Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: banana on top of inner cover  (Read 20122 times)

Offline cam

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 105
  • Gender: Male
    • circle 7 honey
Re: banana on top of inner cover
« Reply #40 on: January 11, 2011, 03:50:18 pm »
Dave Miksa, a pretty well known queen producer, recommended this at a meeting I attended. He recommended the banana be split and laid on the top bars. Haven't tried it myself.
circle7 honey and pollination

Offline Acebird

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 8108
  • Gender: Male
  • Just do it
Re: banana on top of inner cover
« Reply #41 on: January 11, 2011, 04:15:43 pm »
Was it specifically for chaulk brood or the general health of the hive?
Brian Cardinal
Just do it

Offline rdy-b

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 2286
Re: banana on top of inner cover
« Reply #42 on: January 11, 2011, 07:40:51 pm »
Was it specifically for chaulk brood or the general health of the hive?
  its for the snipe to eat -- ;) RDY-B

Offline AllenF

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 8192
  • Gender: Male
Re: banana on top of inner cover
« Reply #43 on: January 11, 2011, 10:46:44 pm »
 :lau:

Good one.

Offline deknow

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 876
  • Gender: Male
    • Golden Rule Honey, LLC
Re: banana on top of inner cover
« Reply #44 on: April 10, 2011, 10:29:44 am »
this came up in a conversation with a Florida bee inspector the other day.  according to him, it is not the banana, it is the fungicide that the banana is treated with.  the info from him is that the banana has to be from South Amercia (as they don't use the same fungicide here...he did not specify the name of the fungicide).

of course the bees need to grow fungus as well (it is how they produce necessary sterols), and as far as i know, no one has looked at the possible (and likely) downsides.

deknow

Offline Acebird

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 8108
  • Gender: Male
  • Just do it
Re: banana on top of inner cover
« Reply #45 on: April 10, 2011, 09:01:21 pm »
I feel quit pleased that our bees made it through the winter when everyone else is having bad luck.  There should not be any fungicide on the banana that I gave them because we eat only organic bananas.  Up until today the bees were only using the top entrance.  I see today that they have unblocked another entrance that was sealed up in the first deep and some are using that.  There appears to be very few bees using the actual bottom entrance.
Brian Cardinal
Just do it

Offline Grieth

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 113
  • Gender: Male
Re: banana on top of inner cover
« Reply #46 on: April 10, 2011, 10:08:34 pm »
I lot of beekeepers in Melbourne, Australia say it works.

I put a banana in the top of a hive with chalk brood about a fortnight ago (yes it did seem silly - and looked silly on the hive mat), as well as feeding some suger water laced with Lemon Scented Tea Tree essential oil (about 0.1% - one part per thousand).  Problem has eased a lot from seeing tens fo mummies each day to only one or two every other day.  Last time I opened the hive I misted with a 1:1 sugar syrup with 0.1% oil again in a spray bottle so it would get on the frames in case there were spores left on the frames. The oil has been found effective in scientific testinig: see 'Control of chalkbrood disease with natural products' A report for the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation by Dr Craig Davis and Wendy Ward  (sorry there is no link, but the site wouldn't let me put the link in - google will find it with this info if you want to read it). Interestingly banana essence was not found to be effective, but the researchers said:

There is some anecdotal evidence in Australia that banana fruit placed in hives is an effective control for chalkbrood. Our research has failed to find any inhibitory action of banana extract when it is incorporated into an  in vitro culture system. Any beneficial effect that banana fruit placed within the hive might have in controlling or reducing the severity of chalkbrood would most probably arise from volatiles evolved by the fruit. It is not inconceivable that the fruit might evolve one or more volatile compounds that are inhibitory to the spore germination or mycelial growth of the causal fungus A. apis. Such fungistatic or fungitoxic/fungicidal  volatiles might be the normal products of fruit metabolism or the products of microbial degradation of the fruit as it senesces. The banana fruit contains at least 200 individual volatile components (Palmer, 1971). Many more volatile compounds, including fermentation products, could arise from microbial action (Sureh and Ethiraj, 1991). Fermentation products (ethanol and acetaldehyde)  have been shown to inhibit mould growth on oranges (Yuen et al., 1995).

My italians couldn't care less about the banana, and the syrup with essential oil really perks them up - they love it more than straight syrup.  At present I am happy to leave the banana in there: it's doing no harm, and it is plausible that it could be helping with the gas it emits as it goes off  :-D
"The time has come," the walrus said, "to talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kingsā€
Lewis Carroll

Offline Michael Bush

  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 19805
  • Gender: Male
    • bushfarms.com
Re: banana on top of inner cover
« Reply #47 on: April 11, 2011, 01:30:39 am »
I usually do nothing for chalkbrood.  Next time I come back it's usually gone...
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
-------------------
"Everything works if you let it."--James "Big Boy" Medlin

 

anything