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Natural Beekeeping: A Reckoning

There is a great deal of argument about how “naturally” we beekeepers should manage our colonies.  But the mere act of “keeping” bees implies that it is unnatural.  Truly natural “beekeeping” would be to set out empty cavities (hives or other hollows) for swarms to move into (but not more cavities than would “naturally” exist […]

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The Evolution of a Beekeeper

I liked this article by Ernie, since it well reflected the typical learning curve of a newbee.  The article originally appeared in the Summer 2023 edition of BeesCene, the journal of the BC Honey Producers’ Association, and is here included by permission.

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A Study on Bee Drift and Mite Immigration: Part 4

Contents Distance that Worker Bees will Drift 1 Effect of Distance upon Bee Drift 4 Hive-to-Hive Variation in Captured Tags 7 Validating our Methodology. 8 Mite Immigration: Results of the Stickyboard Counts. 10 Cumulative Mite Immigration. 11 Next Month. 12 Acknowledgements. 13 Citations and Notes 13     A Study on Bee and Mite Drift: […]

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A Study on Bee Drift and Mite Immigration: Part 3

Contents The Donor Colonies 1 Tagging. 1 Results and Discussion. 2 Did the Tagged Bees Behave Normally?. 2 Progress of the Colonies. 4 Answering our Questions 4 Observations from the Donor Hives. 5 Correlation With Varroa Infestation. 6 Tag Recovery by Date. 8 Timelines of Recovery of Drifted Bees 9 Relevance to Mite Immigration. 10 […]

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Suggested wording and pitch for an Own Use Exemption

DRAFT IN PROGRESS updated 24 June 2023 Suggested Text for an Amendment to FIFRA I have zero legal background, but suggest that we pitch a short and sweet amendment to be placed in the Farm Bill.  There is already a section in FIFRA 40 CFR 152.25 regarding exemptions. § 152.25 Exemptions for pesticides of a character […]

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A Study on Bee Drift and Mite Immigration: Part 1

  Contents Introduction Was Another Field Study Justified? Background Research The Biology Behind Mite Transfer Between Hives How Much Mite Immigration Actually Occurs? How Do the Mites Get Transferred? How Important is the Drifting of Drones? How Much Drift is There of Worker Bees? How Important are the Guard Bees? Do Mites and Viruses Cause […]

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A Study on Bee and Mite Drift: Part 2

 Contents Questions to Answer 1 Materials and Methods 2 Placement of the hives 2 Preparation of the Mite Donor Colonies. 3 Tagging the bees 3 The Control Group. 7 Preparation of the Mite Receiver Hives 7 Eliminating the mites. 7 Magnetic tag recovery. 9 The stickyboards. 10 The hive scales. 10 Layout of the Donor […]

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Screenshots of hive weights

Supplementary material for A Study on Bee and Mite Drift, Part 5 Due to unfamiliarity with data preservation for the scale hives, we lost all our raw data when we removed the batteries from the scales at the end of the trial. Luckily, I had been following the weight data during the course of the trial, […]

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Concepts in varroa management 2023

2023 Concepts in varroa management

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About Randy

About me To start with, among other things, I’m a honey bee researcher, so if you’re not comfortable with honey bees being around, read no more I’m a healthy, youthful, happy, high-energy, and loving guy, finally over the heartache of losing my beloved wife.  So I’m now looking for a new life partner and soul […]

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Walking the Walk Selective Breeding for Mite Resistance; 2022 Update, Part 1

Contents Resistance vs. Tolerance or “Survival” 1 Managed apiaries vs. natural evolution. 2 Background. 3 The necessity of Mechanical Agitators 3 The resistant colonies 6 So what’s our progress so far?. 10 A built-in lag inherent in open mating programs 13 Exhibit A: Mite-count tracking for our 2022 breeders 14 Coming. 16 References. 16   […]

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2022 Extended-Release Oxalic Update: Part 1

2022 Extended-Release Oxalic Update Part 1 Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in ABJ March 2022   As more and more beekeepers try to wean themselves off amitraz, there is great interest in oxalic acid.  Unfortunately, a dose of OA by any of the currently-approved application methods exhibits little residual action, so has limited efficacy if […]

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An Online Model for Varroa Management

An Online Model for Varroa Management Randy Oliver and Trish Harness First published in ABJ February 2022   Beekeepers worldwide have been using Randy’s Varroa Model with great success since its release in 2017.  But there has been a demand for an online version that did not require Excel, and could be used on a […]

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Hopguard 3 as a Summer Treatment

HOPGUARD 3 AS A SUMMER TREATMENT Beekeeper-Funded Research Randy Oliver, with collaboration by Aris Roberts First published in ABJ February 2022   In the summer of 2020, I tested using Hopguard 3 to control varroa. Unfortunately, the label was not clear, and I didn’t realize that for summer treatment I was allowed to repeat the […]

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A Comparative Trial of the Pollen Subs: Part 5– Revisiting de Groot

   Contents Diving into de groot Understanding what De Groot did The problem with normalizing to tryptophan Re-interpreting de groot’s findings Protein conversion — Patty into bees Justus von Liebig’s Law of the Minimum and essential amino acids My diet calculator So how about the tested diets? The homebrew formulation Not yet done … References […]

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