Autumn was warm, with bees flying in november. That’s rare. Winter was mild, only 2-3 weeks with steady freezing temperatures day and night in January. That’s rare too. Spring has come slow with temperatures just above freezing. Sun is rising
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
Yes, do struggle for resistant bees. Don’t just talk about it! Or say an easy no, it’s impossible, or an easy yes: ”Just do like I tell you.” Tell me your success story. I tell you mine, well a part
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
The other day I received Imkerfreund 12-2013 in my postbox. In this issue of the German bee magazine I found an interview with the scientist leading a varroa breeding project involving beekeepers. It’s a project that has made some progress.
Peter Donovan was the longterm, faithful and skilled coworker with Brother Adam at Buckfast Abbey in southwest of England. He came to the abbey 1939 at the age of 12 when the war started and helped Brother Adam in his
I really work for getting bees that can handel the varroa mite themselves. You get results when you do, but it’s extra work and sometimes it’s difficult to interpret what you see. And you loose some bad bees. And some
Our cat had a piece of the neighbour cat’s claw in the groin after a fight about territory dominion. He was young than. Later he had a clash also with the fox about hunting grounds for European watervoles (Arvicola amphibius).
Kenya I started long before the mite arrived to focus on increasing the varroa resistance in my stock. 1989 I went to the mountains of Kenya to get genetic material that were more related to the resistant bees in South
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