Bees bowling

[Burl]

  Hey Beeks ,    I don't have a wax moth problem here .  Maybe I'm too far North, or they just haven't found me yet .  Or it could be something else I do different ?   Right from the start of our beekeeping adventure ( spring 2006 ) I used cedar wood in my frames and entrance blocks .  Before I did that I had a concern that it might be somehow harmful to my bees .  So , I went on line and googled "honeybees cedar tree" , and found numerous stories of bees taking up residence inside hollow cedar trees .  My assumption is that they would not choose to inhabit a unhealthy environment , and that using cedar wood should be okay .  Well , our production of honey seems good for having started out with 2 nucs , 160lbs in 2006  , 140lbs in 2007 .  My colonies are thriving and I wonder if anyone else is using cedar and if they think there may be a benefit to it .   I use oxalic acid to treat for mites and I use it very sparingly ,  When I feed them in the spring I give them  Halls wintergreen cough drops in their syrup to treat for tracheal mites .  Something else has occurred to me  ( I am an obsessive compulsive thinker ) , termites are repelled by cedar wood ,  would it have a same or simular effect on varroa mites .  They are both classified as "mites" . Could this explain my almost non-existant mite and moth problem .  We really need to find alternatives to the chemical treatments .    Have a great day , I look forward to your responses !
                                   ---Burl---

[Cindi]

Burl, you have some good points about cedar.  Responses will be interesting.  Halls cough drops, hmmm....sounds good.  You are pretty far north in our B.C., sounds like you have done well with your two packages.  The Peace River area is where my original bee instructor takes his hives for the pollination of canola and other things, hundreds and hundreds of acres of beautiful forage for the bees.  He gets masses and I mean masses, of honey from these contracts!!!  Yeah, good for him, lots of work to get them there and back though, lots of bears to contend with to make the bees safe.  Have a wonderful day, greatest of life.  Cindi

[Michael Bush]

I have a number of cedar boxes and hives.  It makes no difference to the wax moths.

[Old Timer]

burl, have you ever had to store drawn wax that brood was raised in? i see this is only you second year of beekeeping so you have only had one opportunity to store comb. since you say your colonies are thriving i doubt if you have. as mr bush pointed out it makes no difference to the moths. termites and varoa are not related to one another any more than they are to a honey bee.

[Burl]

Old - Timer , no i have not had the chance to store drawn foundations that had brood raised in them .  My shallow supers with drawn frames that held honey were stored in plastic garbage bags which were sealed .   Cindi , I'm curious to hear what your instructor who kept bees up here would say about the mite and moth conditions here.  I've never tasted or seen canola honey. Wonder if it's good ? We have clover and fireweed.  We had an extra long winter last year ( don't they all seem extra long ? :-P ) I have heard that the v-mite can't survive if the host hive goes through an extended winter broodless period .  Does anyone know if this a fact ?   Don't mean to frighten anyone , but I just looked out the window and it's snowing .  By the way ,  I built a fortified extra tall 8ft snowfence along the North side of my beeyard to reduce the howling wind that batters everything here sometimes .      ---Burl---

[Cindi]

Burl, have not had a chance to ask my instructor these questions.  He only keeps his bees up north for that short time of the pollination.  Canola honey, no clue of the taste.  Fireweed, I hear it is the premium of honeys, light coloured, beautiful.  I have gathered the Fireweed seeds again this year, I have been covered in this fluff.  But I am on an agenda, to have Fireweed growing on my property, last year was a fiasco, didn't work out for me, after all the work of harvest and setting the seed.  That was a joke, the birds got 99.9% of all the seeds as far as I could see.  I did find one new plant of the Fireweed, right beside my vehicle where I exited it to bring the seeds home, hee, hee, only that single one, and another one in the place where I had stored the seed for a couple of days (in a paper bag).  I transplanted these two plants, but I doubt if they made it, rats!!!! 

The wind is an awful thing.  Glad you  built your barriers.  The varroa mite must have brood for her eggs to hatch and suck the very life out of these poor victims and this allows this creep to keep on keepin' on.  An extended broodless period will end the propogation of this nasty demon that plagues our bees.  Any ideas how long your colonies would be broodless.  This is just a curiosity.  Nevertheless, somehow, the varroa persists.  You will hear more comments.....listen to our forum friends, there is a wealth of knowlege, we only have to look, listen and learn.  Have a wonderful night, day, life, and the best of health.  Cindi

[Old Timer]

I have heard that the v-mite can't survive if the host hive goes through an extended winter broodless period .  Does anyone know if this a fact ?   

i believe i've heard they can live up to 80 to 100 days. someone please correct me if i'm wrong. however, i do know that a tick can live up to ten years without a host.

[Jerrymac]

i do know that a tick can live up to ten years without a host.

That would be 18 years

http://www.answers.com/topic/the-most-extreme

Scroll down to  "DIETERS"

[Old Timer]

i saw that on animal planet's, the most extreme. i should have said over 10 years instead of under, i'da been covered then. but i wrote it like they narrated it on the show.