# Walt Wright--Seasonal Bee Behavior



## ikeepbees (Mar 8, 2003)

I've been working with Walt for the last year or so, and you're right Dennis. His observations have so far proven to be right on. I hope everyone will dig into their magazine piles and read his articles.

Believe it or not the main obstacle to his work has been getting the "experts" to look at his work. 

------------------
Rob Koss


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## BWrangler (Aug 14, 2002)

Hi Everyone,

The latest edition of the Bee Culture has another article on nectar
management by Walt Wright. It certianly worth the read as are his
other articles.

My top bar hive observations concerning the seasonal dynamics in the
broodnest duplicate what he has observed. Walt has been studing and
writing about it since the mid-90's. His observations are far ahead
of mine.

I re-read his manuscript. Then I sat down with my yard records and
was able to delimit a reproductive swarm cutoff date. I reconstructed
the other events noted in his charts. Then I went back to my records
and compared them with my 'adjusted' chart. They rounded to a week
perfectly.

I went back to my top bar hive photos, which are dated, and found the
same broodnest dynamics. They also matched my 'adjusted' charts
timeframe.

I had to see these dynamics in my top bar hive to really understand
it. And Walt's manuscript puts the contents of his numerous articles
into a concise and consistent format.

What amazed me the most is the nectar lull. The bees work three
cuttings of alfalfa here. The pack the edges of the broodnest with
nectar from the first cutting. The hives are full of bees at second
cutting but very little nectar is worked. I always wondered about it.
Lots of bees. Good daytime temps. But no second cutting honey. Brood
rearing is cut way back by the third cutting at third week July. Yet
this is the main honey flow with bees packing everything above the
broodnest(the white wax flow as Walt calls it.

Walt has devised a very simple method that increases brood, reduces
swarming and allows the broodnest to be managed in a most natural
way. In the mid-90's I tried Walt's checkerboarding but my priorites
shifted to getting healthy bees/queens without the pesticides which
were damaging my queen rearing business.

After reading Walts stuff, it's easy to why migratory beekeeping is
so detrimental to colony production and health. Why top bar hives or
long hives just can't produce as much honey as a properly managed
vertical hive(I hope to develope some horizontal methods that will
work like Walt's vertical ones). It's also easy to pick the best time
to rear queens and see why queen rearing doesn't work so well at
other times.

Understanding what Walt has observed is a must for biological
beekeepers interesting in maximum production with a minimum amount of
work.

I'll contact Walt and see if he will make his manuscript available.

Regards
Dennis


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## Oxankle (Jan 8, 2004)

TopBar:

Do you suppose you could get Mr. Wright to give us a bibliography--something we could use to track down his writings? 

Of course it would be much simpler if he would allow us to read them on this forum, or post them somewhere. Can articles be scanned onto the forum? 

Ox


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## ikeepbees (Mar 8, 2003)

To anyone interested in reading more about Walt's "nectar management" method of reducing swarming, he has more copies available. He sells them for $10 apiece to cover shipping and printing costs. Write to Walt at:

Walt Wright
Box 10
Elkton, TN 38455

It's a good read - I learned a lot from it. It caused me to pay more attention to what is actually going on in a beehive throughout the year.

------------------
Rob Koss


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