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MI Native Producers
John E Isham Isham
Address:
3783 W Bellevue Rd, Leslie, MI 49251, USA
Description:
| John E Isham Isham |
| What characteristics do you use to select your breeding stock? | |
| I do not do selective breeding at this time. Hot hives with mean genes get re-queened with milder, gentler attitudes. | |
| Where is the source of your bees and what strain(s) are they? | |
| My bees have all descended from bees rescued by cutouts, or captured swarms. My nucs are made up of young queens one year old or less who successfully make it through our Michigan winter. I guess you would call them Michigan Mutts. | |
| Where do the bees overwinter? | |
| Leslie Michigan, 20 minutes south of Lansing. | |
| Do the bees spend the whole season in your home location? If not, where do they go and when, and for how long? | |
| My bees stay put. I have taken a couple colonies to a local blueberry patch for pollination, for 3 weeks. But most just stay put in my back yard. | |
| Do you monitor for varroa mites? How and how often? | |
| I assume I have mites, (as does every other apiary). I Choose to treat, mostly non-chemically. First I conduct a brood break 2 times a year, (in early May when I pull my queens out with resources to make up nucs; then again, after Summer Solstice (after mid-June). Each break gives a month break in brood production which knocks down mite production as they lay their eggs in with honeybee larvae just before they are to be capped. So, no larvae equals less mites. Since mite loads tend to ramp up at the end of Summer, I choose to do an oxalic vapor treatment 4-5 weeks in a row to further reduce mite load for those bees that will be overwintering and can't afford to be battling mite related illness. I chose oxalic acid because it is a substance found in nature as well as in small traces of honey, (I read in a study). So, that's my plan and it works for me. | |
| Have your hives been inspected by an inspector? | |
| No. | |
| Anything else? | |
| Post-Summer solstice queens tend to produce longer and better into the fall. I have 25 colonies and last year had an 80% survival rate. So I should have around 20 Nucs available in mid-May 22. Weather permitting, of course. | |
Categories:
Selling Nucs
Selling Queens