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[Rob <becida AT comcast.net>]

Date:   Thu, 25 Mar 1999 17:23:49 -0500
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From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT roanoke.infi.net>
To: homestead AT listserv.oit.unc.edu
Subject: Bees for Bev---a filtered list for skeps, formic acid and whatever
References: <36F94AAF.2E62 AT bellsouth.net>
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Bevanron wrote:

> In the last century, when most people grew their own food, the English
> countryside was dotted with bee skeps like these.  Usually woven by hand
> from vines or straw, skeps attracted bees and made harvesting honey
> easy.  ......
>
> Now, this looks simple to make..what does it look like inside?  Does it
> have chambers?  How do the bees get in, make honey, etc and how do you
> get the honey without getting stung?  What attracts the bees to begin
> with?  I think I could make one of these in less than an hour and if it
> would indeed attract bees, then I could always get someone else to
> collect the honey.  At the very least, it would be a cool garden
> ornament.
>
> Bev
> --
> I'm not crazy, I've just been in a very bad mood for 38 years.
> Bevanron of Rock Creek
> erthnsky AT bellsouth.net

>>>tvoivozhd---the defect of a bee skep was that it had to be demolished to
take the honey---usually sacrificing queen and colony.  Also you cannot add
supers with queen excluder to permit greater accumulation of honey in a good
season (beyond hive winter requirement).

More stuff on top bar, skeps below, but here's a Usenet comment, showing you
can make skeps from twisted grass rope too.Craig,

Did you mix anthing with the straw or just compress it?  (tvoivozhd, this
guy is confused---just twist straw/hay/grass rope, coil it and sew coils
together or with grass/hay, wrap two coils, add one and wrap top two, ad
infinitum)

Thanks,

Paul

Family wrote:

> Years ago when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in E. Africa. I ran accross
> a Hungarian beekeeper. He showed me a book that illustrated hive boxes
> made from grass. To make a long story short I found this an ideal
> construction material in S. Sudan which enabled me to make removable
> (top bar only) frame hives, since I didn't have extraction equipement.
>
> Since returning to the US almost 17 years ago I played around with this
> idea and even went as far as showing boxes at a North Dakota assocation
> meeting...just to get some feed back.  That was maybe 10 years ago.  I
> never advanced the method because it would take some kind of mechanized
> system to work here in the US.  Overseas the hand contruction method fit





Article 14476 of sci.agriculture.beekeeping:
Path:
fddinewz.oit.unc.edu!unc-cs!news-relay.ncren.net!rutgers!venus.sun.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!ix.netcom.com!news

From: "Susan K. Wehe" <swehe AT ix.netcom.com>


If you want a simpler hive than the Dadant and variants thereof, make a
top-bar hive. Also, skep, Dadant, Top Bar, except for the Griffis and
Buckfast experiments, which show promise but not widespread success in
developing mite-resistance, don't expect a few hives to survive varroa,
tracheal mites, and from their weakening effect, attacks by wax moths, hive
beetles and the various diseases such as foulbrood that have been around a
long time.

Formic acid shows better promise than Apistan strips, but the Maryland
research station is really dragging its feet in making it freely and legally
available.  Now it is dispensed like controlled drugs, though as a natural
ingredient of honey (in small amounts) it has long been successfully used in
Europe where it is not viewed as a contaminant.

In controlled amount, formic acid kills Varroa in brood cells without
injuring brood---nothing else will do that at present.Varroa is transmitted
from bee to bee, from flowers where Varroa lie in wait for pollen-collecting
bees, and primarily within brood cells where bee larvae and Varroa juveniles
maintain joint residence, emerging together---expecially in drone cells.

Here's a compendium onf devices and methods of using Formic acit on Varroa
mites.
http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/Formic/Default.htm

If you are allergic to bee venom (though foraging bees apart from African do
not normally sting), get stingless Mason bees which are better pollinators
than honeybees anyway.  Here's an old posting on them, and on the Griffis
website (latter may have changed).


Brian Bonner wrote:

> >    In our pine cabin the bumble bees have drilled hundreds of holes 
in > >the soffits, > > I believe what you have is callled carpenter(or 
wood) bees. they are good > polinators. I make houses for them here out of 
old pieces of 4x4's. I drill > holes in them and hang them.

tvoivozhd>>>Brian, if you haven't looked it up already (I've got a lot on 
bees and beekeeping in my overloaded files, and a buddy who is heavy into 
beekeeping) here's some stuff on Mason Bees---a thousand times moee 
effective in pollination than honeybees.  You can buy them from Knox 
Cellars, who also sell books on them and books on the various kinds of 
bumblebees.

If it weren't for Mason bees and bumblebees I wouldn't have had a garden or 
an orchard last year---I saw only one wild honeybee all year long, and it 
was trapped inside my porch.  All the wild bees are dead here, and in spite 
of Apistan etc., only ten percent of the domestic ones survived. 
Orchardists are getting desperate.

http://www.accessone.com/~knoxclr/omb.htm

http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/ipm/insects/pollinat/solitary.htm

http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html

And here is the Griffis website---with Weaver in Texas the foremost in U.S. 
breeding of Varroa-resistant bees.  There is a successful German and 
British sites as well---probably can get to them by following links from 
these---if you can't and want to, e-mail me and I'll look up references.

http://members.tripod.com/~Griffes/


Using formic acid in combatting Varroa:

Kathleen wrote:

> On 12 Mar 99, at 17:47, Tvoivozhd wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > Now if they would only legalize formic acid here.  The only hives that
> > are really strong here are a handful under the aegis of Virginia Tech.
> > The others using Apistan and Terramycin patties are gone.
>
> I've been thinking about the formic acid.  Since I don't sell anything
> to the public, why would anyone care if I use formic acid?  The only
> problem is, I don't know exactly how it is used.
>
> Kathleen

>>>tvoivozhd---a virtue of formic acid is that it is always present in small

quantities in honey, a consequence of bees following in the footsteps of 
ants in flowers, I suppose.  Because it is a normal component of honey it 
is not viewed in Europe as an adulterant or contaminant and has been legal 
for a long time.  Mites do not develop an immunity to formic acid as they 
have to Apistan and its counterparts in Europe---and its mite kill 
percentage is very high.

A second major advantage is that formic acid kills Varroa in brood cells
without harming the brood---given proper concentration of course.

There's quite a bit more info available, including elaborate formic acid
dispensers from Germany, but the following will provide pretty good
guidance.

Summer Treatment for Varroasis Widely Used in Europe

This method has already been demonstrated on a video produced by Bayer, the 
manufacturer of Bayvarol.

Formic Acid Treatment is the only treatment to date (apart from heat 
treatment) which kills the Varroa mite in the Brood cells.

Heavy infestations on Varroasis found in German colonies during the summer 
are treated by a procedure which gives the beekeeper the opportunity to 
treat his/her bees immediately without contamination of honey harvest and 
hopefully save the bees by timely intervention. Using formic acid the 
treatment procedure is extremely simple but requires to be carried out 
methodically.

Equipment required:

1. A measure of 60% concentrated Formic acid (1 Litre) 2. Acid proof 
gloves. 3. Safety spectacles or goggles. 4. Suitable particle filter face 
mask. 5. Suitable piece of absorbent material (a square kitchen sponge will 
suffice) 6. Large bucket (2 gallon size) full of fresh water. 7. Brood box 
with floorboard sealed (foam rubber strip will suffice) and a 8. 
crownboard. 9. Spare brood box and a full complement of drawn brood combs.

10. Coloured drawing pins.

Procedure:

1. When Varroasis has been diagnosed in a colony nothing is done until 
early evening at which time the bees are subdued.

2. if the colony is not strong: Supers are removed and the bees are shaken 
from the frames in these supers in front of the hive. The bees will return 
to the brood box.

3. If the colony is very strong: All of the supers are removed and the bees 
shaken from the supers in front of the hive as in para 13. Another brood 
box filled out with drawn deep frames is placed on top of the original 
brood box with a queen excluder between the two brood chambers.

4. The honey supers are removed to a bee proof location.

5. The following day or as soon as possible after the above operations have 
been carried out a spare empty brood box is prepared by placing it on a 
floorboard with the entrance sealed and air tight (a strip of foam rubber 
or even a strip of rag will suffice!).

6. A crownboard is prepared such that it can be placed on top of this spare 
brood box to form a closed lid. This lid is sealed later using masking tape 
or some other similar adhesive strip.

7. The infected colony is subdued.

8. All of the brood combs in the brood nests are examined.

9. All combs in which most or all of the brood is sealed are identified. 
Coloured drawing pins are used to mark these combs.

10. All combs which contain mostly unsealed brood are also identified.

11. A suitable absorbent material is placed on the floorboard of the 
previously prepared empty spare brood box.

12. (a square domestic kitchen sponge is suitable).

The following necessary precautions are taken:

A suitable mask, acid proof gloves and safety glasses are worn, and a 
bucket with fresh water is provided. (If at any time formic acid comes in 
contact with skin, wash copiously and immediately with fresh water.)

When removing gloves after procedures involving formic acid, wash gloved 
hands completely in fresh water to remove all traces of formic acid from 
gloves before attempting to remove them.)

1. The absorbent material is soaked with 40ml of 60% (percent) formic acid, 
using a veterinarians syringe.

2. The crownboard is placed on spare brood box temporarily.

3. All the bees are shaken from the previously identified frames containing 
primarily sealed brood back into the parent hive.

4. Each frame of sealed brood without bees is placed into the spare brood 
box containing the formic acid pad.

5. When the brood box is full or all of the selected sealed brood frames 
are inserted, the crownboard is put in place and taped closed. Making the 
box airtight.

6. The box is left sitting in sunlight for 90 minutes, the ambient 
temperature being at least 15c on the day selected for the above procedures.

The weather forecast is checked prior to the fumigation being done, forward 
planning makes it more possible to achieve the desired conditions.

1. After the fumigation exercise is completed the brood combs are replaced 
in any colony if more than one colony was treated. Gloves and other 
protection are still worn during this operation. Never be tempted to work 
with formic acid without suitable protection.

2. The procedure is repeated the following week, fumigating the combs in 
the infested hives which were identified as having primarily open brood at 
the previous inspection.

The residual formic acid on the returned combs is said to be lethal to the 
adult mites in the infested colony and appears to go a long way to reducing 
the adult mite population sufficiently to give the colony the chance to 
prosper.

The adult mite fall in the colonies is checked either weekly or daily as a 
matter of routine from then on, to plot the progress of any residual 
infestation. If after around 14 days from the final fumigation the mite 
fall is more than 5 mites per day the above described procedures are repeated.

The supers are returned to the hives around two days after the fumigation 
is done in each case.

Formic acid exists in honey naturally and is no longer viewed as a 
contaminant by the veterinary authorities in Europe.

The dosage of formic acid has to be varied depending on ambient conditions 
and beekeeper experience.

Read all you can about the mite and get to know it well. Only in this way 
will you be able to keep on top of the infestations which will be a 
continuous presence in your colonies from the initial find.

The Kenya Top Bar Hive---easier to make, produces somewhat less honey:  A
refinement of Greek woven wicker basket, which in turn was a refinement of
the "skep" hive---the refinement being the ability to take honey without
demolishing the hive body, and some possibility of preserving the queen and
colony.

A few beekeeping tips (there are hundreds of others like this in the
extensive web apiculture resources) Also something on housing two colonies
in same hive (separator between) as an aid in generating enough warmth to
stay alive in a viciously cold climate.

http://home.earthlink.net/~jcaldeira/beekeeping/tips.htm
http://www.gsu.edu/~biojdsx/main.htm (plans for top bar hive, also honey
press for comb honey and a lot more)

Origin, species and subspecies of honeybees.
http://www.angus.co.uk/bibba/bibborig.html

Urban/hobbyist/small-scale beekeeping and links:

http://www.honeybee.com/

Some UK and rest-of-the-world beekeeping info and
sites.http://www.honeybee.com/

Mid-Atlantic apiculture---very good info for a problem area where bees are
in precipitous decline, no wild bees remaining.  http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/

Iowa State Entomology Index.
http://www.ent.iastate.edu/list/beekeeping.html

University of Georgia on general beekeeping management---very good site>
http://www.ces.uga.edu/pubcd/b1045-w.html

Berkely information and links.
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~eiyehmai/beekeeping.html

Clemson beekeeping site.
http://www.cgs.clemson.edu/bees.htm



University of Florida. (note infant botulism, infrequent but dangerous)
http://hammock.ifas.ufl.edu/txt/fairs/31535

UK beekeeping FAQ:
http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/internet/news/faq/archive/beekeeping-faq.html

Must buy mated queens, or raise or (unlikely) have wild unrelated drones in
neighborhood or queen will be infertile>
http://www.cybertours.com/%7Emidnitebee/html/index.html
http://www.cybertours.com/~midnitebee/contentpages/articles.html

Beekeeping Books:
http://xensei.com/users/alwine/hardbooks.htm

Beekeeping videos.
http://www.robmerco.com/tmfa/vidpage.htm

Dadant site---the Dadant/Langstroth hive and history.
http://www.dadant.com/

Feeding bees to keep them alive during periods when food is unavailable.
http://www.in2it.net/bees/feeding.html

Inducing swarms to multiply colonies.
http://www.cinet.it/sciami/eng/

Hiving a swarm of bees (pictures) and other stuff.
http://xensei2.xensei.com/users/alwine/beesite.htm

Griffes new website on mite-resistant bee breeding.
http://members.tripod.com/~Griffes/

Collecting swarms with a bee vacuum (if shaking them out of a tree is too
much for your nerves) Note, make or buy a little engine-generator to power
the vacuum, or use a hand-held leaf blower, with a homemade adjustable
butterfly valve to control vacuum-pressure so you don't injure the bees.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Beekeeping/

Cooling bees in summer, a very good idea.  There's an improved
self-ventilating hive design in Canada I had in my dead hard-drive.  Will
try to run it down.  As an alternative, here is a photoelectric fan.
http://www.beecool.com/

Here's the above referred-to self-ventilating hive, D.E from Canada
http://www.beeworks.com/page4.html


If you buy bees, you might try to get mite-resistant varieties such as
Buckfast bees from Weaver Apiaries in Texas, Russian bees, or possibly some
from Griffes, supra.

http://www.rweaver.com/main.html
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Beekeeping/

Wax moth control.
http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/agency/pubns/farmnote/1997/f00697.htm


The incipient hive beetle problem.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Beekeeping/
Hive beetle trap: http://www.small-hive-beetle-trap.com/html/the_traps.html

A beekeeper's year---work schedule month by month.
http://www.ciai.net/~whummer/Beeyard.html

Haven't looked at all these,  but they are listed as some (of many) top ten
beekeeping sites.

                        http://apicultureNE.cas.psu.edu/
                        http://biology.dbs.umt.edu/bees/default.htm
                        http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/
                        http://home.earthlink.net/~jcaldeira/beekeeping/
                        http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html
                        http://www.beekeeping.co.nz/
                        http://www.birkey.com/BLB/Beekeeping/index.html
                        http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/ibra/index.html
                        http://www.cybertours.com/~midnitebee/
                        http://www.gsu.edu/~biojdsx/main.htm
                        http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/~mts/apishtm/apis.htm
                        http://www.internode.net/honeybee/
                        http://www.photovault.com/ and choose Insects, Bees

http://www-mugc.cc.monash.edu.au/~degob1/goble/KiBees/