Friday, March 28, 2014

Les Crowder - Langstroth Beekeeping Skills Transferred to Topbar Hives NEOBA Big Bee Buzz

Les started out with a slideshow of some interesting pictures of his trips to south America and Jamaica.

He talked about how in many places around the world, beekeepers are revered.

Placement of the entrance changes where the brood is kept.

Idea:  Topbar super on a Lang hive, would make a good conversion plan.

Honeybees are ventilation experts.  Capable of full two way ventilation through a 1" tube.

Experiment with different types of hives, don't just assume that "this is the way we keep bees."

Les is the "Permissive Beekeeper."  He lets them build as much drone come as they want and whatever cell size they want.

Animals have become a cog in our industrial machine.  it is hard on them.  It's amazing that they do as well as they do.  Let's let them do what they like to do as much as possible.

Talk to older local beekeepers for insights into local issues like specific nectar flows.

Drones are kind of a "cheaper way to reproduce."

He has actually pollinated in Modesto with topbar hives, but he had a lot of bees die, so I'm not sure he still does it.  He talked earlier about how the bees were crawling out of the hives due to some fungicide that was sprayed.

Treatment-free is the future of beekeeping.  We don't need the treated bees.

Genetic diversity in the US is relativley low.


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