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09 August, 2008
Natural Bees Or Harvesting Established Ferals

Did you buy your bees or harvest established ferals? Going natural with
purchased bees can be a challenge and is a process that can take some
time and TLC. However, I'd rather lose weak bees and free up my
equipment to gather or split strong bees than be burdened by weak hives.
That is where the difference lies between natural beeks and artificial
beeks - for us it's like... seed-saving. If you have special tomatoes
that are the pride of your garden, you want to save the seeds. But you
only save the seeds of the strong and well producers. If any die in your
garden, you're happy because those seeds will not be used next year's
garden and your seed collection is stronger and purer. Same the next
year. However, if you buy hybrids that do better in New England but
you're trying to make them grow in Arizona, you'll likely end up in
failure - but that can be turned into a good thing as you learn from the
failure and try again with tomatoes that are more suited for your area
and already strong - perhaps seeds traded over the fence from a
seed-saving neighbor.

With bees, the same holds true. Package bees have to be coddled more
depending on the environmental differences and are more likely to fail
the second year or so, or even after the first winter. They often
contain bees that are not well suited to your environment, and/or have
not been regressed in cell size and/or have AI queens which produce a
weaker brood than a naturally bred queen. But, if you don't coddle bees
- many of those will die off. However, better to lose most and build
back up with the strong than continue hobbling along.

So, get out there and get some ferals. Run them on 4.9mm foundation or
even without foundations. I use top-bar hives and have recently finished
building a cutout hive based on my long-hive design which uses a
marriage of the TBH top-bar to a deep-frame in a long hive - both
without the use of supers and allowing the bees to form their own comb
according to their own needs. My hives have no landing-boards, which
reduces SHB intrusion as well as rodent intrusion, and the entrances are
up high which reduces environmental stresses in the hive. I don't treat
them for anything. No powdered sugar, no grease, no nothing. They find
their own food - here it's mesquite primarily and wildflowers in the
early Spring, and they clean their own hive and deal with their own
pests. I maintain their brood-space to be sure they have enough room and
I monitor their strength. I examine for pests too - tho I've not found
any yet. Later on this month I'll examine the drone cells for mites -
but the small cell bees deal with mites very easily.

This is about as low-wattage a beekeeping as one can get.

My favorite source of bees are cutouts - that means I'm cutting bees out
of walls that would otherwise be poisoned. One hive was actually a
failed poison attempt - I came in two months after the fact and pulled
out a robust colony. Second to that is bee-trees. I don't cut them out
tho - I'll position swarm traps around them each year or even twice a
year. These trees represent strong bees that have survive seasons with
zero human intervention - that's the genetics I am after.

The commercial industry tries to convince you that feral bees are AHB's
- but in reality, feral bees are just kept bees that are on their own,
having escaped commercial hives years ago - decades ago here - and gone
thru the test of survival of the fittest. I've never had a hot cutout
and my bees are docile and we are in an area here that's supposed to be
"hot" for AHB according to the media. Rubbish. Nevertheless - don't
spend a dime on bees - the proven survivors you're after are available
for free - and you can even get paid to remove them. Be selective and
observe their condition as you cut them out. Look for duration of hive -
you want hives that have been there for years if possible. New hives
could be from neighboring and poorly managed apiaries and you really
don't want those. Keep the best. Kill the rest. Don't feel guilty -
nature does that anyway. Then as your best hives mature, perform splits
to multiply your collection. It'll take a year or two for your new hives
to "grow up".

A good group to hang out at and help you along the third try - which
will succeed - is http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/organicbeekeepers/
A good reference on natural beekeeping is
http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm and
http://www.beesource.com/pov/lusby/index.htm

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Written at Saturday, August 09, 2008 by Andy Mahoney.
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