mike and two for me.
I had a quick nap, then loaded
the brood boxes for (another) Mike and headed to High River,
leaving around three. I met Sid at his place at five,
got the packages and some frames, then drove to Airdrie.
I had estimated well -- seven PM -- and arrived twenty
minutes early.
 This
was my first excursion in a long time without a cell phone.
I have had cell phones ever since they became available,
probably fifteen years or more, but got disgusted with Bell
Mobility and their terrible exploitation and bad customer
service. I told them to cancel my account!
Some
companies threat their customers with respect.
Bell, intentionally or not, gives an impression that
customers are suckers to manipulate and fleece.
They played tricks and regularly overbilled me, dropped
features or tried to charge for included features.
Sometimes I reached people who fixed things easily and
gladly. Most of the time, just got people who were
either unable or unwilling to do anything to make things
right.
When my contract expired,
I enquired well in advance and the day after, and
although they assured me that my features and billing
would not change, they dropped my long distance plan and
started billing for promo items. Every time there
was a change in my plan or billing, they emailed me except when my contract expired and they screwed me.
At that point I only got an email saying I was eligible
for a phone upgrade. No mention of doubling my
bill.
For me everywhere is long
distance and fringe coverage and a phone is not use
without cheap long distance and included voicemail and
caller ID. My plan had included all that for three
years. I have spent at least eight or ten hours
calling and talking with Bell over the three years of
the lapsed contract. I should bill them for it.
 Coordinating
without a cell phone to confirm and touch base seemed
strange, but I arrived in High River within minutes of when
I promised and in Airdrie early, and I met up with everyone,
so life without Bell is possible!
 In
Airdrie, Mike, a friend of his and I drove to his location
and installed the four colonies into his
Bee Villas, loaded
another three boxes of patties and then I headed home.
I got home around 8:30, had a
snack, then went out and installed my two swarms. I
have to say, that beside overwintered hives, packages look
pretty sad. We'll see how they look in a day or so.
I have to release one queen from each package, since they
were four-pounders and came with one queen and the second
one was from Hawaii and not inside the package with the
bees. Since they might reject the strange queen, a
cage into is appropriate, so I have open them in a day or
so. I'll be adding syrup, too, although they have lots
of honey in the combs I chose.
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 Saturday
April 3rd 2010
April past:
2009,
2005,
2004,
2003,
2002,
2001,
2000,
1999
 Ellen
needed the van first thing, so when I was over at the
quonset, unloading, I took a quick glance into the two new
hives. Seems I did not divide the bees very equally,
judging by the number of frames covered. I'll have to
equalize them. One queen is released already and
probably laying. The other is waiting for acceptance
and release.
The stuff on the top bars is
the foam 'floats' from the packages. Packages carried
on airplanes cannot use the atmospheric cans that are used
for ground transport. Unfortunately, these feeders
drown bees even if we rip the screens off and remove them
carefully, then cut the bottles in half.
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 Sunday
April 4th 2010
April past:
2009,
2005,
2004,
2003,
2002,
2001,
2000,
1999
 We
were up early, had breakfast and were off to Nakiska for a
day of skiing. Conditions were great and we were back
in good time for a family Easter dinner.
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 Monday
April 5th 2010
April past:
2009,
2005,
2004,
2003,
2002,
2001,
2000,
1999
| > Hi Allen
I liked your graphs of weight changes of a
beehive and would like to set up a hive on
scales myself. Could you please tell me what
equipment you have used for this setup? I am in
the UK but am hopeful that I can get something
similar here.
I just use an
old platform scale which I had sitting around.
You should be able to find something like it if
you ask around.
Actually some
of my Hutterite friends showed up here with it
one day on the back of their pickup truck and
said I needed it. They only wanted $100,
so I took it. I used it to weigh barrels
and propane bottles over the years, but then it
sat unused. When I read about my friend,
Charlie's involvement with NASA, (his hive
is at Carencro, LA on the map) it got me
thinking...
There are
companies which sell scales in every large city.
Tell them you want an old mechanical one (beam
scale) that need not be accurate, certified, or
good-looking. They may have one in their junk.
|
Jean &
Chris, Mckenzie, Ellen & I went out and checked our
geocaches. Some time back, they were all stolen,
and we replaced some, but gave up on others. We
found the first one, but are going to have to hunt for
the second. I think I know where it is supposed to
be, but have to check the coordinates.
I looked
at my hives this afternoon. The queen needed
releasing in the second package and I let her out.
I then gave the others a quick check, filled some
feeders and medicated.
Yup,
no more fooling around. I'll let the queen
breeders do the selection and take the losses due to
stock evaluation, and I'll buy their output.
That's their job and why we pay them the big bucks
-- or should. Too bad it is so hard to know
who is doing a good job.
I marked
two more hives as looking a little less than great and
that brings the total up to 5 out of 29 on the watch
list. These tow are OK, but not eating as well as
they could. I really should pull frames, examine
them again to verify that the queens are failing and
re-queen, but I am leaving Thursday early. Of the
others, one is weak, but is brooding up since I added
bees, and one has serious AFB, but should clear up now.
These two I marked today may just be conservative bees.
I hope, but maybe the queen is failing...
I
also took one of the baggies of sugar out of the
hive and dumped the sugar on top of the patties.
I give up. That was not a good idea, at least
for hives which are not starving. See
Wednesday March 24th, 2010 and Thursday March 25th,
2010
| > Are you
taking into account the tonnage of pollen
patties you've added in the past few
weeks?
Yes, of course.
I reset the scale whenever I load them up. Odd
that they are not consuming more. Now that I am
feeding outside in a drum, though, all attempts
at calculating consumption are past.
To this
point, I estimate the bees have actually eaten about four pounds per hive,
average, as opposed to the eight or so I
have put on them.
> Regarding
back problems (every beekeeper's fear), the
solution I use is in > the book
"Somatics"
by Hanna.
I see it is out
of stock at Amazon. Looks interesting.
In my case, my problem is apparently
degeneration in the lower back, probably due to
macho canoe carrying in my early youth and other
heavy lifting, and my application of Aldera.
I plan to write further about that latter item.
I discontinued its use for a few days prior to
yesterday's ski trip and the back symptoms
cleared up 99%.
> This is a
crazy spring and I only have time for an
occasional peek at your diary. I have no time
for Bee-L.
Too bad, the
topic lately has been thymol in syrup.
> One more
comment, on the philosophical side. For the past
few years, I've been trying to figure out what
is the essential difference between a small
commercial operation and a large sideliner or
hobbyist operation. Your diary was one of the
sources I used to hunt for the answer.
Interestingly, I think your recent postings have
confirmed the answer. The main difference, IMO,
is the commercial guy does not take any chances
that are not necessary, or at least he has
calculated the implications and is prepared to
live with them. We see the effect of this
attitude in feeding, disease treatment, and
culling of dinks.
Exactly.
Most perceptive. I'm crossing back over
that line again.
> Your
approach to your bees over the past year has not
been with a commercial mindset (an observation,
not a criticism), and I think that explains why
your AFB problem got out of hand.
Not caring, and
a little overconfidence in the bees abilities to
handle it entered in, too.
I split simply
to avoid making honey. (Didn't work). The reason
IMO AFB got out of hand was very simply that I
did not look. If I had seen it getting away, I
would have dealt with it, possibly by re-queening
and maybe by drugs.
Of course,
there is a cost to monitoring, and a cost to not
monitoring.
Additionally,
relying on the bees to keep AFB in check and not
assisting with drugs means more brood torn out
and a load on the bees which results in lost
production -- again, the difference between
commercial and hobby. |
I'm off
again Thursday to visit Mom and Linda, then, after that,
a few weeks on the road for Medhat here in Alberta, and
at the end of May, a cruise in the San Juans.
After that
it is back to Ontario to open Pine Hill and sail in
Carpe Diem. I am hoping to get to Georgian Bay
with the boat this summer. In between, I
have to take care of my beloved bees, with a split in
mid-May and one again in June and the last in July, so
I'll be bouncing home a time or two to take care of
those tasks.
Speaking
of bees, the new packages are not nearly as nice to me
as most of my overwintered hives. I got nailed in
the eyelid (again) while releasing that queen.
Ingrates!
| > I
personally am confused about the whole top
entrance question--both summer and winter.
Reports are often contradictory. So much
appears to depend upon local humidity and
temperatures.
Top
entrances ensure that there is an entrance.
Lower entrances can get blocked by ice
storms, dead bees, etc, resulting is
suffocation.
They also
allow bees to fly more easily if they feel
the need, possibly reducing disease loads.
They also tend to allow even weak colonies
to maintain entrance activity. Colonies
without entrance activity tend to lose bees
to hives with active entrances.
That is one
reason we use an auger hole in every brood
chamber. Even with boxes of different
colours, bees seem to love and recognise
those round holes and drift less.
As for the
question of humidity, bees enjoy high
humidity. I think the confusion is due to
differing hive materials and configurations.
Each combination requires different
entrance, ventilation and insulation
measures.
Although
humidity is good, a problem arises when
temperatures change faster than the air
exchange in the hive and precipitation or
condensation occurs inside the hive. This
precipitation is usually from a lid which is
uninsulated and cool enough to condense the
humidity into water or ice, which then melts
and drips. Some hive setups need far more
ventilation than others.
It seems
that water outside the cluster, but inside
the hive is not a problem, as long as it
does not cause stinky decomposition of junk
on the floor or in frame feeders (creating a
bee repellant) but water above or in the
cluster can be deadly.
At one
time, we made the mistake of building floors
which were watertight, thinking to save any
syrup which spilled down, but found that,
unless tipped forward (thus defeating the
purpose), they accumulated water. Over time,
that water encouraged a fermentation which
turned the floor junk into a close
approximation to Bee-Go. That drove bees out
of the weaker hives into nearby hives and
caused dwindling. |
The last of the ice is
disappearing from our pond
today. I hear the ice is
out of Lake Ramsey.
"Generally,
Albertans
receive
their
biggest
dumps
of
snow
in
April
and
May
(and
occasionally
June)"
-
Environment
Canada
Our
weather
has been
marvelous
so far,
but
somehow
I got to
reading
the
diary
from
April
2003.
What I
read
there is
a good
reminder
of what
can
happen
right up
until
the end
of May
in this
country.
I think
the
biggest
dump I
recall
hearing
about
was
30" in
Southern
Alberta
May 1st
1967.
That
storm
killed
calves
and was
a
disaster
for
many.
Blizzards
in
Southern
Alberta
-
April
17-20
and
27-29,
1967.
A
series
of
intense
winter
storms
dropped
a
record
175
cm
(~ 6
feet)
of
snow
on
southern
Alberta.
Thousands
of
cattle,
unable
to
forage
for
food
in
the
deep
snow,
perished
on
the
open
range.
Army
units
were
dispatched
to
assist
in
snow
clearing,
while
food,
fuel
and
feed
were
airlifted
into
the
province.
The
good
news?
The
Revenue
Minister
announced
that
the
income
tax
deadline
for
residents
of
southern
Alberta
was
extended
two
weeks
to
May
15.
|
 From
my April
26, 2003
Diary:
Yesterday,
the
Environment
Canada
forecast
promised:
"Saturday :
Showers.
Wind
increasing
to west
30. High
9."
Boy,
were
they
wrong
about
that
forecast.
We had a
dandy
storm
that
broke
trees,
put the
power
out for
24
hours,
and left
us with
a foot
or more
of wet
snow.
This
morning,
when I
got up,
our
electricity
was off,
and we
had over
an inch
of snow;
the rain
had
changed
to
snow.
By
mid-day,
we had a
foot and
drifts
of up to
three
feet,
temperatures
right
around
the
freezing
mark,
and high
gusting
winds.
 The
power
stayed
off all
day, and
the
power
company
kept
moving
back the
time for
restoring
service
by two
hours
every
time a
previous
deadline
passed...
|
For
those
who
wonder
about
feeding
patties
after
first
pollen
appears,
consider
the
stress
on
strong
hives
with
plenty
of
larvae
to feed
and
emerging
bees
needing
protein
when
there is
snow on
the
ground
for
days.
From The
Weather
Doctor's
Diary:
-
4-5 May 2003, Alberta: Spring snow is not uncommon, but rarely so heavy across the province. This storm buries the Iddesleigh area under an astounding 55 cm (22 inches). Other totals include Brooks, Suffield and Jenner areas receiving 20 to 35 cm (8-14 inches) of snow. Medicine Hat have received 22 cm (8.7 inches), Lethbridge 11 cm (4.3 inches), Red Deer 12 cm (5 inches) and Edmonton 7 cm (3 inches).
-
6 May 2002, Calgary, Alberta: A spring blizzard dumps nearly 30 cm (12 inches) of snow on Alberta's heartland, snarling the morning commute and forcing airlines to cancel flights due to whiteout conditions.
-
14-15 May 1986, Southern Alberta: Late season blizzard whips knee-deep snow on 80 km/h (50 mph) winds. Considered worst Spring snowstorm in Alberta history.
-
24 May 2007, Calgary, Alberta: Calgarians awake to trees bending and breaking under the weight of a heavy, wet snow that measured 10 cm (4 inches) at the Calgary International Airport to 15-20 cm (6-8 inches) in surrounding areas.
|
| Good
article, and a useful insight.
> On a semi technical note, even if the standard deviation for same stock queen performance is fairly "high" (which I suspect it is),
Agreed, and we are not just dealing with one population, so the math may be impossible and we may have to rely on intuition.
Using just one batch of queens introduces a great deal of uncertainty if the goal is to evaluate the stock as a whole for reasons that most of us will find obvious, so we usually stagger purchase. That one thing will make batch problems stick out like a sore thumb, and batch problems are not that unusual.
Then there is the variation year to year due to breeder selection. Things happen. I hear for example, that in the Saskatraz project most if not all the 'original' queens were winter killed recently. Winter kill can happen for many reasons, not all related to the stock in question, but it will definitely steer a program in subsequent years. I have friends who purchase stock form that rather variable pool and do their own selection from it -- and are quite happy. Others are just spooked by the lack of uniformity.
Another major breeder was shipping queens infected with nosema, unbeknownst to the operator or customers until someone decide to sacrifice some $20 queens on arrival to discover that fact after performance issues were discovered to be widespread.
> Finally, I offer the two step process for judging queens as a practical workable approach for the vast vast majority of beeks who are simply unable to study large numbers to gain hard statistical info. I feel this is especially needed for testing queens from producers who breed for varroa resistance. Queen breeders have been known to exhibit irrationally defensive behavior in response to certain stimuli (such as criticism of > our stock). I think if buyers would use this test it would help to calm our beehavior:)
Fortunately we have sideliners and hobbyists who rush in where commercial beekeepers fear to tread and who actually new stocks and will try to work without a chemical safety net. As survivors emerge, others get bolder in trying these things.
One of my regular diary readers wrote this the other day:
> One more comment, on the philosophical side. For the past few years, I've been trying to figure out what is the essential difference between a small commercial operation and a large sideliner or hobbyist operation. Your diary was one of the sources I used to hunt for the answer. Interestingly, I think your recent postings have confirmed the answer. The main difference, IMO, is the commercial guy does not take any chances that are not necessary, or at least he has calculated the implications and is prepared to live with them. We see the effect of this attitude in feeding, disease treatment, and culling of dinks.
I cross back and forth across that line. Some regard these ideas like religion, but to my mind, a beekeeper who wishes to remain a beekeeper, rather than become an armchair beekeeper and theorist, must be pragmatic not dogmatic.
Personally, I wrote a course which included an IPM section a half-decade back. It is amazing how writing a course forces one to learn the topic. It forced me to research and examine the concept, then condense it to simple practices.
IPM works and is the best approach I know. It is the middle ground between "Dose everything all the time" and "Let Nature take its course", and maximizes economic productivity and sustainability (whatever that may be).
Using selected stocks (ideally more than one) with known resistance or tolerance to various pests and challenges is an IPM cornerstone. Monitoring is another.
In IPM, no one aspect can be expected to prevent economic damage for the many reasons constantly discussed here. Stock, management, nutrition, monitoring and treatment are all links in a chain. With luck we seldom get to the treatment option, although our hand is on our holster. The treatment option is always there, but we get to know our enemies intimately, since we practice restraint and wait until we see the whites of their eyes before we shoot..
Maybe someday the SD you ponder will drop, the susceptible tail will be truncated and stock alone will be robust enough that we can concentrate less on the other inputs, but at this point, we -- as commercials -- need to always be on guard against and mitigate the damage and loss that can come from the tail of the curve, even with superior stock.
Hobbyists have the luxury of taking the hits as they come and their reports will be the first harbingers of the new day when stock alone can be trusted to eliminate many of the treatments. Until then, those of us who are attempting to maximize profit from our bees will have treatments at the ready and be quick to intervene when we see a situation developing.
|
 Finally!
Some
pollen.
April
6,
2010,
and
I
see
bees
in
the
poplars
outside
the
window.
It
will
be
two
more
weeks
until
there
is
anything
reliable.
Crocuses
usually
get
going
around
then.
I
went
over
to
weight
the
hives
and
watched
for
a
few
minutes.
I
did
not
see
one
pollen
load,
so
maybe
the
bees
are
getting
propolis
from
the
buds,
not
pollen.
(Click
thumbnails
to
enlarge).
Meijers came by for coffee on their
way south to get some supplies. They report pollen coming in
an crocuses blooming.
I went out and checked the
bees and I see many pollen loads coming. The loads are
tiny, but it is pollen, I am pretty sure.
> I called and they have a
$150 minimum at your supplier.
>
> That is a lot of thymol. Do you buy the
minimum and split it up?
>
> My friends are getting interested.
I buy 10 lbs
at a time, with delivery by courier its about
$200 ,including the brokerage, Usually
here in a week or less -- Purolator courier.
I am
currently feeding 4000 gal of syrup spring plus
another 4000 in the fall- last year, - 800 hives
ALL of this syrup is (with) thymol,
Bees are
eating me out of house and home, have put on
3000 patties plus and syrup out of tanks is over
1600 gal, but we put out 400 gal today in drums.
We were
using inside feeders, and one gallon pails on
top, very time consuming.
I see
pollen coming in today, so patty consumption
will slow down, Pails sitting on top ,they
warm up and are poured in the inside feeders and
it disappears quickly.
As you know
as soon as you unwrap it usually snows and
things can go backwards.
We drum
feed in the fall, its quick, it works but I
would not call it good beekeeping practice
|
For
convenience, here are the same beekeeper's earlier
comments.
|
Yes, I use thymol crystals
crystals in all my sugar syrup.
This will be my 3rd year.
I have tried various dosages, up
to one gram per gallon, usually
0.5 or 3/4 gram per gallon.
Certainly think it helps with
nosema and mite levels, of
course it is only legal for
mould in syrup, I have done no
studies on thymol's effects on
mites or nosema but my winter
losses are getting lower, only
7% THIS SPRING.
Mite counts taken last Sept were
less than 3% and mostly lower,
we did have to treat 100 nucs
bought from BC in spring of 09,
they were 5-10%.
We also feed Fumidil-B and from
previous experience we were
getting mixed results with year
to year comparisons, since the
thymol we seem to be more
consistent results with
wintering and spring build up.
Nice to see your diary running
again, I read it often
I buy 10 lbs at a time. Another
study below. This is maybe
how it works,
From: PAKISTAN
JOURNAL OF
BIOLOGICAL
SCIENCES
Abstract:
The aim of this
study was to
determine the
natural
occurrence of
Nosema apis in
honey bee
colonies and
evaluated of N.
apis presence in
colonies after
medical
treatment with
fumagillin and
thymol in
consecutive 3
years period.
For this
purpose, 208
honey bee
colonies
randomly
selected for
detection of N.
apis infection
from Aegean
ecotype of Apis
mellifera
anatolica, 1
years old queen
in April, 2002.
The colony
development
performances and
honey yields
were evaluated
through the
years from 2002
to 2004.
Yücel, B. and
D.L. Muhsin,
2005. The impact
of Nosema apis
Z. infestation
of honey bee (Apis
mellifera L.)
colonies after
using different
treatment
methods and
their effects on
the population
levels of
workers and
honey production
on consecutive
years. Pak. J.
Biol. Sci., 8:
1142-1145.
DOI:
10.3923/pjbs.2005.1142.1145
URL:
http://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=pjbs.2005.1142.1145
Summary of results.
Click to enlarge.
Be sure to read the
whole study.
[Abstract]
[Fulltext
PDF]
That works out to me
(Allen) to be 0.25
grams of crystals
per U.S. gallon
0.000066g x 1000mL/L
x 3.78 L/Gal = 0.25
g/Gal
or 0.3 g per
Imperial Gallon |
I am definitely not a scientist
only a beekeeper who wants
healthy bees.............maybe I
am selecting for thymol
resistant mites
Thymol crystals are dissolved in
isopropyl alcohol,99%, THEN
ADDED TO SYRUP AND MIXED
(Randy
discusses mixing on his
site)
More...
----- Original Message -----
From: "kurt" <allerslev@GMAIL.COM>
To: <BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, September
17, 2008 8:54 AM
Subject: [BEE-L] β-Cyclodextrins
as Carriers of Monoterpenes
for v arroa IPM
β-Cyclodextrins as Carriers
of Monoterpenes into the
Hemolymph of the
Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
for Integrated Pest
Management
Blaise W. LeBlanc, Stephen
Boué, Gloria De-Grandi
Hoffman, Thomas
Deeby, Holly McCready, and
Kevin Loeffelmann
Carl Hayden Bee Research
Center, USDA ARS, 2000 East
Allen Road,
Tucson, Arizona 85719;
Southern Regional Research
Center, USDA ARS,
New Orleans, Louisiana
70179; and Southwest
Watershed Research, USDA
ARS, 2000 East Allen Road,
Tucson, Arizona 85719
J. Agric. Food Chem., 56
(18), 8565–8573, 2008.
http://dx.doi.org/
10.1021/jf801607c
from the abstract: The
Varroa mite (Varroa
destructor) is becoming
ubiquitous worldwide and is
a serious threat to honey
bees. The cultivation of
certain food crops are at
risk. The most noted
acaricides against Varroa
mites are tau-fluvaninate
and coumaphos, but the mites
are showing resistance.
Since these insecticides are
used in the proximity of
honey, it is desirable to
use natural alternatives.
Monoterpenoids such as
thymol and carvacrol, that
are constituents of oil of
thyme and oil of origanum,
show promise as acaricides
against the Varroa mite
(Varroa destructor), but the
delivery of these compounds
remains a challenge due to
the low water solubility and
uncontrolled release into
the colony. β-cyclodextrin
(β-CD) inclusion complexes
of thymol, oil of origanum,
and carvacrol were prepared
on a preparative scale. ...
The toxicity of β-CD and the
prepared complexes in
enriched sucrose syrup was
studied by conducting caged
honey bee (Apis mellifera)
feeding trials. After the
first and second weeks of
feeding, hemolymph and gut
tissue samples were acquired
from the caged bee study.
The levels of thymol and
carvacrol were quantified by
solid-phase microextraction
gas chromatography mass
spectroscopy, using an
optimized procedure we
developed. High (mM) levels
of thymol and carvacrol were
detected in bee tissues
without any imposed toxicity
to the bees, in an effort to
deter Varroa mites from
feeding on honey bee
hemolymph.
****************************************************
* General Information About
BEE-L is available at: *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm
*
|
I was up before three, packed and in Airdrie
by 5:30. My flight left at 7:10, and I spent an hour
or two in Regina, then on to Toronto. I watched most
of Avatar on the flight and landed in Toronto, where I
learned the flight to Sudbury was late. Then the
flight to Timmins, just north od Sudbury was canceled.
However, the Sudbury flight did take off, a half-hour late
and Bill picked me up. The roads re slushy, but
driving is OK. We has supper and visited Harri, and that was
it. It is good to be back in Sudbury.
I visited Linda this morning.
In the evening, Bill and I went shopping for a
SPOT 2
Satellite GPS Messenger. I found some Personal Trackers
around town, but prefer the Messenger, since it can send a short
non-emergency message as well as doing the routine tracking and
emergency messaging. It seems that they are not yet shipping
in Canada.
I intend to use a Messenger for
sailing trips, but beekeepers might find it handy to know where
their trucks are at any moment in time. The unit sends a
position every ten minutes and can put a series of pushpins
(breadcrumbs) onto a custom Google Map. If the user pushes
the emergency button, the unit will email and phone for help,
giving the position automatically. More details
here.
We also found out more about the
Rogers Rocket Hub. Apparently the phone service offered with
it is like cellular and has roaming and incoming long distance
charges when it is taken out of the home district. If used
strictly for data, though, the hub can work with VOIP and Skype (SkypeOut),
Vonage, Magic Jack or other such services which include long
distance in a nominal fee.
How much data bandwidth is used when
using Skype? The best estimate I've seen is 40 hours per GB.
That is a lot of talking -- or listening. It appears that
Vonage uses anywhere from 30 to 90 Kps or 3 to 9 times as much.
| Edited from a series of emails:
>... you mention a large queen
supplier that was supplying queens with nosema, don't
expect to to say who, but were the queens carniolans
from Slovenia by any chance.
No. Although that is possible, too. I
have no knowledge of that one. I was referring to a
supplier more local to North America.
> ...there was a lot of problems
with queens from Slovenia last season, many hundreds, i
believe they could well of had the same probs,
definitely one's i had were nosemic, and reports from
one large importer of queens disappearing, not building
up, failing soon after introduction suggests many were
like mine.
I think this is a problem that has
suddenly appeared worldwide and taken many by surprise.
I have not treated for nosema for decades, but am now on
the watch. I'm thinking thymol may be my solution.
> ps, keep up your diary, it's
both, interesting and informative.
Keeps me on my toes.
> Pleased to hear you say that
about the thymol, don't know if you remember my over
long pm on the forum about feeding thymol in syrup,
I can't recall. I think I had to empty
my inbox there, too. You don't happen to have a copy?
> well
have been doing this for years pre 2002,then the nosema
levels rose slowly for the past 7 years, had probs over
a year ago in spring and went back to using thymol
syrup, this spring nosema no problems at all, R.O.B
Manley was using thymol back in the 40's,
So I have been hearing. What was his
purpose, do you recall?
> Manley's main reason was to stop
syrup from fermenting ,especially when late feeding of
colonies is carried out like when they return from the
heather in autumn. don't know if you have seen this link
about thymol on Dave Cushman's site.....
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/thymolx1.html
That's where I saw the reference to
Manley.
> i
use 3 times Manley dose emulsified with lecithin to give
a very stable suspension of the thymol throughout the
syrup mix, just under 1g per gallon which is 5ml of the
thymol pre mix,
How do you make the pre-mix?
> My recipe is same quantities, but
not so much surgical spirit, this being replaced by
water to emulsify, else the oil tends to just float on
top, or a proportion of it.
- 30g thymol crystals. placed in
honey jar,
- add 5ml of surgical
spirit/isopropyl alc/meths any one of these works,
- place this jar in water bath
of boiling water to help dissolve.
honey jar....140ml of boiling water,
- add 1 teaspoon of lecithin
granules,
- place jar in hot water
bath to keep hot and help dissolve the lecithin,
- takes about 10/15 minutes,
- strain out any undissolved
lecithin through tea strainer or such like,
- then add the dissolved thymol
to the water lecithin,
- shake well, several times.
> this you can then add at 6ml to 1
gallon of syrup, which would be 1g per gallon of thymol,
i use 5ml for nosema per gallon, or 5ml per 3 gallons to
prevent any fermentation, even if unsealed in hive by
bee's.
> lecithin granules are easily
obtained from health food shops, very cheap.
> also
helps with varroa control, apart from the 7 years of not
using thymol i have always used it in autumn syrup feed
since the late 70's,i currently have 240 colonies and 75
nuc's, did go to 300, heading that way again, and
higher, now sons can help me some. nothing on your kind
of scale though Allen, this is the uk, would not hold as
many as you used to run...l
> i currently have 240 colonys and
75 nuc's,did go to 300,heading that way again,and
higher, now sons can help me some. nothing on your kind
of scale though Allen, this is the uk, would not hold as
many as you used to run
> That, for me, is now a distant
memory.
> ps...i believe since varroa the
diseases like nosema have been well overlooked, everyone
so pre-occupied with varroa that they thought nosema had
gone away, when levels have become much worse, then of
course there is ceranae.
I really do not know what to make of
all that.
> Makes perfect sense really,
thymol is a fungicide, nosema is a fungi, so thymol is
bound to have a good effect in clearing up, or
preventing nosema. plus i believe when the bee's are
fanning within the hive to reduce the moisture content
of the thymolised syrup, the vapour has has a
detrimental effect on varroa ,plus can work in a
systemic way within the bee's when the mites feed from
them, and the larvae within the cells. And the bee's
love the stuff, seems to keep them very healthy.
Do you mind if I use some of this
conversation in my diary?
> No Allen i don't mind at all,.
|
 Univar
gave me a thymol quote today. A 25 kilo bag is $1,125.00.
2 week delivery. Irwin's source (right) looks much more
reasonable. Maybe there is a purity difference?
Click and go...
 I
brought my Ham radio walkie-talkie along and spent the afternoon
playing with batteries. There is a lot to know. I
have some old rechargeables, and was working on rehabilitating
them. Although they are a little more work, rechargeables
can save a lot of money. I'm looking at getting a Spot and
it will eat batteries, too. Add to that my GPS...
Check out the presentation at
left. Click and go...
 Bill
and I went to the Sportsmans Show, and I found the Spot unit I have
been looking for, so I bought it. After activating it, I went
to Bill's for his birthday supper.
I activated the tracking feature
before driving over and back. The map at left shows the plots.
The unit sends a 'breadcrum' every ten minutes, amrking my path. I
also sent an 'OK' message which shows on the chart, too. So
far this looks promising. I got the unit for when I am sailing
so people can track my progress. The unit also provides
emergency SOS capability.
 I
updated the scale hive charts and they are presented below.
Ellen continues to send me daily readings.
 The
continuous chart from October 17th through now is below and the
spring chart at right. Click the thumbnails to enlarge.
|
A Beekeeper's Diary
