Imogen reads from Steve's blog post of 1st September 2024

00:53 Queens

The importance of the queen in a honey bee colony cannot be overstated

02:37 Gruff Rees reviewed "Healthy Bees, Heavy Hives" by Paul Horton and Steve Donohoe, calling it "the best beekeeping book ever". We'll take that.

02:40 Comparison between colonies headed by my normal queens and four which contained queens made by Ivan Nielsen in Denmark. It turned out that the Nielsen queens made lots more honey. Nielsen says that the aim is for honey to be uniformly spread over all colonies, rather than have some monsters and some small ones.

04:40 What makes a good queen? Prolific queens will lead to bigger honey crops, but only if forage is available and the weather is good.

05:50 Starvation and having to feed syrup in early June.

06:00 Buying queens. Quality will vary, as with all natural things.

06:40 Making your own queens

07:15 Heavy queens tend to be better

07:30 Ideal conditions for making queens.

07:50 Controlling Disease and Parasites - the second important factor in producing a good honey crop. Chalkbrood, European foulbrood, varroa mites and associated viruses, chronic bee paralysis. The treatment protocol followed by Steve and Alex at Walrus Apiaries. Formic Pro. Thymovar. VarroMed.

10:38 Forage and Nutrition - the third important factor.

Fixed apiaries versus migratory beekeeping.

11:20 When to feed? Sugar and pollen substitute. Importance of pollen stores in Autumn.

13:00 Sugar contamination risks. Manley's thoughts on syrup feeding in May. Timing of feeding for winter stores.

14:20 Summary

The Walrus and the Honey Bee

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