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tdreampo t1_j39de5v wrote

Reply to comment by groundhogcow in A biotech firm says the U.S. has approved its vaccine for honeybees by BorgesBorgesBorges60

Granted I’m a super amateur beekeeper so I have a lot to learn but my understanding is that a Warre will help with mites because the bees will remove them themselves in that environment. Is that not correct?

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white_bread t1_j3a2uq3 wrote

I've been keeping bees for 8 years now and I feel like it's the strain of the bees, not the type of hive, that determines if they can deal with the mites or simply collapse. I have bought boxes of Italian and Hawaiian bees and they didn't make it. They were a mess and needed all kinds of medications and acids just to stay alive. I caught a few feral swarms. These are bees that have learned to live on their own and thrive. I literally stopped all meds and feeding. They just live. Every once in a while I pull a few frames of honey from the super but never even open or check the lower boxes.

The downside to my bees living and also living without me taking their entire hive apart every two weeks to tend to them is that I had to leave the bee-keeping group I was in because they consider me a crappy beekeeper who is screwing up the entire ecosystem. My hives, to them, are known as dirty hives. They look at my hives as a varroa mite factory. Those mites, in their mind, will eventually end up on their highly bred bees and they will have the add even more medication and treatments to prop them up. When I explain that my bees already existed out in the wild and I'm simply giving them a safe place to live they really don't care. I got tired of the snide remarks and felt it was time to leave the group.

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groundhogcow t1_j39l8fv wrote

We are start someware so it's cool.

The primary proponent of Warre hives is into "natural beekeeping" in which the hive is only a part.

He also encourages swarm catching. In particular wild swarm catching as apposed to caching swarms of tame bees.

The swarm of wild bees are still alive because they are good at fighting off disease and taking care of mites. At least in theory. So it's the bees that make them resistant not the hive. I tried a swarm catcher this year but didn't get one so I am still raising my Italian girls. I have Carolina bees coming which I am told are better at mite control but still to the point they need beekeeper help. I got them for there better cold weather behavior and not there mite control properties.

Lanthanum hives are just traditional and what all the equipment is designed for. There are a bunch of other types. Warre being one with some interesting designs but it's the bees that make them disease and mite resistant. You should find out ore about hives in plastic bottles and the Bee-Barn which are getting a lot of attention. (If I could just buy a bee barn I would have two tomorrow.)

Hives and beekeeping methods need to be done together. Some types of bees need different things then others. Like any type of livestock the care required depends on the breed. I really like the warre hives but it's notat I am doing currently. I might if my swarm catcher gets me some wild bees.

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IceZOMBIES t1_j39rjrv wrote

Bees are pretty fuckin cool. Well, at least the nice non-killer ones are.

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tdreampo t1_j3cz7da wrote

So Im reading about bee barns and it looks like those are for non honey bees mainly? Is that correct? I use Warre’ hives because I do want honey but I try to do everything as aligned with nature as possible. I have a substantial organic garden and I use similar principals. I got very much in to the work of Masanobu Fukuoka and I try to apply his principles of working with nature to almost everything I do including bee keeping. My main goal is to produce almost all of my own food and have enough extra to sell at farmers markets to pay the mortgage on my property. Making my property self sustaining. I should reach that goal in one or two more seasons. Interestingly enough working with nature in a garden like this is substantially less work then regular yard maintenance. As I use cover crops and mulch, as well as Ollas for extra watering if needed. So it’s basically, plant seeds direct, then harvest when ripe. I can leave the garden alone for weeks with very little consequence and I want to bee keep the same way. Thats why Warre‘ is so appealing to me, I basically leave the bees alone, then weigh the hive to make sure they have enough honey for the winter and then harvest what honey is left. So I only bug the bees once a year, and boy does my garden like the bees! I admittedly have never used a Langston hive, although I do own one. I just don’t like the idea of constantly invading the bee’s home. I’m only a few seasons in, so I’m very new to this. But it’s an incredible world!

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groundhogcow t1_j3eeqea wrote

Not the bee barns I am talking about. Likely we are in the wrong bubbles. Go here and watch vino farms in there fist year experimenting with the bear barns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z768OIA3bMo

I am interested in that type of bees you have. Are they wild bees from a caught swarm are did you buy them someplace?

Different types of bees need different types of care. I think wild bees might be ok in what your setup is but something like Italian bees would have an issue. I like the Warre hives but the low inspection rate concerns me. There are cases where it would be ok though.

When I inspect my hives I am looking at several things.

  1. Do they have enough space.
  2. Are they bringing in enough food.
  3. Has anything happened to the queen.
  4. Are any pests damaging the bees, wax moths, hive beetles, mites, mice, and bears. (Bears are easy to detect)
  5. Have they caught any diseases. Like Foulbreed disease remember that one. Or several others.

Tame bees should be kept from swarming. They can't make it on there own and become big bundles of disease and mites that infect others with there drones or robbing. Wild bees require much less attention but it would be good to still check them occasionally for deceases.

You can not be sure about honey production with wild bees so I hope you got some good ones.

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