Paul,
After a little advice - what is the best way to ensure the queen goes down to
the bottom boxes when harvesting honey off a Warre? For the past two days I’ve
tried to take boxes off the top, letting plenty of light in, allowing time and
using a fair bit of smoke. Each time I’ve put the boxes under a clearer board
near the hive and each time the hive has gone ballistic - the main one
evidently in search mode and with bees scrambling over each other to get into
the boxes removed - obviously because I’ve accidentally taken a box with the
queen still in it. The hive in question has five boxes and am angling to take
the top two. Shall I just wait until the end of the month for the colony to
draw down a bit more?
Very grateful for any advice you can give,
Regards,
Rich Sheehan
Sent from my iPad
On 6 Sep 2020, at 3:58 pm, Oxnatbees
<oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Hi everyone,
if you have a Warre hive now is the time to harvest honey. First though - check
they will have about a box of honey left after your plundering; and when taking
a box of what you think is honey, remember - if the bees refuse to shift when
you smoke it, there are still brood in there.
Some odd things I've come across recently:
I have seen a few claims that bees occasionally collect fungal spores. It's not
clear if this is to self-medicate, or a coping mechanism when there's no pollen
(protein). The claims seem to originate from Paul Stamet, a fungus enthusiast
who has a commercial interest in selling fungus extract as a miracle cure for
bee health. (Admittedly his work does show it helps versus viruses.)
I decided on a quick check and put 5 random fungi from nearby woods near my
hives, clearly visible on a white plate. After a few days I had seen zero
interest from bees. It also occurred to me that if they really do
systematically collect spores, these would show up in honey and people
sometimes use pollen analysis on honey. I've started a few inquiries along
those lines but so far no one has said they've seen spores. I was already
sceptical, and now I'm more so.
Unrelated to the above, I listened to a Zoom lecture by Roger Patterson, who
has 57 years' beekeeping experience. The theme was "things that are not so":
He said bananas are often said to trigger defensive behaviour because they
smell like alarm pheromone. I've told many people this myself. Well, no. He got
suspicious and tested it, even laying peeled bananas on top of hives. His bees
don't react.
He also discussed "reading comb" and how many conventional beekeepers are too
ready to replace a queen because they see a comb with a spotty brood pattern. I
myself have seen an OBKA trainer point at such a pattern and say "this queen is
running out of sperm, I'll replace her". At the time I thought "she's probably
just reduced laying because there's a forage dearth" so I know what he means
about jumping to conclusions. Well, there are lots and lots of reasons for
spotty brood patterns - for example, what if that colony is a really hygienic
one who are pulling out infested brood?! He showed us photos of examples. Then
he showed us a photo of a frame full of "perfect" wall to wall brood. "Same
hive, different frame. Obviously nothing wrong with this queen, but some people
would kill her because there is something going on on one frame." He then
zoomed in on the spotty frame and showed how the brood there were different
ages, he reckoned 12 days age difference as "pearly curlies" were next to
capped brood, i.e. some of the holes were where bees had hatched and left. The
fundamental problem in that hive was, not enough room for the queen to lay so
she was wandering around looking for spare cells rather than laying in patches.
He stressed wild colonies and their swarms are NOT a reservoir for disease. He
has removed several hundred and "overall they are far healthier than managed
bees which are mollycoddled and probs are masked". He has NEVER seen foul brood
in a wild colony; occasionally mild cases of chalk or sac brood. Winter will
kill weak colonies, only health ones survive.
And he also talked about the "fact" that eggs are laid upright, then gradually
bend over, over 3 days. They don't. He's checked this by, for example, removing
a queen for 3 days and the eggs are still upright.
Hope that's of interest,
Paul