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REDWOOD

Queen Bee
Joined
Oct 17, 2009
Messages
8,381
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93
Location
swansea south wales
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
10
If you have any old beekeeping books that advocates the use of matches under crown board burn them with any matches you have left. Children should not do this unless companied by a responsible adult.
 
If you have any old beekeeping books that advocates the use of matches under crown board burn them with any matches you have left. Children should not do this unless companied by a responsible adult.

Why!
 
because the children might burn themselves
 
With OMF's and top ventilation you get a chimney affect, and children could get burnt or even worse burn you shed down
 
we should have a sticky thread... "obsolete advice"

or maybe not,
otherwise how else will we while away the winter evenings? :icon_204-2:
 
I think Redwood was making the comment to try to eradicate the stupidly on-going proliferation of rubbish information. Personally, I would keep my old books, but I am able to sift the good from bad or out-dated rubbish, whereas many are totally unable to do that, change or move forward from the dinosaur age.

By the same argument, perhaps there ought to be quite a few forum members suffering the same fate. Burning certainly eradicates the proliferation of anything by those items reduced to ashes. Perhaps putting them in a 'museum of failed ideas' might be the modern option to burning at the stake.

Dismantling large swathes of one certain beekeeper collection of fuddy duddies would pave the way for a more enlightened beekeepers' association.
 
Write on a sheet of paper why those bits of the book are mistaken and attach inside the book.
Mistakes are one of the great ways of learning. Let others benefit from their mistakes.You dont make mistakes ? you arent trying hard enough :).
And afterall in amongst the dross there may be gems
 
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Such intolerance astounds me .
One of the characteristics of beekeeping is that there are many ways of doing everything (the old adage of asking ten beekeepers the same question and you get 20 different answers) Why mock and condemn the person that do things differently to you. There are lots of people happy to use matchsticks and have been doing so without problems for years. I don't use and have never used matchsticks myself but would not dream of mocking those that do advocate them. Similarly I don't mock so called "Natural" beekeepers and top bar beekeepers with their unconventional methods. Live and let live.

I know Wendy (writer of article in BBKA mag) fairly well. She is well thought of in Yorkshire and I can tell you she is a good and knowleable beekeeper, winner of the wax chandler prize and has been keeping bees very successfully for several years. If she wants to advocate the use of matchsticks with solid floors then that is fine by me. It is equally fine for others to disagree with such methods but there are polite ways of doing this.
 
Such intolerance astounds me .
One of the characteristics of beekeeping is that there are many ways of doing everything (the old adage of asking ten beekeepers the same question and you get 20 different answers) Why mock and condemn the person that do things differently to you. There are lots of people happy to use matchsticks and have been doing so without problems for years. I don't use and have never used matchsticks myself but would not dream of mocking those that do advocate them. Similarly I don't mock so called "Natural" beekeepers and top bar beekeepers with their unconventional methods. Live and let live.

I know Wendy (writer of article in BBKA mag) fairly well. She is well thought of in Yorkshire and I can tell you she is a good and knowleable beekeeper, winner of the wax chandler prize and has been keeping bees very successfully for several years. If she wants to advocate the use of matchsticks with solid floors then that is fine by me. It is equally fine for others to disagree with such methods but there are polite ways of doing this.

:iagree:

I met Wendy last year and she seems a very knowledgeable beekeeper. I would say that personally I have no experience with solid floors (besides inheriting a few that I don't use) and I think the main confusion is from newer (less experienced) beekeepers reading about ventilation (matchsticks and all) and applying it to hives with OMF's where it is definitely not required!
 
in my lectures i try to keep the match stick faction on side. The matchsticks are part of a system of bee keeping which has its validity within its scope i.e. high heat loss beekeeping.
If you assume high heat loss you need low RH.

In contrast a low heat loss system needs to retain moisture and hence high RH.
The widespread adoption of high heat loss beekeeping after ww2 was understandable. insulation was expensive, heavy and unobtainable e.g. WBC needs double the wood


Watchout there are hidden bits of both systems, beware of mixing and matching without thinking it through.

e.g. A low heat loss system has only a bottom entrance/vent, that implies a hive stand, or additional shelter or snow clearing in countries with snow fall.
 
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i do but not wooden ones. why? curosity, I initially built open mesh alternate floors in case of issues but the bees kept the solid PIR floors clean over winter. So we went along with it
 
Does anyone still use solid floors? If so, why?

Only for the full sized hives, the mini nucs have full mesh floors, needed to help keep them warm during winter and cool in summer.

I also read on BEE-L from one poster that he consistently found more SHB in the hives with screened bottoms (which stands to reason) compared to the ones with solid floors.
 
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Does anyone still use solid floors? If so, why?
Some do locally. Asking around, the usual reason is because "they always have". The largest suppliers still offer solid floors as an option on their standard hive lines, so they are obviously selling enough to be worthwhile stocking. They are a few pounds cheaper than the mesh version, which may tempt a few.

Add: If SHB does take hold, one method of control is the oil tray under the mesh. With the floor closed in again (for at least most of the year) if effect we're back to solid floors.
 
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Different strokes for different folks is fine way to look at some aspects of beekeeping. However, that doesn't mean that some aspects of beekeeping doesn't have a definate right or wrong way. Match sticks under crownboard with an open mesh floor is a definate no.

Even with a solid floor, if you insisted on using them, they would be better place between bottom brood box and the floor to prevent heat escape.
 
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