Randy Oliver's article

[annette]

I have been asked to post this article by Randy Oliver which is in the Nevada County Beekeeping Association November Newsletter.

http://www.countryrubes.com/images/Microsoft_Word_-_Novdraft_08_working2.pdf

[BjornBee]

Interesting. Thank you.

[Robo]

Couple things that I'm not sure of,  one is that he talks about proportional changes instead of giving actual mite counts or at least mean mite counts of the hives being monitored.  I don't get a true sense of what happen.   There is a big difference in a hive dropping 4 mites that previously dropped 2 mites and a hive dropping 400 mites that previously dropped 200 mites.  Both doubled :-\

Secondly, it doesn't address my main concern with sugar shakes, that being the stress and disturbance caused by the process and the relative frequent occurrence of treatment.

I did however like the following.  I think we suffer from this more than we like to admit.   I experienced this many years ago when essential oils where "the answer". People have good intentions, and want to find something that works and therefore unintentionally/subconsciously interpret their results with rose colored glasses.

beekeeper may completely convince himself that a certain method is "working" since their bees survived last season. In actuality, the bees' survival may have be due to other factors; the beekeeper's pet treatment may have been of little more benefit than a placebo, yet made the beekeeper feel good because they were doing something!

Thanks for sharing, it is always good to see things like this.

[BjornBee]

Robo,

Of course that happens as Randy has stated. Beekeepers convince themselves all the time of one thing or another.

I think its about the same as promoting one bee supplement over another, while ignoring the fact that some have excessive amounts of sugar, which in turn helps the bees eat it faster. Then using this consumption rate, as some marketing ploy to sell a product, with shoddy data presented as some scientific experiments. All the while using terms such as "proportional"  Hmmmmm...now where did I see that stuff before?   :-D

[Michael Bush]

My guess is that they usually survive in spite of us.

[Cacklewack]

My guess is that they usually survive in spite of us.

:-D