# At The Hive Enterance ...know. inside...by observation on the outside



## HiveAtYourHome (Aug 16, 2011)

I'm going to be keeping Warre hives at others homes and was thinking of telling those interested to check out H. Storche's _At The Hive Entrance - Observation Handbook "How to know what is happening inside the hive by observation on the outside."_

I think the book is really in tune with a Warre hands off approach, I find it informative am I off on that? I do have a question though. The original was written in German 60 odd years ago; the references to diseases are the classic brood diseases with no mention of the modern waves of mites and such that post date the original writing. Anyone have a recommendation for a modern version of this type of work? 

(Also is the original German copyright over, and do you speak German and can find the original and translate it then splice in modern diseases for me? Can I get that by next week?)

Link to English version of book: http://www.scribd.com/doc/54926139/At-the-Hive-Entrance-H-Storch


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

IMHO hands off means dead bees. 60 years ago is not what I would use as a guide for today's beekeeping challenges.


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## Box (Jul 30, 2010)

I know that this forum has been mentioned a link to a collection of pdf. books
of which "at the hive entrance" is one of them, and this version has been made ​​an extra
chapter where opservationer with varroa described, unfortunately it is from the early years of varroa, so I'm afraid there's so much to get there, but still readable.
I myself have Warre hives so I will also use this book for referance, the bees are the same.


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## HiveAtYourHome (Aug 16, 2011)

I'd say the majority opinion nationwide is indeed hands off or even no-treatment means dead bees, it is the consensus if you hard treat, practice IPM or what folks are calling "organic" and "natural", only the no-treatment folks disagree.

I'd contend that is true for welfare bees kept on life support. IMHO I think most beekeepers suffer from Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome; poison the bees and the flora/fauna in their guts/hive with treatments and bad for the bee practices (Sugar/corn syrup/medicines/essential oils/long hauling/hive opening) then breed the bees to depend on them or they will die. I guess if they breed bees that you didn't need to buy supplies out of catalogs or buy treatments then you take the money out of the beekeeping support business, wouldn't make sense to see a call for that in ABJ or Gleanings. I've just seen people successfully breed local bees and get to the survivor stock and not have losses any higher than the most zealous medicators. I'd rather pay up front and bee like them even if I'm accused of Schadenfreude (having joy that the weak succumb and do not continue to infect the gene pool).

I'd contend the biodynamic folks are onto something as I'm sure we don't have a perfect understanding of the complexity and balancing act going on (i.e. pH, genetics, epigenetics, repressive effects of the "harmless" always present brood diseases on the dangerous ones etc.) and every action we take usually has long term consequences that are worse then no action at all. Either we do something that kills the bees 9 months later and we can't see it or we do something that helps to breed more susceptible bees. Dead bees make no honey, so why don't we stop spreading the genes of easy-die bees? These Easy-Die/Welfare bees might be the real "disease" we are facing.

I definitely agree with Charlie B that 60 year old books should not be the guide for addressing any of the modern challenges, and that is why I'd love it if H. Storch were here to write the book again.

I also agree with Box that bees are the same; and as I think most recent bee reading forgets that there is a whole world of beekeeping after you address mites that should not be forgotten about and I think this book does a great job in understanding that while practicing Warre methods. Interesting someone thought the same way and added a Varroa chapter.

Also I'm recommending it to non-beekeepers who will have the bees on their property. Books that tell you how to maintain wouldn't be useful as they aren't ever going to do anything but look at the hive as I'm maintaining it. Just something so they can have an understanding of what is going on.


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## Delta Bay (Dec 4, 2009)

> Also I'm recommending it to non-beekeepers who will have the bees on their property. Books that tell you how to maintain wouldn't be useful as they aren't ever going to do anything but look at the hive as I'm maintaining it. Just something so they can have an understanding of what is going on.


That's a great Idea!


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## Zonker (Mar 10, 2010)

At a bakery where I worked, we sprayed every third day for ****roaches and sprayed with a different spray each time. The ****roaches would adapt to whatever spray we used that fast. I believe that the bees can also adapt. 

I think that guys like me, who are not commercial bee keepers and will not go hungry if our bees die, can contribute by being the experiments that mostly fail but may occasionally succeed. We need to return genetic diversity to not just our bees but also our potatoes, our corn, our fruit trees, our ....


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