# Nectar Competition



## Litsinger (Jun 14, 2018)

Not sure where to hang this one- but I'll put it here for now.

Earlier this week the National Honey Show posted the first talk that Mr. Torben Schiffer gave at this year's gathering.

Entitled, _"How modern beekeeping enhances nectar competition and contributes to species extinction of wild pollinators", _this talk is wide-ranging and touches on several aspects of his research with both wild and managed colonies. At the end, he makes a fairly radical proposition for the preservation of native pollinators- in my humble opinion he might find this a hard sell- it certainly would not find much support in the Mid-South.

A few of the more insightful aspects of the talk:

1. He describes how on average a tree cavity allows colonies to overwinter on 1/12 the amount of stores required by managed colonies. While I have not tested this experimentally, I have observed several nest sites chosen by swarms that seem woefully small and considered that a managed colony would not be able to overwinter in a similar volume.

2. He outlines (utilizing the city of Berlin) how managed honey bee colony density can (and likely does) have a very deleterious impact on wild pollinators, considering the available nectar production versus the nectar needs of managed colonies in inefficient cavities.

3. He presents experimental data which outlines what an outsized impact our choice of hive siting has on the thermal environment experienced by the colony- and thus significantly impacts their ability to be successful.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

over the years i have been impressed by these two survivor characteristics of my bee stock:

1. it's amazing how little honey they use here over the winter, usually on the order of single digit pounds. i chalk this up to the brood break and/or perhaps there is a little nectar making it's way into the hive along with the first tree pollens that we see starting late jan to early feb. still, i leave about a medium super of honey on most hives for wintering, but the major portion of that honey ends up getting used for brooding up during late winter/early spring.

2. i've had a few colonies that, (and most likely to phoretic mites depleting vitellogenin from the overwintering bees), make it through winter but end up with a cluster no bigger than a fist. all it took to make those colonies productive and even come through strong the next winter and beyond was the shaking in of extra nurse bees.

the hive i reported in my first thread that yielded my first 2 supers of honey this season came through last winter with a cluster about the size of a softball. it overwintered in a two medium set up. i didn't have time to shake nurse bees in and just let them build up on their own. it was too small to make an artificial swarm from, and i don't believe it swarmed this year. all i did management wise was add a third and later a fourth medium super of drawn comb as needed, and then harvested the honey when it was ready.


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