Recent content by oxnatbees

I think I have to respect that because you have 70? years' experience, which is a proper long term perspective.

Take care not to breathe in dust etc. Maybe wear a mask. Stonebrood is the one bee disease which can affect us (our lungs).

Well in my area - I live on the edge of a valley with a river flowing through. A landowner next to the river tells me that 25 years ago, certain fields would flood for 2 months a year. Now it's consistently 4-5 months.

Hmm, I had not considered varroa, my train of musing was sparked by hearing a Greek bee farmer discussing how his migration schedule was now completely reactive, because crop A might be flowering at the usual time but a drought means no nectar, etc. Climate change. And how many people used to...

My impression is that due to climate change, novel pests etc there is less profit in beekeeping now than, say, 10 years ago. What are your views on this? Obviously you get more skilled as time goes on, which compensates, but do you have to work significantly harder now compared to, say, 5 years...

Google "aggression of crosses" and "F2 aggression"

Good point, I didn't realise OP was outside UK.

And varroa. And other stuff I'm not sure of. Healthy bee poo is yellow so I don't think there's any of that. Condensatoon on a landing board is generally good, it means either lots of bees breathing out moisture (like us) or excess moisture being vented as they evaporate nectar to honey, which...

Your subject line is alarming as thetre is a very nasty parasite called Small Hive Beetle we are on high alert for. It's native to Africa but is a big pest in Australia and America, and has been found in south Italy in the ladt few years where they are still trying to eradicate it. If you...

I came across a similar situation where an allotment association wanted someone to look after their hives after their beekeeper retired due to extreme old age. The location was awkward. As soon as money changes hands you or they are under contractual obligations. This allotment association has...

Were the sheep ever treated with insecticides? (Sheep dip etc)

There's a thing called Amoeba Disease which has symptoms similar to nosema, but the amoeba are larger than nosema's rice shaped bodies. It's rare, but becoming more common. Check that out on e.g. the national bee unit's website and other good info sources.

I know him. He's not in it for the money.

On the contrary - pretty much no one in our group feeds. As far as I know, the local BKA doesn't do any such analysis, which is a shame as it would give an interesting contrasting dataset to compare the results of the approaches.

I lost one of 7 over winter, but winter losses vary amazingly between one location and another 5 miles away. Our group looks at our losses each year, about a hundred colonies in all kinds of hives scattered across, approximately, one county. This was the latest results (haven't surveyed this...