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Post by steev on Jan 7, 2018 21:05:53 GMT -5
Has he considered bear stew?
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Post by reed on Jan 8, 2018 3:57:48 GMT -5
We don't have bears, badgers or really anything much know for robbing hives. Still mine will be inside the fences both chain link and electric.
I wondered if having several in a small space would encourage disease and the like. I'll just have the one and if I expand in the future I'm gonna space them out pretty good instead of right beside each other like you see people around here do.
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Post by reed on Jan 8, 2018 7:45:36 GMT -5
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Post by mskrieger on Jan 8, 2018 15:52:10 GMT -5
Hey now, some of those brassicas look alright! Here's to hoping.
I'm not sure what's under the snow in my garden. There are some brussels sprouts still standing and looking green but they might just be frozen solid Brussels popsicles. Some arugula and B. rapa under the snow might still be OK, we'll see.
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Post by reed on Jan 9, 2018 10:29:33 GMT -5
Temps have been above freezing for a day or so. I went out to see how many of my plants had turned to mush and how many still had a little life in em. Happy, happy, between them all I guess around 40 - 50 look to be still hanging on. Keeping fingers crossed on the lettuce and mustard as last spring some that looked dead sprouted up from the roots.
Still a ways till spring though. Any that survive will be transplanted and hopefully make seed. Then early next fall I'll direct seed a bigger patch. I wish I had done that last fall instead of starting and transplanting. I had plenty of the original seed.
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Post by richardw on Jan 9, 2018 12:20:54 GMT -5
They aren't looking too bad reed, how much of a snow cover did they have.
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Post by reed on Jan 9, 2018 14:03:38 GMT -5
They aren't looking too bad reed, how much of a snow cover did they have. The snow in the pictures is pretty much all there was, they were never actually covered with it. That's why with two weeks of nights ranging from -15 to -25 C I'm surprised any still look alive. |
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Post by richardw on Jan 9, 2018 18:42:12 GMT -5
wow that would been hard on them, so, done really well then.
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Post by farmermike on Jan 9, 2018 20:44:19 GMT -5
I'v done lots of reading and have decided on a top bar construction cause it seems easier to build and more natural to how bees live. I have lots of questions for example, where to locate it, sun? shade? or does it matter much. Anyone use top bar hives? Any comments? , my brother recently took up beekeeping using top bar hives and "treatment-free beekeeping" (about a year ago). I don't really have a ton of information about it, but the treatment free thing sounds a lot like what we on HG are all doing by saving seeds and adapting crops to our environments -- essentially it's like honeybee breeding. Basically, you start out with several hives (more is better) and put bees in a couple of them. As the colonies start to increase their populations, you split the one that is performing the best, by moving one of its brood combs into one of your empty hives. The bees that come with it will make a new queen and then you have a new colony descended from the fittest bees. Then you keep doing that indefinitely, build up a good stock of hives, hopefully share bees with your friends and neighbors, and have your own strain of bees adapted to your location. Most likely some of your colonies will die off, but as long as you can keep one colony going you can rebuild. At least that's my limited understanding of the process. It probably helps to have lots of hives and some collaborators in your area. My brother started out with 2 top bar hives and 2 purchased colonies. He found a really simple and cheap hive design and build a 3rd hive and split one colony that was doing really well this past summer. He has his hives in a couple different borrowed locations (he lives in a condo). Top Bar hives don't produce as much honey as a conventional langstroth hive, but they are very low maintenance, much cheaper, and easier to build. My brother checks on his only occasionally (maybe once every month or two?), and only performs any management when there is an emergency -- like getting attacked by argentine ants. Treatment free means no pesticides, of course, but in cold winter climates you would probably need to feed them sugar water or honey to get them through. As with plant breeding, it would probably help to start with bees that have a lot of diversity in the population. So, buying bees from a place that raises them with lots of treatment is probably not ideal, but it might be the only option. Maybe catching a wild swarm would be better, with more diversity, but I'm not sure. I caught a wild swarm a couple years ago, for the first hive my brother built, but they left after about 3 weeks. I think the problem was the hive being in full hot sun. I'll ask my brother for some of his resources and post links to them if you are interested. P.S - Apparently, some people think treatment free is controversial -- that buying bees bred with treatment and them "torturing" them with no treatment is animal abuse. I don't buy it! I mean, did anyone give Joseph Lofthouse a hard time for all the butternut squash he tortured while adapting them to his climate? [Edit] The first part of this article explains more about why there is controversy over this. |
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Post by steev on Jan 9, 2018 23:23:09 GMT -5
I think it's obvious that Joseph should have been prosecuted for his veggie cruelty; is there a well-funded advocate (dip-shit) who'd like to fund my efforts to combat this sort of "veggie" atrocity, which verges on genetic cleansing; really, I'll work very hard, though not promising any results; just be sure the check clears.
BTW; that is a very informative and to-the-point video; thanks,
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 10, 2018 1:06:48 GMT -5
P.S - Apparently, some people think treatment free is controversial -- that buying bees bred with treatment and then "torturing" them with no treatment is animal abuse. I don't buy it! I mean, did anyone give Joseph Lofthouse a hard time for all the butternut squash he tortured while adapting them to his climate? Uh yes... I receive a lot a push-back against my methods. I mean a lot! Some subtle. Some overt. My stance towards blossom end rot on tomatoes pretty much has the tomato fanatics in a tizzy. (That I'd pull up every plant with blossom end rot, and not give the variety a second chance, and that I blame the genetics of the plant rather than the soil, or the farmer that can't water consistently.) |
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Post by steev on Jan 10, 2018 2:53:39 GMT -5
I so hate Romano and San Marzano for the blossum-end-rot problem: granted, it may just be my growing conditions, but that's what I'm dealing with, so that's my concern; they just don't cut it where I grow. If those who think I'm wrong can come up with an alternative that works for me, fine. Until then, fuck them very much, I'm sure.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 10, 2018 9:27:32 GMT -5
I don't have any personal experience with Top Bar hives, but I did do a lot of research a few years ago when I thought I was going to. A interesting and particularly applicable quantity of bee research has been done within a few miles of my farm by Dr. Thomas Seeley comparing feral bee colonies to managed bee colonies and observing the differences in their response to disease and parasite infections, and their survival rate. The main takeaway from his research that I found the most interesting was the ways in which modern bee management acts to intensify the virulence of diseases and parasites vs natural bee behavior. Wild bees live in typically very small volume nest cavities compared to commercial hives, approximately 1/4 to 1/2 as large. The smaller volume means they swarm more frequently which naturally reduces parasite loads as both a swarm and the parent colony stop producing brood for an extended period, so there is a gap where the parasites cannot reproduce so their numbers are dropped. Wild colonies are also usually very distant from one another, and are limited not by the availability of food, but by the availability of suitable nest cavities. In a commercial apiary, the colonies are often separated by a few inches to a few feet, so the horizontal transfer of diseases and parasites is the most efficient means of reproduction for both. With a wild colony, the survival of the disease or parasite is dependent on the survival of the colony itself, as the chances of infecting another colony are relatively low given how dispersed they are. So under natural, wild conditions, bee diseases and parasites are selected for avirulence, while the commercial apiary environment selects for increased virulence and aggressive transmission rates. I found that fascinating. It also bodes well for the bees as a species, as no matter the destruction of the commercial beekeeping industry, the feral bees will continue on just fine in the woods. There are the same number of wild colonies per square mile in the Arnot Forest (couple miles from my farm) today as there were in the 1970s before varroa and tracheal mite and CCD. Thats not directly applicable to top bar, but I've found it fascinating.
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Post by reed on Jan 10, 2018 9:33:23 GMT -5
Thanks, farmermike . That link has some very interesting info. As far as building my hive(s) I got that figured out. With my junk piles and a little for hardware I figure it'll cost maybe 10 bucks each. I wasn't figuring on putting out more than one but already planned to build two or three. Sounds like I got lots more to learn though about how and where to acquire my bees. I'd love to attract or catch some wild ones but not sure how to go about that. I definitely don't want to shell out $150.00 for some chemical addicted bees just to have them die of withdrawal. I might try, among other things just putting out a hive or two with food jars and seeing if some just move in. I'v been told my neighborhood is a good place to find wild swarms but I have never see one. There are also some new beekeepers around my neighborhood but I think it hasn't been working out well for some of them. I notice the one closest has fancy, obviously commercial manufactured hives so they probably have commercial bees as well. I know it isn't working for them cause I see at any given time most hives laying on the ground opened up. That's why I haven't approached them for advice. [add] Thanks oxbowfarm for that info. So maybe a collection of smaller hives placed well apart is the way to go. I was planning on mine being 4' long maybe I should drop that to 3'. Just need to keep it big enough they can afford to lose a comb or two of honey once in awhile. |
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Post by richardw on Jan 10, 2018 13:52:29 GMT -5
When varroa mite reached here about 17 years ago it pretty much wiped out the wild bee populations. I'll be buying some more honey today from our local apiculturist, must ask him have the wild colonies managed to adapt, surely varroa wouldn't have wiped a 100% out. Interesting bloke, he uses heat to control the varroa in his hives, cant remember what temperatures he uses but at a certain time of year varroa will die at what ever deg he treats it at, the bees can handle this temp, another 2 deg C higher and he'll cook them as well.
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