How often do you rotate your comb?
I'm shooting for every four years. I'm also trying to move to natural comb in the brood chambers. I played with that a bit last year and it went well, so will keep moving down that road. I write the year new foundation or a new frame is placed in the hive on the top of my frame for better identification. I didn't start that way, though, so am going by looks on some of them.
How often do you use chemicals for mites?
I don't use any and I don't rotate comb out. If I were using Fluvalinate, cumophos etc., I'd be anxious to get them out as soon as possible...
Yes but many people would be surprised at what the bees bring back-the wax is a sink
lots of sub lethal and trace amounts in pollen and wax--RDY-B
Five year rotation program. :)
Quote from: rdy-b on January 31, 2012, 01:09:13 AM
Yes but many people would be surprised at what the bees bring back-the wax is a sink
lots of sub lethal and trace amounts in pollen and wax--RDY-B
I agree!
Here is a page on my website detailing the testing of pollen from my own yards. Go down to the chemical listing results labeled "Home Yard".
http://www.bjornapiaries.com/researchatbjorns.html (http://www.bjornapiaries.com/researchatbjorns.html)
Although not one beekeeper applied chemical was found which is what we were testing for, Atrizine (the most commonly used herbicide) and Phenothrin (A chemical used for flea and tick control) was found in the samples being brought back from foraging bees. The Atrizine was no shock since it is used almost everywhere on many crops. The Phenothrin was somewhat surprising and was traced back to a neighboring property that treated cattle a few times per year with flea dips. The levels found are rather minimal. But it illustrates perfectly how bees drag stuff from all over the countryside. And after several years, with the buildup of chemicals, it can become detrimental to bees in a short period of time. Especially if the beekeeper is placing additional chemicals in the hive (or as they will probably conclude later, the hitting of these chemicals with acid treatments changing the makeup).
I would say rotating your comb out in about 5 years is about right. Without testing, you could never actually know what your comb contains.
I've heard many claim they have "clean" comb, and some even suggest they have done testing of their comb after a period of time, and claim to have NO or low chemical residue in their hives after the comb is some particular age. It would be nice for anyone making those claims to post the comb diagnosis results on this forum for all to see. Knowing what we know after 5 years of CCD research, assuming anything is not worthy of even mentioning in claims.
At the North American Beekeeping Conference and Trade Show in Vegas a couple weeks ago (the large annual ABF meeting), the message at many of the scientific sessions was to replace comb as often as is possible (few gave specifics). The amount of virus, pesticides, and fungus spores entombed in pollen cells, on comb, or on the frames was noted as the rationale. It seemed clear that they were talking about replacement of more often than every 5 years. Marla Spivak made comment on this many times in her talks. There were a couple really good talks on the sub-lethal impact of pesticides on honey bees that made the recommendations compelling.
David Mendes the president of ABF (and one of the commercial beekeepers in the movie Vanishing of the Bees) commented in one of his talks that his goal now is to replace 50% of his comb each year (although it seemed he was implying that this was going to be a goal that would be difficult to achieve, but that he felt was important to try).
If you haven't been to one of these ABF meetings I highly recommend it (next year's is in Hershey Pennsylvania). It was 3.5 days of very interesting sessions given often by USDA, University, and other researchers. Very informative even if some talks were geared to large pollinator services (well there was also parallel full day sessions for "serious sideliners").
3 year rotation. My stretch goal is rotating comb out of the brood nest so that the cluster never overwinters on the same comb twice.