Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Treating of the small hive beetle
Beetle traps may be effective, and some are now on the market in the USA. Some
of these, however, are merely corrugated cardboard strips. The beetles hide in the
corrugations and the strip can then be removed.
Fluorescent-light, larvae-attracting traps can also be used, as can soil drenches in front
of the hive - the larvae use sandy soil to pupate in, preferably near to a beehive. Chemical
strips may also be placed in the hive, and good hygiene is important, especially in the
extracting room.
Colony collapse disorder (CCD)
This is a new and little understood phenomenon in which the worker bees from a colony
suddenly disappear. Since 2004, in certain parts of Europe, there has been a dramatic
rise in the number of disappearances of honey-bee colonies, and these disappearances
are for no apparent reason. The colonies were left with no adult bees, but brood and
stores were often present.
Bees very rarely, if ever, abandon brood and stores and, if they do, robbing from other
hives usually ensues. Again, after abandonment, the wax moth settles in and destroys the
comb. On the occasion of these mysterious disappearances, however, neither robbing
nor wax moths were evident. I encountered this problem in Spain in 2004 when I found
many of my colonies suddenly empty. One week I had healthy colonies but, a week or so
later, they were eerily empty of adults. There was still food on the table but no bees. The
brood were dead because of chilling, but there was no robbing and there were no wax
moths which, in Spain, are very fast workers because the climate favours their lifestyle.
Other beekeepers put it down to bad beekeeping on my part, while (I found out later
on) suffering the same problem themselves. They admitted that they, too, had problems
only when these disappearances became known as an official 'disorder' and therefore
was not their fault!
After a while, however, I began to think it was me, and I vowed somehow to change
my way of beekeeping. Being then an organic beekeeper, I employed many different
management strategies compared with my neighbours, and so I began to believe that
these strategies were at fault. I didn't have to worry for long, though, because a forest fire
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