First of all if you do not have mites (and are sure) do not buy or use anyone elses used equipment (more a concern for other problems). There are more natural defenses that may work. I have also been a beekeeper on and off for many years. The last time we got up to 75 hives and became quite known for our quality honey which we sold in our health food store. The local beekeepers in our area were not even trying to go organic. And I understood. If you have to buy/replace a large percentage of your hive's bees each year, you could never make a living. The only people in the area that did not get the mites were hobby beekeepers who were somewhat isolated and fortunate. We tried essentail oils working with a bug doc in some SE University, we tried lots of stuff - and we never figured it out to the point where we were making money at it. We did refuse to use the chemicals, but the choice that some "organic" beekeepers use is formic acid. I refused to use that as well. There are other ideas including a smaller cell size and of course breeding attempts, but the problem is huge and important. But I had other sources of income and though I was researching several aspects of beekeeping and honey production, I sure sympathized with the beekeepers who needed the honey revenue. Beekeepers are a wonderful lot.
Do support your local beekeeper, and you may get a better quality of honey if you ask about his mite methods - some will go right for the banned poisons, and they don't have to be "factory" operations. There is no way that you NEED to feed sugar water. Leave them a whole super of honey, enough to get them through the winter AND the spring. Save some supers w honey in the frames to feed them in the spring if they need it - check in those early warm days, that's when they starve. Only if you have no other honey saved and they need something must you use sugar. Others use it because it is a cheap substitute for the honey. I am not an expert on silver (or bees) but mites themselves would likely be unaffected. Still, it may provide some protection for other bee ills - beekeepers do use antibiotics for some things - don't know about silver as a replacement. By not medicating you would present an oppotunity to keep strong hives that MAY be strong enough to not be killed off if and when infected by the mites or other natural stresses - and then develop resistant offspring. That would only help the population. I say Don't medicate - especially if you have no reason to do it. But keep an eye on your hives....man, I miss it. You can do a world of good just by replacing a queen... Maz Wendy <[email protected]> wrote: Deb: My husband and I have 2 hobby hives for honey for our own use. I've tried and tried to find information supporting not medicating them and not feeding them sugar water but all of the beekeepers say there are no bees in Canada that are strong enough anymore and that it must be done. I told my husband about Juliette Levy and how she says in her old herbal books over the years says that they should NOT be medicated at all and that they should be fed their own honey rather then the sugar water. He argues that it is now 2006 and things have changed. I asked my husband what would happen if we didn't medicate and he said we could jeopardize other beekeepers hives in the area, the wild bees too if ours got infected, plus you would lose all the bees. What is one to do??? I wonder if bowls of CS were placed near the hives would they 'drink' it?? Could it make them stronger to resist mites? Could you soak the hives in silver or spray them down??? Any thoughts? Musing..... Wendy > Problems with tracheal mites as well as other diseases can certainly be > seen as symptoms of a weakened constitution, the same sort of holistic > perspective we apply to human illnesses. In fact some observers of > commercial beekeeping practices predicted as early as the 1920s the demise > of honeybees that has occurred in the last 15 years. All bees, including > wild ones, have most definitely been affected by big Ag. with it's > pesticides and the overall degradation of their environment. Its likely > that the phenomenon of swarming has gradually affected wild bee genetics > as well. By the time mites showed up, the bees were already struggling > and thus less able to develop defenses. Of course, conventional > beekeeping as taught at the agricultural extension services virtually > refuses to recognize environmental sources of harm, much less that any of > the methods they promote might be detrimental. > DByron > -- > The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. > Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org > To post, address your message to: [email protected] > Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] > The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... > List maintainer: Mike Devour > -- --------------------------------- Yahoo! Autos. Looking for a sweet ride? Get pricing, reviews, & more on new and used cars.
