a look back into past beekeeping times

gaucho10 · January 14, 2010, 12:32:56 AM

I am curious to know how many beekeepers with over 20 years of beekeeping experience can say that they did not loose any bee colonies during the 70's and 80's, or prior. The reason that I am asking is because I was checking back on some of my posts and I noticed that on a couple of occasions I mentioned that I had not lost a single colony of bees before. Then I thought about all the posts that people are presently posting in reference to bee losses, colony collaps disorder, mites, diseases, etc. It appears that 90% of all posts deal with bee survival tackticks and struggles.

When I started off in 1979 I had two colonies of bees and by 1982 I was up to 9 hives. During the first few years my main concerns were AFB, Nosema, Chalkbrood and wax moths. Then (after research) in 1984 came Tracheal mites and in 1987 Varroa mites. I had my dealings with Chalkbrood, Nosema and wax moths but I never had to deal with AFB until the last days of my beekeeping career in 2000. By that time the hassle of medicating my bees and worrying about contaminated honey was depressing me so much that my willingness to keep bees went down the drain. In 2000 one of my colonies contracted a bad case of AFB. Not only did I have to burn the whole hive but I also decided to call it quits and got rid of all my remaining bee equipment.

In 2008 I started to read about CCD and that really brought back my interest into beekeeping BUT not as before. I decided to try something new, I wanted to do it MY OWN WAY using no chemicals or medicines. Little did I know that there were people already doing just that. Then I read about all sorts of "new equipment designs" and ideas involving (IPM) Integrated Pest Management. That really got me going!

Soooooo, as of June 2008 I have been chem-free and so far I am succeeding.

Any old timers out there in the same situation? Any comments from veterans or newbees?

rdy-b · January 14, 2010, 02:00:00 AM

I would like to add that -there is a big difference in the size of the swarms from days gone by and today-
some of this i believe is related to the queen stock that we are seeing today-we have out breed traights that the bees used for colony survival -and have ended up with bees that wont even suppressed or requeen themselves if they go quenelles -ferals are not pure like they where the genetics of our stock has suffered and with the onset of mites and viruses they vector not to mention pathogens that keep coming out of the wood work-back in the day keeping was so easy -walk away split and your increase is up -today if you dont have your game honed to your location -time of bloom and surrounding environment -will you can always buy packages every year-
and blame it on the weather-but one thing i do know and i am shure that GACHOs post is a tribute to this is once you start keeping bees it is always with you your whole life-so rememer that song THESE ARE THE GOOD OLE DAYS - :lol: RDY-B

NasalSponge · January 15, 2010, 10:33:29 PM

Well I gotta say, beekeeping was MUCH easier back then. I did lose one hive but it was due to my lack of experience....I didn't leave them enough winter stores and they starved. I have also seen a very advanced case of AFB. A buddy of mine I got interested in bees was given a very neglected hive off of an old farm. When he got it home he opened it and them called me to come tell him what was wrong....man that smell was bad! I too took time off from beekeeping Quit in the early 90's and got back into it last year much as you did. Like you said the only worries back then where AFB and wax moths. I guess someone moved the cheese! :-D

fish_stix · January 16, 2010, 12:20:54 AM

I worked for a commercial guy starting in 58-59. We lost hives to AFB, floods, thieves, hurricanes, and wild hogs. But, there were no pesticides and herbicides in use so we had locations in citrus groves where we left them year round and made as much honey off Spanish Nettle, which was prolific in the groves, as we did off the orange flow. Not much has changed, just a couple of new pests and 3000 chemicals, queens that don't produce and bees that just abscond for unknown reasons. Business as usual!

JP · January 16, 2010, 01:13:50 AM

A good friend of mine who also removes bees tells me the colonies used to be much, much larger on average than what they are today in our area. Twenty yrs ago I removed my first colony, a whopper that took up three wall sections. I hate to admit, it wasn't a live removal, but it and others inspired me to look into removing them live.

According to another friend varroa hit us really hard in the early 90's. By the mid 90's our feral colonies bounced back and I'm sure some of that stock gives us some of what we have today, mostly feral Italians.

Our wild bee population is pretty darn strong today.

...JP

gaucho10 · January 16, 2010, 03:32:23 AM

Another point I failed to mention is the amount of honey being removed today as opposed to in the past. I don't remember if it was during my first or second year of beekeeping (1979-1981) that I took 200 lb. of honey from one of my hives. That hive was located on my garage roof...IN THE CITY of Worcester. That was my only time that I removed that much honey. The rest of the years I average(d) around 100 lb per give. I can't comment at present because I am just getting started with new equipment and the bees are building out the comb/frames.

In 2009 I got a total of 15 gal. of honey out of 3 hives.
So lets see...if my calculations are correct...1 gal. of honey weighs ~12 lb.
15 gal. x 12 lb. = 180 lb.
180 lb. / 3 hives = ~60 lb. / hive.

Finski · January 16, 2010, 05:57:35 AM

.
Difficult say from here but you must have bad pastures there gaucho.

My average yields are 120-160 lb/hive.
The worst year was 1996 70 lb, and the best was on average 260 lb/hive.

When hives are on rape fields, normally they get there 100 lb per hive in two weeks. Perhaps you have very well nused corn fields or gliffs or something which do not give nectar.

I have lost hives. I keep 20% extrar hives to conpensate losses. They do not starve but nosema
weakens hives.

One year I lost 60% of my bees. It was same in German and Sweden. Summer was very dry and bees did not get pollen in late summer. They were in bad condition for winter. Next spring with electrict heating and pollen patty I got my hives so good condition that 40% hives made bigger yield than perevious summer.

.

gaucho10 · January 16, 2010, 06:35:05 AM

Finski,

When was it that you lost that many hives? Recently or back in the 80''s?

Finski · January 16, 2010, 09:03:25 AM

Quote from: gaucho10 on January 16, 2010, 06:35:05 AM
Finski,

When was it that you lost that many hives? Recently or back in the 80''s?

It was 2003, I suppose.

Michael Bush · January 17, 2010, 05:47:41 AM

Losing a hive back in the 70s and 80s was certainly an oddity for me. I think I did lose one when we had -40 F every night for about a month back in the 80's but other than that I don't remember losing any back then. I wasn't treating at all for anything back then either.