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Author Topic: 2017 Almond Pollination  (Read 3283 times)

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Offline Chip Euliss

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2017 Almond Pollination
« on: January 22, 2017, 08:51:31 pm »
My wife and I were in California for over 2 weeks to tend our bees.  It rained for the first 7 days so we visited old friends and spent a small fortune on wine to bring home but we finally got a short weather window and got our bees squared away.  Each colony got 2 lbs of pollen substitute, 1 gallon of syrup and we treated all the hives with oxalic acid (vmvaporizer for 12 seconds per hive).  We shipped about 500 hives this year and they were on 2 separate trucks.  The last truck was a partial load that a friend asked us to contribute hives to to offset shipping expense.  Didn't really know where they were going other than somewhere in the southern valley.  As luck would have it, the 2 loads were less than 10 miles apart!  Better lucky than good I guess.  Bees looked good; here's a couple of pics:






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Offline Wandering Man

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Re: 2017 Almond Pollination
« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2017, 09:44:36 pm »
OAV for 500 hives?

I've only got 2, and fumble around with them. It must take forever to treat 500.

And I can't imagine the logistics of caring for that many bees.

Glad you made it home without incident.
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Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: 2017 Almond Pollination
« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2017, 10:38:52 pm »
Yep but the OAV unit I have is a commercial version that is very fast.  It takes 12 minutes for the unit to get to the correct temperature and 15 minutes to cool off.  After you bring it up to the operating temperature, it only takes 12 seconds to treat a double deep hive.  You add oxalic crystals every 6-8 hives but you can do that as you vaporize so it's very quick and efficient.  There are a couple of brands out there now but the one I bought is a VMvaporizer; they are made in Sacramento, California. 
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Offline Perry

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Re: 2017 Almond Pollination
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2017, 07:14:21 am »
I imagine with that many hives you quickly learn to become efficient or you won't last too long. :yes:
Great pics. 8)
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Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: 2017 Almond Pollination
« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2017, 12:14:26 pm »
Thanks Perry.  We also cut a few corners that aren't absolutely necessary to save time.  I'm getting old so not too efficient anymore but I still remember which corners I can cut and which ones I can't :)  Met a fellow in California this trip that has a crew of 25 and they average 4.5 semi-loads of doubles per day!  They crack the lids, steal from the rich and give to the poor (bees and food resources in the comb), haul out their dead-outs, and pump a gallon of syrup in each hive.  That's over 1800 hives per day :o :o
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