From page 13 to mishandling of the bees by the beekeepers. The third question,“ Does the fault lie with the beekeeper?” beggars the answer that there are some instances that the beekeeper can be at fault. He catches a feral swarm in a tree that has found a desirable place to set up home, places the swarm in a beehive brood chamber, confines the queen so that she is not able to fly out and places the unit in a nice warm sunny position. These bees are stressed, the box is too small and too hot and the ventilation very poor. The queen starts egg laying and once there is brood the beekeeper removes the restriction of the queen. This swarm will not develop to any sizable producing swarm and will recede in numbers. The next beekeeper has a beautiful strong swarm loaded with 20 kg of honey. To his
Colony Collapse Disorder... deserted hive with unfinished comb
absolute delight, he crops off all the honey and the swarm dies of starvation because he has not left enough honey for the bees to continue. Then there is the ignorant fellow who overstocks his apiary with 20 swarms when the carrying capacity of the areas is only sufficient for eight swarms. The swarms die of starvation or swarm off to find better hunting grounds. There is that greedy beekeeper who continually moves his swarms and follows the next flowering crop. He does not rest his queens, who eventually stop laying and the swarms recede and die out. The wax moth takes over and
BEEKEEPING
he blames the wax moth invasion and not his total ignorance that queens need at least 14 weeks rest per year. Then there is the beekeeper who moves his hives at night without closing down the entrances. During the travel to the new site, the confused swarms, shaken up on the thumping truck, move out of the hive brood chamber. He off loads, thumps the hives down in the new and strange locations. When daylight sets in the queens are lost to absolute confusion and they move away leaving most of the swarm behind to die. The newcomer to beekeeping, a keen and enthusiastic nature lover, too often opens his hives to see how things are getting on. He breaks the seals the bees have made to control the inner temperatures of the hive, perhaps exposing the
Continued on page 17
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