Beekeeping Naturally

Bush Bees

Most of us beekeepers spend a lot of effort fighting with the Varroa mites. I'm happy to say my biggest problems in beekeeping now are things like trying to get nucs through the winter here in Southeastern Nebraska and coming up with hives that won't hurt my back from lifting or better ways to feed the bees.

This change in beekeeping from fighting the mites is mostly because I've gone to natural sized cells. In case you weren't aware, and I wasn't for a long time, the foundation in common usage by beekeepers results in much larger bees than what you would find in a natural hive. I've measured sections of natural worker brood comb that are 4.6mm in diameter. This 4.6mm comb was drawn by a hive of commercial Carniolans and this 4.7mm comb was drawn on the first try by a package of commercial Carniolans. What most beekeepers use for worker brood is foundation that is 5.4mm in diameter. If you translate that into three dimensions, instead of one, that produces a bee that is about half again as large as is natural. By letting the bees build natural sized cells, I have virtually eliminated my Varroa and Tracheal mite problems. One cause of this is shorter capping times by one day and shorter post capping times by one day. This means less Varroa get into the cells and less Varroa reproduce in the cells. I have mostly done this either with wax coated PermaComb (fully drawn plastic comb) or self drawn comb on foundationless frames or frames with blank starter strips. 4.9mm foundation is available from Dadant and Sons and from Brushy Mt. This size(4.9mm) has been found sufficient to resolve the mite problems. For more information on small cell beekeeping:

Dee Lusby's POV on Beesource
Natural Cell Size

To communicate with others doing small cell beekeeping:

Organicbeekeepers Yahoo group

For an unbiased assessment of the health of my hives, here are health certificates from 2004 on.

I started this site because I am often trying to explain something to either new or experienced beekeepers on the Beesource beekeeping forums that needs a picture. I didn't design this site originally to present anything other than some of the things I'm doing in my beekeeping or have done lately. I have added subjects for questions that are commonly asked. If you have questions or want to discuss things I'd go to Beesource. The best general beekeeping forum on the planet:

Beesource Beekeeping Forums

And we beekeepers owe much to François Huber. Here is transcription of the 1806 version of his letters:

New Observations on the Natural History of Bees by François Huber 1806 edition

The other change I've done in my beekeeping, is to capture feral swarms and start raising queens from these. These are darker bees that seem more acclimatized to my location and have been surviving on their own with no chemicals at all. I've been raising and selling the queens.

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Pick the beekeeping subjects on the menu to read more detail and see pictures of some of the things I've been doing. Click on the thumbnails for larger pictures.

Hope you enjoy,

Michael Bush

Copyright 2004-2008 by Michael Bush

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