The Rural Voice, 1998-04, Page 7Feedback
ovcrwintered queen must be left to
lay eggs as long as possible. Her
laying can increase the population
by up to 2000 bees per day. These
are the bees which produce the
honey crop.
9. The strength of the hive is more
important for nuc production than
the calendar. It is necessary to have
three to four supers full with bccs
and brood. When this hive looks
like it might swarm, then it is time
to make nucs. I described my
method for this in 1997 in "The
Sting" and in "Canadian
Beekeeping".
10. Our queen breeders produce
good mite resistant queens and we
need to bring these into production
by safe requecning. No queen cells
may be present in the hive to be
requeened and no larvae younger
than five days. To achieve this the
queen is removed eight days before.
11. It is of prime importance that
only colonies are reproduced which
exhibit strong spring development.
The late developing colonies should
be requeened in the summer. The
size of the brood nest is the
determining factor. Queens bred in
June and July are much more
productive due to weather condi-
tions and the presence of the
number of drones.
12. To fight the mite problem it is
necessary to requeen with mite
resistant queens. In the long term
this is cheaper than yearly chemical
treatment.
13. The production of bees for sale
in May and June is more profitable
than production honey, the price of
which is determined by the four
main packers, who handle over 80
per cent of all Canadian honey.
If bees no longer had to be
imported, it would be very valuable
to our country's balance of trade.
Southern Ontario alone could
easily produce 40,000 or more bees
for selling. Our government
"academic beekeepers" should
support and work toward these
objectives. I am only an old
practical beekeeper hoping to help
our beekeepers and our country's
economic state.0
Ernst Bayer, Mitchell, ON
CUSTOM FARM
SERVICES
We have a complete line of
equipment from
AIR DRILLS to
COMBINES
that can provide
FAST AND
EFFICIENT SERVICE.
* NEW FOR 1998
CUSTOM SPRAYINGS
WITH A ROGATOR
Combine these services with seeds
supplied by
and
NOVARTIS SEEDS INC.
and we can give you an
unbeatable combination
Call Mike or Pete for details
519-233-3218
HILL &
HILL
FARMS
VARNA
APRIL 1998 3