a snip....
I would suggest that there does seem to be a lot of poorly stated information on the net. I always hope that even though the advice might be 'all wrong' that the people intention in stating something that seem to me to be totally absurd do have the right intentions. It is quite a dilemma for me since financially I would be much better off simply nodding my head when I read this poorly stated advice since I then at least in theory have the opportunity to sell them a replacement hive when the kill their hive(s). I see some very polished web sites of known 'authorities' but then when I did a bit deeper find they can't seem to keep bees alive longer that one or two season and often times in a setting that at least at one time was considered to be very desirable bee pasture. What is a simple beekeeper to think? Or do?
I agree, and it took me a while to figure a lot of it out. I had to return to keeping bees the way my Mentor kept bees instead of using some of the crazy ideas I read about.. When I helped my "Mentor" I just did what he said to do, I didnt ask enough questions, I never worried about WHY he did things a certain way, and after his loss, I found myself with my own bees, and a lot of skill in working with bees, but not nearly enough KNOWLEDGE, so i started looking. In Defense of SOME of those places, and probably my own site.. How you keep bees, Where you keep bees, what kind of bees you keep, and how MANY bees you keep will often change HOW you keep bees..
I like my Foundation-less frames.. the VP of our local club and I will often argue about the merits of HIS waxed foundation over my Foundation-Less frames. He lives about a fifteen minute drive from my house. He started keeping bees before there was internet. He bought a book, read it, and caught feral bees, and has been keeping bees ever since. He has had to figure out how to keep his bees alive through diseases and mites with little or no help, so he is a wealth of information, but he also does things I don't prefer to do.
I go to meeting, I go to ALL the local classes, (having the chance to ask questions and learn should never be overlooked) even if I have been to them before, and often don't agree with what I hear. But I also try to see the reasons for the things I disagree with. It has caused me to modify some of the things I learned how to do.
Several beeks nearby have had starve outs this year because of the long and brutal cold snaps. One of the two beeks within "bee" range of my house has lost all of his hives due to starve out.. The other is currently at 50% loss.
They wintered in two deeps, fed in the fall, and made SURE they were well prepared.. I use three mediums, which is about the same amount of space.. I have only lost ONE hive
so far, and that loss was sort of expected when it got so brutally cold for so long. The moral here I suppose, is that almost everyone I have talked to has disagreed with my method of adding sugar to the top of the hive WHEN I wintered in early November.. but guess where my bees are right now? Maybe it is because I stayed away from bees ordered from the deep south?? The ONE hive I have lost so far IS from the deep south, they made last winter barely, but didnt make this one... No correlation? I can't tell you.. They died because they didnt move up to the box above that was filled with honey.
Does that mean everyone needs to prepare this way?? With sugar ON in case they cant get into the hive until March? Not at all. But, despite many thinking it is very wrong, it is working well for me with the conditions we have had this winter..
If ventilation is different, Humidity and temperature, and even the constant wind we have, the method I use might be disastrous in a different situation...
So have patience with us Tec, eventually, we will ALL see the wisdom posted by You, Iddee, Perry and the other keeps who have been there and done that. All any of us can do is learn from our mistakes and seek out more reputable sources of information.
Let the frustration slide off, and keep posting. It IS beekeepers like you, Iddee, Perry, and so many others that gets the rest of us back on the right track when we screw up.
