Stay Signed In
Do you want to access your site more quickly on this computer? Check this box, and your username and password will be remembered for two weeks. Click logout to turn this off.
Stay Safe
Do not check this box if you are using a public computer. You don't want anyone seeing your personal info or messing with your site.
FIRST OFF, I DO NOT treat my bees with pesticides for Varroa mite management. I use various integrated pest management and non chemical methods for treating for Varroa mites. I believe this translates to better bees. I had ALL my hives make it through the winter of 05/06 and I know other beekeepers who lost from 40 to 99% of their bees during this same period. I believe two factors were at work one is not treating in any way for mites and a loss of 99%, the other is treating with harsh chemicals and loosing as much as 40%.
There is only one race of honeybees hived at Sourwood Knoll at the present time. The experiment with Russian bees failed when the queens all failed. I took eggs from my Italian bees and placed them in the queenless Russian hives to allow them to raise new queens on their own. The queens they raised are Italian and the hives are now Italian as the Russian bees have all died of old age. I had been wanting to raise some queens from one of my outstanding queens anyway. The queens I have raised in the summer of 2006 are so good, that I am going to continue to raise my own. They have surpassed all the queens I have bought commercially so far.
The Italians are known to be very gentle and good honey producers. They are preferred because they rate well in most of the desirable catagories.
We were experimenting with Russian bees, and may try them again, because they are somewhat resistant to both Varroa Mites and Treachial Mites. These are two pests that have been causing large losses of Italian beehives. We found the Russian hives to be somewhat gentle, but they did not winter as well as they are supposed to.
African bees have not yet made it to our area. African bees are very hard to tell from European bees, but they do tend to be much more aggressive. The sting is no more potent than any other bee, but when the alarm goes out to defend the hive, they defend in much greater numbers. This has brought them the name "killer bees". Many people in the western U.S., as well as all over the world, successfully keep Africanized bees. Special caution must be taken with them if you do keep them.
If the Africanized bees ever make it to our area, people are still going to need to be much more concerned about getting struck by lightening than stung to death by bees. Far more people die every year from lightening strikes than have died from Africanized bee stings,ever, during the entire time they have been in the United States. The fear and dread has been played upon by the media and used to sell tickets at the box office. The truth is, Africanized bees have mostly been an annoyance to the beekeepers. We can and may have to live with them some day.
