Naturally

[Jeremy Kosciuch]

Currently, the western honeybee is under extreme duress. Where do the bees go when they just disappear? Is it cell phone radiation? Well to address this you have to address the bug itself, some interesting bee facts are in order. The honeybee navigates by sight, using the sun and other visual cues. Think about it, a foraging bee can find 1 tree in a whole forest. The ones that just disappear are now thought to have absconded, and the ones hat dwindle suddenly some pesticide is likely the culprit either killing them on the way home or messing up their nervous system. The wax in those hives was highly toxic, and the few remaining bees were disease and parasite ridden. I mentioned parasite, the varroa destructor, a mite ( gift of globalization). Like a tick, it sucks hemolymph (blood) from the bee and also vectors in disease. As a double whammy this little sucker also reproduces within the capped cell with the bee pupae. Add this little bugger, which is everywhere now I think even Hawaii, not sure about other countries, to the already abusive practices used by us and you have disaster. I say abuse, because I feel as though commercial practices border on abuse. moving bees in a truck is very hard on them, as well as single crop forage. Yes the ancients moved bees up and down on the Nile on barges, but there were no warehouses for winter, forklifts, nets, 18 wheelers. the barges were smooth, purpose built and followed the bloom slowly with the season allowing the bees maximum variety, which is key. I like bees, cause I don't wanna eat oatmeal all the time. bees are the same, through multiple forage, they acquire the minerals etc from the nectar that just is not there in sugar. Yes, I move my bees, 5 or 6 miles down the road for 8 weeks when I make a split, and then to their permanent home. These mites are a problem for all. Much success has been had by scientifically breeding them for varroa resistance, My bees are queened with survivor stock, and are doing great. Basically the bees go in teams, the first will smell out the (mites/infected pupae?) and uncap the cell it is in. Then the others will begin cleaning the cell of brood, mite everything. I have seen half pupae in the middle of capped brood, it is the only explanation. These bees also seem more inclined to corner hive beetles and groom each other more frequently, knocking mites off, which then fall through the screen bottom of the modern hive. Also, after honey season I dust them with powdered sugar, it makes them clean and a lot of mites get knocked off. Where do the mites come from? Flowers, they fall off other bees and hitch rides on ours.
The latest theory, and research and trials are promising, natural sized cells. See here go us people again, not only do we have to poison the land and put poisons in our hives to kill these mites that we introduced, but some genius a long time ago decided bigger was better. Printed foundation was fairly new at the time, and the cell size was increased to 5.4 mm i think. bees in the wild make worker cells anywhere from 4.6 to 4.9, or so I have read in multiple places. This year I am starting to go foundationless. When you multiply that increase into 3 dimensions, you get a bee about half again as big as natural. Great work horse right? no. See a bigger bee takes longer at least a full day as a larvae and another as a pupae. That means more time for the baby mites to mature more and breed more effectively. Mites prefer the drone comb because of this time factor. I urge anyone keeping bees to use drone comb, a wild beehive has more like 10 percent drones, useful if u have a hive trying to re queen. also a good way to cull mites in a langstroth.
I will put no chemical in my hives, no antibiotic, no miticides, not even the new feeds they have out. If I have to feed in an emergency, i will add some essential oils like honeybeehealthy to the mix is all. If my bees get somethin and die, Im gonna burn the frames, scorch the inside of the box with a torch and get different bees, or work off the ones I got that are making it.
Being in the South, Africanized honeybees may become a problem, so i use marked queens and keep an eye on em. I also flood the area with good hygienic drones to water down anything that may be out there, as well as help out the neighboring beekepers in their home grown queening efforts.
We brought the honey bee here from europe and agriculture is heavily dependent on the. The benefits of the bee go way beyond pollination and honey. Since we brought em here and need em, we have good naturedly been screwin em up since