olbe

The only three things I miss about the old black bees are The wasp resistance, the stock resistance and the theft resistance , sometimes I think the bitchiness might be worth having just for those three traits

Shop towels will work between the boxes of a double brood colony , don't work very well on a single . and they are a pain in the butt to work with , stick to the strips

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I believe MPI would love to see the demise of all the mum and dad operators out there , the large corporates just roll over for a belly rub when new regulations are imposed upon us , but the smaller operators tend to be a bit like aunties chicahuahua , we snap and nip at MPI's heels and just like us with aunties chicahuahua , they get to the stage where they just want to kick that yapping dog outta there

no I never feed invert

Like most I got sucked into the "specially formulated for bees " blerb, but am going back to the animal feed at the same feeding rate as bee feed, as for what way do I think its better ? Dennis its more of a gut feel than anything positive, just feel the bees brooded up better on the old product . One other thing I have noticed over the last few springs is quite a lot of hives having sugar that has crystalised in the frame and I have been wondering if this was caused by something in the agrisea seeding the sugar syrup .

I believe they are different herbal products for the bee feed Personally I think the animal feed is better

If you feed a sugar syrup with high hmf you will have bee die-off , but if you feed a fondant with a high hmf you would be less likely to see much bee loss because the bees use fondant a whole lot slower than they do with syrup and therefore the amount of hmf each bee consumes would be lower and extended over a longer time.

Agrisea was being used by myself and other beekeepers long before it was promoted as a bee feed. I was using the animal feed purchased off trademe in 20 litre containers for a couple of years, then out of the blue I got a phone call from someone at agrisea telling me they were starting to get quite a bit of interest from beekeepers in their stockfeed and wanted to know why I was using it and did I think it made any difference to the bees,I think it was the next spring that they started advertising the "bee Feed" as specially formulated for bees.

Hey Maggie I don't think MPI are running the beekeeping industry , more like ruining the beekeeping industry.

And don't forget Murphy's cows

My personal feelings are that the apiary register should remain with asurequality , that way it would be seen to be independent of any beekeeping organisation and only made available to pmp for afb use . thats what it is for .

there is a supplement company in Hamilton who's packaging proudly displays " 100 per cent New Zealand owned" , but the propolis inside is made with " local and imported ingredients " I wonder if that company owner has a beehive in their backyard !!

If you have mesh floors and a vaporiser that pushes out a decent amount of vapor like the one shown you extend the nozzle and fit an elbow then just vaporise from below the mesh floor quick and effective , don't see a need to block anything. Not good for those plastic floors though.

Dennis, I honestly cannot think of the guys name but I"m sure you would know who headed up the BIG before and after the apinz formation. Karin Kos was on the same programme about a week later

Dennis, it was the face of the bee industry group