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Author Topic: ? for cutout guys. Do you quarentine cutouts ?  (Read 1597 times)

Offline Maryland Beekeeper

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? for cutout guys. Do you quarentine cutouts ?
« on: November 15, 2012, 11:53:55 am »
Hi all,
  I am thinking that by continually bringing in cutouts, most of which were infested, I am making life tough on the healthy colonies, not to mention the risk of disease.  Do you keep a separate yard for cutouts to get them cleaned up before introduction to apiary ?
Cheers,
Drew

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: ? for cutout guys. Do you quarentine cutouts ?
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2012, 12:44:05 pm »
No. So far most of the cutouts are better equipped to handle the local problems than the bees that I originally bought. Most of them are old hives with genes to handle the mites and beetles. I will see how they survive this winter to know for sure. Only my late season swarms are weak right now and I plan on adding a few frames on capped honey to help them through the winter. My OB hive is the weakest hive due to a problem with the bees dieing in the tube and blocking it up. Lost half of the bees last month before I figured out the problem and fixed it. They have very few mites and handle the beetles quite well. Their genes came from a feral hive and they are very hygienic, they do a lot of grooming as well as cleaning out infected cells early.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
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Offline iddee

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Re: ? for cutout guys. Do you quarentine cutouts ?
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2012, 03:01:53 pm »
No, but I do watch a new hive closely, and have burned a couple when AFB was found.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

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