Still renegade

[Understudy]

Well today I made my first effort to beome legit and register the hives with the state. I called the ag inspector who very nicely told he would love to look at my hives but to call him back in 2 weeks and then schedule an appointment because he is frantic busy doing inspections right now.


Sincerely,
Brendhan

[TwT]

Understudy, how have the laws change since they announced the AHB in Florida or have they not change at all? were you suppose to register your hive?

[Understudy]

I am not sure how the laws have changed. They recently had a meeting in Gainsville about AHBs in Florida. The basic result of that meeting was that AHBs are currently in Florida to stay. We will have to learn to accept and deal with them. Much like like they do in South America. Also the rules on feral colonies are about the same. The current rules rules are that feral colonies are destroyed not saved and relocated. Not due to the AHB issue but due to the parasite and disease issue. Bees suspected of being AHB are suppose to have samples of the workers sent to the lab for genetic testing. That is the only 100% way to be sure that you have dealt with AHBs. Aggressive bees are not always AHBs.

Also the only way you can use chemicals in a bee removal is to be a licensed pest control operator (all bee removers in Florida are licensed as pest control operaters, they just specialize in bees). This includes soap and water combo to remove a hive. You also cannot charge a fee to do a bee removal without being licensed. So basically you can remove bees but you can't use chemicals and you can't charge for it. They have some good reasons for this but they take it a little far.

That is my limited understanding of what is currently going on.

[Understudy]

http://cfn13.com/StoryHeadline.aspx?id=15180

[Michael Bush]

>The current rules rules are that feral colonies are destroyed not saved and relocated. Not due to the AHB issue but due to the parasite and disease issue.

Since the feral ones are the ones surviving without treatments, and the domestic ones are the ones crashing, it seems to me to make more sense to destroy all the domestic ones and save all the feral ones.

[Jack Parr]

>The current rules rules are that feral colonies are destroyed not saved and relocated. Not due to the AHB issue but due to the parasite and disease issue.

Since the feral ones are the ones surviving without treatments, and the domestic ones are the ones crashing, it seems to me to make more sense to destroy all the domestic ones and save all the feral ones.

OOPS. Not all feral colonies survive. I've had two perish in my yard last year. The colonies lasted some two years, then gone. I sorta kept track of these two colonies. Actually one was in a steel drum/barrel which I planned to remove and hive this year but they are gone. The other was in the clutch housing of a large junk engine. There is limited room in there and that colony may well have abscounded due to that, but I can't say for sure. However the steel drum had lotsa room.

The location of the first one to vanish is now re-occupied by a new colony. Probably a swarm from one of my hives, which cast one a few weeks back.  

One should keep track of feral hives continously before drawing any conclusions about their logevity. Bee colonies come and go I have observed. It stands to reason that feral colonies would be affected by the same problems as kept bees, namely Verroa, IMO.

[ctsoth]

Has anyone ever heard the term only the strong survive?  It is stupid to not let the feral colonies live, let weak die out and the strong survive.

Of course we know better, and we can manage a creature better than the ways of nature.

[manowar422]

One should keep track of feral hives continously before drawing any conclusions about their logevity. Bee colonies come and go I have observed. It stands to reason that feral colonies would be affected by the same problems as kept bees, namely Verroa, IMO.

MB has been keeping track for a pretty long time Jack.
By breeding the queens he's collected, his strain has been
surviving (and thriving) without the use of pesticides for
a number of years.

There has always been a long standing debate as to the "age"
of any given swarm. i.e. a one or two year old package that
casts a swarm, these are not survivors. True survivors are
colonies that thrive without the help of man beyond five years IMO

[Michael Bush]

>Has anyone ever heard the term only the strong survive? It is stupid to not let the feral colonies live, let weak die out and the strong survive.

Precisely.

>MB has been keeping track for a pretty long time Jack.

Well, I know how long the ones in my yard have been here anyway and some of them have been here for five years now.  And I suspect they were fearl when I got them because of size and characteristics.

>By breeding the queens he's collected, his strain has been
surviving (and thriving) without the use of pesticides for
a number of years.

And I can't say how much is genetics and how much is small cell, but they were surviving on their own when I got them and have continued to do so for the last few years.

>There has always been a long standing debate as to the "age"
of any given swarm. i.e. a one or two year old package that
casts a swarm, these are not survivors.

Exactly.

> True survivors are
colonies that thrive without the help of man beyond five years IMO

That's a reasonable number.  But also, you take a hive that can survive on their own comb and put them 5.4mm comb and extend their capping and post capping times...