Beekeeping Through the Eyes of a Biologist
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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 […]
Read MoreI 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.
Read MoreContents 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: […]
Read MoreContents 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 […]
Read MoreDRAFT 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 […]
Read MoreContents 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 […]
Read MoreContents 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 […]
Read MoreSupplementary 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, […]
Read MoreAbout 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 […]
Read MoreContents 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 […]
Read More2022 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 […]
Read MoreAn 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 […]
Read MoreHOPGUARD 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 […]
Read MoreContents 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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