Okay Annette, you are in the middle of it now. 1. You can keep checking every few days for queen cells and cut them out. 2. You can move full combs out of the brood nest, replacing with empty combs. Empty comb is great to open up the brood next. 3. Make an artificial swarm, which is simply dividing the colony to make two, which can be left as two or recombined later. They sound really healthy, which is great. You are doing well. Don’t give up now.

It is always scary seeing and hearing oneself on TV. Ugh.

Beekeeping, being a climate/area specific craft, it would be helpful if you printed the state or climate the questioner is asking from. Even so, I’m still learning from your Classroom and am amazed at the variety of subjects brought up. However, being inept on the Internet, I am unable to post my questions on the different web pages available. So, here goes: 1. We had a lecturer at the local bee club who pointed out how little difference there is in the U.S. bee gene pool. ABJ has also had articles reporting how little difference there is. So, why aren’t we importing more European queens? That would increase the gene pool would it not? Do they have some dread disease we don’t have?

2. A recent ABJ article explained why we are interested in Russian Bees, but failed to say what local beekeepers do about mites there in Russia. What do they do?

3. Are bees indigenous to Australia or were they imported similarly to U.S.? If so, where from and why are we interested in them? Does Australia have mites and other interesting critters we might import?

4. Thymol—does it kill tracheal mites?

5. We in western Washington harvest blackberry honey about mid July. So, we are reducing our hive’s space to about half of what it was. I worry about swarming due to overcrowding versus the need to treat for mites (without supers on to contaminate wax). Any ideas?

6. I have been experimenting with comb honey. I got the old wood boxes from a beekeeper, jury-rigged it, and did very well. Next year I put in hard plastic holders for comb honey (I think called Hogg Halfcomb). It took two years before they would touch it. A friend used Bee-O-Pac (flexible plastic) and they wouldn’t touch it. Has anyone done a study about the acceptance of plastic in the hive? Just like a new car, it smells when it gets warm. I think this may be why they didn’t take to it. Your thoughts?

Dear Zillion, you are correct that there are some management modifications that need to be done based on region and climate primarily. But, there are many generalities as well and with not everyone identifying where they are located, sometimes the general answer is what is offered. You have good questions. Let me give them a try.

1) The genetic diversity in the North American honey bee population is not great. I think actually Dr. Steve Sheppard at Washington State has studied this and has it well documented. The USDA has been importing queens from Russia, as you note, for their excellent Russian Bee Project. Queens have been imported into Canada from Australia and New Zealand for years. Queens and packages have been coming into the US from Australia for the last couple of years and then we have the African Bee from Africa that has moved up from Brazil into the US. Most of our problems in the honey bee industry the last 15 years or so are from invasive imported pests and predators and perhaps some diseases such as the tracheal mite, the varroa mite, the small hive beetle and perhaps a new pathogen that is causing Colony Collapse Disorder. There are other honey bee mites and viruses in other countries that we do not need nor can we handle at this time.

2) Just like U.S. beekeepers, many Russian beekeepers select from survivor stock. But, they have access to miticides as well because there is no completely mite-tolerant (mellifera) honey bee.

3) Honey bees came to Australia just like they came to the US—someone brought them from Europe. U.S. and Canadian beekeepers have been importing queens and packages from Australian producers because the Australians worked long and hard to gain permission to export bees to the U.S. and Canada. Also, many other countries may not have the capability to actually produce and ship thousands of queens and packages when U.S. beekeepers need them. Australians do have many of the same bee disease and pest problems that U.S. beekeepers have, but so far, they have not detected varroa mites in their country.

4) Thymol in the correct dosage also kills tracheal mites, in addition to its labeled use for varroa mite control.

5) This is a common conundrum for beekeepers about when to treat for maximum effectiveness. Products like Apiguard have a wider use window than some of the strip miticides, so you may find some flexibility there. Powdered sugar for mite control can be used at any time. You have options.

6) All comb honey production requires lots of bees, lots of nectar coming in, and a place to store it. Leave out one of these and comb honey in wooden boxes or plastic boxes becomes more difficult. You are right that plastic can off gas funky smells that may offend the comb builders, but a coating of beeswax over the plastic entices and helps work begin on and in plastic equipment.

Dr. Tom Seeley wrote an article for the November 2006 ABJ that shows plastic foundation does, indeed, hinder comb building and honey production. However, its durability and labor savings must be weighed against this down side.

You may not have to post questions to dubious locations if you can use one of the search engines such as Google. You can entertain yourself for hours with Google searches on bee topics.


	The Classroom (cont.) by Jerry Hayes Please send your questions to Jerry Hayes, 17505 NW Hwy 335, Williston, FL 32696 Email: gwhayes54@yahoo.com

		Swarm Worries (cont.) A Okay Annette, you are in the middle of it now. 1. You can keep checking every few days for queen cells and cut them out. 2. You can move full combs out of the brood nest, replacing with empty combs. Empty comb is great to open up the brood next. 3. Make an artificial swarm, which is simply dividing the colony to make two, which can be left as two or recombined later. They sound really healthy, which is great. You are doing well. Don’t give up now. It is always scary seeing and hearing oneself on TV. Ugh. Q Better Than Google? Beekeeping, being a climate/area specific craft, it would be helpful if you printed the state or climate the questioner is asking from. Even so, I’m still learning from your Classroom and am amazed at the variety of subjects brought up. However, being inept on the Internet, I am unable to post my questions on the different web pages available. So, here goes: 1. We had a lecturer at the local bee club who pointed out how little difference there is in the U.S. bee gene pool. ABJ has also had articles reporting how little difference there is. So, why aren’t we importing more European queens? That would increase the gene pool would it not? Do they have some dread disease we don’t have? 2. A recent ABJ article explained why we are interested in Russian Bees, but failed to say what local beekeepers do about mites there in Russia. What do they do? 3. Are bees indigenous to Australia or were they imported similarly to U.S.? If so, where from and why are we interested in them? Does Australia have mites and other interesting critters we might import? 4. Thymol—does it kill tracheal mites? 5. We in western Washington harvest blackberry honey about mid July. So, we are reducing our hive’s space to about half of what it was. I worry about swarming due to overcrowding versus the need to treat for mites (without supers on to contaminate wax). Any ideas? 6. I have been experimenting with comb honey. I got the old wood boxes from a beekeeper, jury-rigged it, and did very well. Next year I put in hard plastic holders for comb honey (I think called Hogg Halfcomb). It took two years before they would touch it. A friend used Bee-O-Pac (flexible plastic) and they wouldn’t touch it. Has anyone done a study about the acceptance of plastic in the hive? Just like a new car, it smells when it gets warm. I think this may be why they didn’t take to it. Your thoughts? A Zillion questions from Washington A Dear Zillion, you are correct that there are some management modifications that need to be done based on region and climate primarily. But, there are many generalities as well and with not everyone identifying where they are located, sometimes the general answer is what is offered. You have good questions. Let me give them a try. 1) The genetic diversity in the North American honey bee population is not great. I think actually Dr. Steve Sheppard at Washington State has studied this and has it well documented. The USDA has been importing queens from Russia, as you note, for their excellent Russian Bee Project. Queens have been imported into Canada from Australia and New Zealand for years. Queens and packages have been coming into the US from Australia for the last couple of years and then we have the African Bee from Africa that has moved up from Brazil into the US. Most of our problems in the honey bee industry the last 15 years or so are from invasive imported pests and predators and perhaps some diseases such as the tracheal mite, the varroa mite, the small hive beetle and perhaps a new pathogen that is causing Colony Collapse Disorder. There are other honey bee mites and viruses in other countries that we do not need nor can we handle at this time. 2) Just like U.S. beekeepers, many Russian beekeepers select from survivor stock. But, they have access to miticides as well because there is no completely mite-tolerant (mellifera) honey bee. 3) Honey bees came to Australia just like they came to the US—someone brought them from Europe. U.S. and Canadian beekeepers have been importing queens and packages from Australian producers because the Australians worked long and hard to gain permission to export bees to the U.S. and Canada. Also, many other countries may not have the capability to actually produce and ship thousands of queens and packages when U.S. beekeepers need them. Australians do have many of the same bee disease and pest problems that U.S. beekeepers have, but so far, they have not detected varroa mites in their country. 4) Thymol in the correct dosage also kills tracheal mites, in addition to its labeled use for varroa mite control. 5) This is a common conundrum for beekeepers about when to treat for maximum effectiveness. Products like Apiguard have a wider use window than some of the strip miticides, so you may find some flexibility there. Powdered sugar for mite control can be used at any time. You have options. 6) All comb honey production requires lots of bees, lots of nectar coming in, and a place to store it. Leave out one of these and comb honey in wooden boxes or plastic boxes becomes more difficult. You are right that plastic can off gas funky smells that may offend the comb builders, but a coating of beeswax over the plastic entices and helps work begin on and in plastic equipment. Dr. Tom Seeley wrote an article for the November 2006 ABJ that shows plastic foundation does, indeed, hinder comb building and honey production. However, its durability and labor savings must be weighed against this down side. You may not have to post questions to dubious locations if you can use one of the search engines such as Google. You can entertain yourself for hours with Google searches on bee topics.

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