Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: hanksmith on January 23, 2013, 10:06:13 pm
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In your opinion, which disease or pest (or both) is the greatest threat to bees, and what do you think we should do to eliminate it? If you had everything you needed to set about finding a solution, where would you start?
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Bees have been dealing with one problem after another for thousands of years and they are still here. When man interferes by adding chemicals and antibiotics, the bees do not develope the genetics to over come the problem and the problems (pick one, wax moth, SHB, Varroa, AFB, EFB) develop immunity from the things we throw at them. A lot of beeks say you have to treat for varroa or you will loose your hives over the winter. Back in the 1900', the wax moth was wiping out most of the hives. Today nobody treats for wax moths other than protecting stored drawn frames. Why is that? The bees have the genetics to protect the hives from the wax moth and they have learned to constantly remove them. I have read numerous times that you have to treat for varroa by very experienced beeks. This year I collected bees from feral stocks and with no treatment they have all survived the winter and are building up beautifully. 4 years ago, I could not find a bee on my farm if either I or the commercial beeks did not have the hives there. This past year when I did not have bees there nor any commercial bees, I would regularly see them collecting grass pollen in the mornings. Given a chance, the survivor bees figure it out and learn how to handle every thing we throw at them.
Jim
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I think you are right.
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Bees have been dealing with one problem after another for thousands of years and they are still here. When man interferes by adding chemicals and antibiotics, the bees do not develope the genetics to over come the problem and the problems (pick one, wax moth, SHB, Varroa, AFB, EFB) develop immunity from the things we throw at them. A lot of beeks say you have to treat for varroa or you will loose your hives over the winter. Back in the 1900', the wax moth was wiping out most of the hives. Today nobody treats for wax moths other than protecting stored drawn frames. Why is that? The bees have the genetics to protect the hives from the wax moth and they have learned to constantly remove them. I have read numerous times that you have to treat for varroa by very experienced beeks. This year I collected bees from feral stocks and with no treatment they have all survived the winter and are building up beautifully. 4 years ago, I could not find a bee on my farm if either I or the commercial beeks did not have the hives there. This past year when I did not have bees there nor any commercial bees, I would regularly see them collecting grass pollen in the mornings. Given a chance, the survivor bees figure it out and learn how to handle every thing we throw at them.
Jim
in the late 90's i did the same thing. i built up about 15 colonies in two years from removals/swarms/splits and never treated. did fine for 3 or 4 years but eventually started crashing.
i think the hive beetle had just arrived in the area and i think i had contaminated comb from doing removals where the bees had been sprayed before i got called in. this time around i won't do removals if i can't watch the bees for at least a month first (it's just not worth the risk).
i'm going to try no treatment again this year. i have one colony that seems healthy but had a high beetle population going into winter. i'm trying to decide if i want to kill the queen and replace it with a cell from a much hotter hive that uses a ton of propolis or see how they make it through the summer.
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""In your opinion, which disease or pest (or both) is the greatest threat to bees, and what do you think we should do to eliminate it?""
HUMANS, by far, but I'm not quite ready to be eliminated.
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Ignorant beekeeper that don't look after there bees :(
mvh edward :-P
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Bees have 32 different diseases and pests. Top ask, what is the biggest, makes no sense.
If you get the answer, what is biggest, what then?
COLOSS project in Europe reseaches what is going in different countries. There are no simple answers to that question.
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Ignorant beekeeper that don't look after there bees :(
mvh edward :-P
Or these forums which deliver stupid ideas and disinformation
As you see, there are 2 kind of enemies
1) those who take care of bees
2) and those who do not care.
But which is biggest.... put them on balance
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You people don't sound like you are having any fun. Sorry to bother you. I'll look for answers elsewhere, because I don't think you have anything to contribute.
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if you wanted someone to pat you on the head, you came to the wrong place. out of conflict comes information. no spoons issued here.
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Lives under the bridge. :drowning:
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Hanksmith,
You have to have thick skin on here, especially with Finski. He comes off as a jerk sometimes, part of it is the language barrier, but he has a great knowledge of bees. Sometimes people read things into your comments and vice versa which is common with emails and forums. Don't let peoples comments get to you, you will learn a lot on this site, it's a great resource. Enjoy it.
Good Luck,
scott
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You people don't sound like you are having any fun. Sorry to bother you. I'll look for answers elsewhere, because I don't think you have anything to contribute.
One of the best things about beekeeping is that there are so many ways to keep your bees, from maximizing harvests or just for pollination and not harvesting a drop of honey.
Depending on your goals both ways a right, BUT both beekeeper must take care of there bees and see to them so they don't die or spread diseases to other bees.
Ignorant beekeepers are the ones that don't take responsibility.
I guess you didn't get the first truth about beekeepers, If you ask five beekeeper a question you will get at least 8 different answers.
mvh edward :-P
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""In your opinion, which disease or pest (or both) is the greatest threat to bees, and what do you think we should do to eliminate it?""
HUMANS, by far, but I'm not quite ready to be eliminated.
X:X X:X :th_thumbsupup: X:X X:X
HUMANS; THE GREATEST THREAT TO LIFE.
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Don't worry about Hanksmith gang, he wrote me a rather sting letter telling me where to stick the forum as well as bad mouthing a very strong willed conservative lady member who would rip his eyes out so he could see his heart being torn from his chest (figuratively) but you get the point!
He just seems like the type who comes in to any forum with the intent to fart the place up and point at other people for the smell. He's on member that won't be posting again.
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Sad thing is, he actually asked an intelligent question that was followed up by some pretty intelligent answers.
"strong willed conservative lady" Now 'who' could that be?
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He just seems like the type who comes in to any forum with the intent to fart the place up and point at other people for the smell
So the dog didn't do it? :-D
During the beekeeping season the bees sting the beekeeper
When cabin fever sets in the winter the beekeeper stings other beekeepers :evil:
mvh edward :-P
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Ain't it the truth ;)